This post contains the links to all entries in my ongoing "Rewriting Veilguard" series. I shall pin it so that you may always find it with ease. The Tumblr version of this rewrite follows a Veil Jumper Rook.
Find the Shadow Dragon version of this rewrite on AO3
Prologue
Part 1 - The World State
Part 2 - The Shadow Dragons
Part 3 - The Grey Wardens
Part 4 - The Veil Jumpers
Part 5 - The Antivan Crows
Part 6 - The Mourn Watch
Part 7 - The Lords of Fortune
Part 8 - The Inquisition
Act 1
Part 9 - The Dumat
Part 10 - Neve Gallus
Part 11 - Bellara Lutare
Part 12 - Regional Quests in Act 1 Minrathous
Part 13 - Regional Quests in Act 1 Arlathan Forest
Disclaimer: I don't hate the game, I actually think it's quite great given the development hell Bioware went through in those 10 years. This is more of a hypothetical universe where there was less of that behind the scenes drama. Just a fun writing exercise.
Writing an Origin Story Mission for the Antivan Crows
The Antivan Crows might be the one faction next to the Grey Wardens of whom we know the most about. They’re hired assassins, cold and brutal and calculating. They recruit children and mercilessly raise them to be killers. The Crow training involves killing your own peers to emerge as the victor. They keep a prison off the coast of Antiva City, where they hold people for “fun and torture”. The life of a Crow is rewarding, true, but it is also filled with darkness and a lot of blood. With all this canonical info established, we can confidently say that the Antivan Crows, while undoubtedly resourceful and clever, are not necessarily very nice people.
So why are the Antivan Crows in Veilguard so nice?
When I pictured the Antivan Crows before DATV released, “idealistic freedom fighters” wasn’t exactly what I thought of. Yet this is their entire role in the game, slightly controversial freedom fighters who fight against impossible odds.
Well, as you’ve seen with my takes on the Shadow Dragons, the Grey Wardens, and the Veil Jumpers in earlier chapters, such a depiction can make sense if you just take your time to explain it in the lore. Why would the Crows suddenly be so much more of a force for good than they were in the other games? This, along with many other questions, shall be answered in just a tiny moment.
This is my take on a potential Antivan Crow origin story. Have fun!
Creating Rook
So, for the fourth time (wow we’re really stuck in that starting phase, are we), we return to the CC and pick the Antivan Crow tarot card. The little blurb reads as follows:
“You are an Antivan Crow. Swift knives in the dark, the Crows are ruthless assassins, both respected and feared. Some see them as nothing but cold-blooded killers, others as Antiva’s shadowy protectors who hold the nation’s true power. As a member of house de Riva, now a full-fledged Crow, you are summoned to take part in a secretive Crow operation in the occupied Treviso. Your first true contract is waiting for you. But are you worthy of fulfilling it? Are your skills, and your blades, sharp enough?”
Straight off the bat, of all the factions in this game, the Antivan Crows have the absolute easiest way to explain the last name applying to all races. House de Riva is simply the last name all crows belonging to that house choose. It’s just the way it is, no matter what race you are or where you came from. The question is: how exactly did Rook join the Crows?
Well, here’s where we’ll tap into the organisation’s more controversial and darker side. Here we go:
If de Riva is a human, they will have been bought from a poor family as a child, their parents giving them away just so they could have some coin again.
If de Riva is an elf, they will have been bought from Treviso’s Alienage for much the same reasons. In fact, the Crows have a habit of recruiting elves into their ranks because they tend to make the best assassins. And also the most seductive and distracting ones.
If de Riva is a dwarf, they were picked up as a child beggar in the streets, as their surface dwarf family likely died in some way.
If de Riva is a Qunari, they were taken in as the sole survivor of a group of Tal-Vashoth who sought to escape further inland from the Qun.
The Crows don’t really care about race or status when it comes to recruitment. But no matter who they recruit, the training starts in their childhood and lasts all the way until Crow membership. It’s tough and brutal. And we need to reflect that, guys, Thedas is not a friendly place. Especially in the North. Especially at this time.
In all four cases, Viago, who is now the Fifth Talon and leader of House de Riva, took us in personally and often trained us himself, sometimes along with Andaratei “Teia, please” Cantori. They are, for the lack of a better word, the closest thing to parental substitutes we’re going to get. And we’re going to make this amusing because Viago relentlessly and mercilessly throwing shade at us while secretly carrying some level of fondness is a very very engaging dynamic.
Our Antivan Crow shall be a tall and graceful Qunari woman by the name of Gia de Riva.
Once we’ve finalised Gia, we press the start button and Varric begins his narration. And we get to learn a little bit more about the actual state of the Crows by the time we begin the game: First Talon Caterina Dellamorte called upon a special gathering of Crows in the city of Treviso, the organisation’s ancestral home, which is now being occupied by the Antaam, but not the main branch. This is a large unit sent to Antiva by the Arishok, who himself is still waging war against Tevinter. This part of the Antaam is led by a man called The Butcher. To ensure the liberation of Treviso, Caterina called upon as many members of the Antivan Crows as possible. House Dellamorte, House de Riva, House Cantori, and House Valisti, are now leading an underground fighting force against the Antaam, willing to use their skills to free Antiva.
So you see, we’re still including the freedom fighter angle because it certainly does make sense for the Crows to go against the Antaam. But we provided just a little bit of an additional explanation. Caterina wants the more idealistic and spirited members of the Crows to join the effort because this is something personal. And she needs those who care about a little more than coin and death to accomplish this. The remaining Crows are still out there, doing contracts, being cold and callous. But now, we give an in-universe reason for things to be the way they are presented to us.
Well then, now that we have created our de Riva, let us jump into the game!
The Treviso Chantry
Instead of using the Cantori Diamond, our Crow base is going to be something a little different. Let’s actually implement the lore and explore some history. The original Antivan Crows started out as monks in the area surrounding Treviso. In the years since, Treviso has been nearly destroyed on two occasions and a lot of rebuilding had to be done. So, instead of setting the main crow base in the HQ of one of their houses, we’re gonna set it in Treviso’s Chantry.
The idea is that Treviso’s Chantry is the ancestral base from which the Crows fully operated. But Treviso has been rebuilt so many times that people just forgot that. Well, not really forgotten, the place just looks utterly unrecognisable compared to its earliest incarnation.
Treviso’s Chantry is grand and beautiful now, think of places like Notre Dame. And just like Notre Dame, it has its secrets. In the years since the last restoration, the Crows took the Chantry and secretly kept expanding on it, using House Valisti as the main financial donor. The upper areas were entirely turned into a maze-like collection of rooms that can house a multitude of Crows at once. And the walls were given tons of secret passages and hidden doors. This is the main Crow base, and only fully initiated Crows know how to access it. It is also, most importantly, the one base where Crows are bound by their code not to harm each other. We know how much literal backstabbing these guys get up to, so we absolutely need to establish some kind of neutral ground. Still, ever since the incident in Tevinter Nights, where most Talons met a most gruesome end, there is tension in the air.
We arrive to the Treviso Chantry by rooftop, accompanied by our Talon, Viago de Riva, as well as all the de Riva Crows that were able to join this effort. Like shadows, we traverse the rooftops and ascend the Chantry’s walls like a group of Ezio Auditores. We find a secret passage in the walls and enter the Crows’ main base.
Right off the bat, Viago pulls us aside and tells us to be on our absolute best behaviour. Four of the Crows’ leading houses are gathered here, and we will not tarnish de Riva’s reputation by being ourselves. Classic Viago.
The Nest
The enormous attic areas of the Chantry are referred to as “The Nest”, for this is still where the first Crows “hatched”. And now, it’s used as a massive gathering place, including its own opera house-style auditorium. This Chantry is just the definition of extra but that’s what the Crows are about.
As we walk towards our gathering, we can have a few encounters:
We can encounter Viago and Teia exchanging in something that is obviously flirting to the knowing eye and ear but can very well be masqueraded as diplomatic conversation. Viago also produces his snake…EMIL, EMIL the snake, not…no! His pet snake, which he got in Tevinter Nights. If we join the conversation, Teia acts absolutely delighted to see us and greets us like the cool and loving aunt she is, whereas Viago stares daggers into our soul for daring to interrupt this moment.
We meet Antonio Valisti, the current head of House Valisti. He is both a Merchant Prince and Talon, a very powerful combination. He eyes us up and down and seems even more critical of our very air than Viago, and we thought that wasn’t at all possible.
We find some notes and letters regarding Crows being sent out to hunt down Zevran, who is still on the run. He has stopped waging his one-man-army war against the Crows and is currently lying low.
We can overhear a conversation between Jacobus, his cousin Dareth, and Heir, talking about Jacobus’ training and what it truly means to be an Antivan Crow.
We meet Illario Dellamorte and can engage him in polite but tense conversation. He seems to still not have gotten over the death of his cousin, Lucanis, the Demon of Vyrantium. He can only hope to keep his memory alive by being the deadliest assassin he could possibly be. We can be friendly to him here, and he seems to appreciate the sentiment.
The Great Contract
We settle down in the Nest’s auditorium and Caterina Dellamorte, the First Talon, steps on stage, and we immediately feel the sheer deadly power and authority oozing from her, despite, or maybe because of her age. She delivers a short and deadly speech on how the Antaam invaded Treviso, led by a man called Daathrata, or “The Butcher”, as the locals refer to him.
Caterina announces that all Crows gathered here have a contract now. All four houses have been bought to assassinate the Butcher and as many of his Antaam soldiers as possible. And if the Arishok dares to send someone else later, we'll go all the way to Seheron and assassinate him too. And who is the client with so much coin for this contract? Well, we’ll meet them later.
Caterina orders the Crows to rest up and prepare, they will be carrying out their plan soon enough. A few select Crows will be chosen to accompany their Talons and meet the client in another location.
Later that evening, Viago approaches us, declaring that he’s chosen us to accompany him to the meeting with the client. He’s incredibly grumpy and stiff about it and tells us to better not make him regret it. At the same time, he concedes that out of all the Crows of House de Riva, we have shown the most promise.
Meeting the Client
Heading to meet the client is, as with all Crow-related stuff, shadowy business. So we’re not going to take the streets but jump across the rooftops once again. While we do that, we can see a few things happening below:
We see members of the Antaam dragging a mage out of a house to expose them to the qamek treatment. The Butcher hates mages. Nothing we can do for this one, we must remain in the shadows for now. Even if we want to help them, Viago holds us back. There are too many eyes.
We see the citizens of Treviso being lined up for overall inspection by the Antaam, to see how obedient they are under the new regime. If they are worthy, they shall be permitted to join the Qun.
Eventually, we arrive at our meeting spot: Café Pietra. There, we meet Rayan Ivenci, the Governor of Treviso, and a powerful Merchant Prince in their own right. Now, for Ivenci, I have something slightly different and more elaborate planned than what we see of them in the game.
Turns out, Ivenci is the one who proposed the contract and paid the Crows to assassinate the Butcher. Antivan nobles do have a well-established history of hiring the Crows to take out political targets, so this is no exception. Since Ivenci is a Merchant Prince, they had enough coin to hire all four houses currently active in Treviso.
If we’re feeling bold, we can even mention how superficial this contract is given that we’re planning to kill the Butcher anyway. Viago gives us another death glare and reminds us of the Crows’ ways of operating. A contract belongs in our very DNA.
Ivenci explains their plan to us: They’re going to try negotiating peace talks with Daathrata onboard his Dreadnought, which is docking just outside the Drowned District. And while they’re having these talks, the Crows can swoop in and perform their assassination. They mention that the Arishok likely sent Daathrata here rather than keep him in Tevinter is that, despite his cruelty, the Butcher doesn’t want to fight in a senseless war. And the Arishok knows when to use his generals in missions that are more attuned to their skillsets. Peace talks are, therefore, not outside the realm of possibility with him.
Our plan put in motion, Ivenci departs and the Crows prepare to gather all forces for a massive descent upon the Qunari.
An Old Friend
When Antonio, Caterina, and the Crows they brought along, leave, Viago and Teia remain. When we ask Viago why we’re not leaving, he says that we still have another meeting to attend. Another contract for after this one is over, so to speak.
At this moment, Varric Tethras joins us at the table, with a mug of mulled wine, as he needs that alcohol and coffee is just not his thing. Viago and Teia obviously know him from The Missing so that connection is established. Varric greets us and we probably know him very well, as pretty much everyone knows Varric thanks to his books. And being the Viscount of Kirkwall and serving the Inquisition years ago obviously added to his reputation.
Viago and Teia start talking to him about the contract they have been discussing for a while now. We, as players, obviously can already guess what it is, but the language is kept very vague right now. At this point, de Riva may begin to wonder why exactly we were allowed to stay with two Talons discussing a contract with a new client.
Turns out, Viago has proposed we join Varric and carry out the contract. Even though he has his absolute grievances with us and thinks we’re an annoying baby, he can’t deny our skills.
Varric looks us over and we can have our first little conversation with him, in which we express our interest and curiosity in this strange new contract. This first talk is going to determine partially how Varric perceives us. We can be strictly business-like, as a classic Crow like Viago would behave, or perhaps be a little more idealistic towards the Antaam situation, like Teia. In any case, the meeting ends with Varric stating he’ll wait for us after the Butcher contract is done. Viago barks at us to leave and so we do.
Preparations
Back at the Nest, we have a final strategic meeting with the four houses and determine exactly what everyone will be doing. Here’s the plan: House Valisti, since they have the most and longest experience with Daathrata by having fought him the longest, will go straight for the Butcher’s Dreadnought. House Dellamorte will handle the Antaam in the streets of Treviso. Houses Cantori and de Riva will take care of the Drowned District. Now, we have a first choice presented before us, as there are two different sections of the Drowned District we can focus on:
The Prison Camps: We focus on the Antaam’s prison camps and liberate those the Qunari have captured. It’s not entirely out of the goodness of our hearts; the Crows need a win in the public’s perception to show that they are both a group to be feared and relied upon.
The Military Camps: We focus on the Antaam’s direct military camps and fracture their overall defences and might. This will weaken them in the long run.
Whatever we choose is what Houses de Riva and Cantori will prioritise first. If there is still time, we shall focus on the second. While Teia is very much for liberating the prisoners, Viago wants to weaken the Antaam’s overall strength. And this is where our de Riva comes in.
Well, we have already established our de Riva to be a little more on the idealistic side, so we choose the Prison Camps as our battleground. Let me make one thing perfectly clear, though: we do not actually decide this in-universe. We are a regular Crow. Teia and Viago are Talons. Sure, they could ask us for our opinion, but we don’t get the end say. We just chime in with our own opinion and sway them to this decision. In this case, we support Teia’s idea and she convinces Viago to go along with it. Viago gives us a “this is so your fault” look, but lets it go.
The Crows Descend
What follows is a cinematic of Caterina sending us all to take up positions for what is to be a great shadow battle. The idea is to not engage in open warfare but more so in a Crow way, silent and deadly.
We get a scene at the Butcher’s Dreadnought. Governor Ivenci and some of their guards await to be let on. And this Dreadnought is massive, an absolute unit of a ship, easily overshadowing everything else in the docks. The gangplank is lowered and Daathrata, the Butcher, steps out. He’s an imposing, intimidating Qunari warrior who looks like he can snap anyone in two, including other Qunari. But when he opens his mouth, he is surprisingly well-mannered and soft-spoken, which kinda makes him look even more intimidating. He guides Ivenci and their guards on board. We see Antonio and the Valisti Crows hover on the rooftops surrounding the docks, ready to strike.
At the same time, in the streets of Treviso, we see Caterina and Illario getting the Dellamorte Crows ready to ambush groups of Antaam soldiers and clear the populated areas. Caterina pulls Ilario aside and tells him this is his moment to prove himself and lets him lead the house into battle. This visibly takes aback Ilario.
Lastly, Houses de Riva and Cantori gather on the rooftops surrounding the Prison Camps in the Drowned District. There are many guards around, and even more prisoners.
Now, we get to make another choice: How exactly do we approach this? Teia suggests killing the guards quickly and quietly and then let the prisoners out. Viago, on the other hand, wants to poison the guards and let them die from their food and drink. There are some nice campfires with pots of stew around. So, do we:
Attack the guards directly and kill them as swiftly, quietly, and efficiently as possible?
Or do we poison their supplies and let them choke on their own dinner?
Well, we are still a de Riva and at this point we’ve pissed off Viago enough times. Let’s try and placate him again. We’re in the poison camp. Viago comments that finally, a shred of reason still exists in our head. Since we’re a Qunari ourselves, we now get a bit of a unique flavour to this mission: We know that the Qunari here are not just comprised of warriors. They still have Qunari cooks and craftsmen among them. As such, we can play a bit of dress-up: we’ll play the role of a Qunari cook and poison the food ourselves. This is where playing a Qunari really comes at an advantage for us because they won’t suspect us nearly as much as anyone else.
Viago gives us some Adder’s Kiss poison, provided by Emil, and asks us to bring back some qamek for him to study if we find any. He asks this in a bit of a nerdy way, like this is the one poison that still eludes his collection. The other Crows will hold back for the time being while we…go in alone. Mierda.
The Prison Camps
Cut to a little later. Instead of the tight, badass, and sexy Antivan Crow leather attire, we now find ourselves in a plain dress and shirt. We sneak into a tent filled with cooking supplies, and either knock out, kill, or convince the actual cook to go away. Either way, we are now the cook.
We look around in the tent and find ourselves absolutely aghast at the sheer lack of flavour and variety that is Qunari food. Antivans are supposed to be a mix of Spain and Italy, but the food aspect is definitely Italian-coded. So we look around horrified and mumble something along the lines of “Mierda, no wonder they are the way they are.”
We then set about brewing some fresh stew, which we are utterly disgusted by. As an Antivan, we are used to excellent food full of rich flavour and spices. We really have to reign ourselves in to not make the stew too tasty. This is absolute torture for our poor food-loving heart. This food deserves the poison.
Now that our food has become entirely disgraceful to our standards, it’s time to deliver it to the Antaam.
There are three prison camps aligned next to each other in total, meticulously placed upon the still-standing and dry parts of the Drowned District. We have to sneak the poison into three large pots, one for each camp. As we traverse the camp, we get the following encounters:
We see some prisoners, citizens of Treviso who somehow scorned the Qunari, being tested for potential new roles in the Qun. If we pass them, the Qunari will pull us aside and order us to show some people how to cook. We can play along and actually show them some excellent cooking skills.
But we also see those who actively volunteered into the Qun. They are currently being given weapons or infrastructural jobs. They are clearly under pressure but treated exponentially better than the prisoners. Why are we showing this? Well, if you recall DA2, some people actually did join the Arishok of their own free will. We must show that not everyone actually despises the Qun, or would rather join it than be killed. In any case, it’s important to see.
Whenever we pass one of the main cages with Treviso’s citizens inside, we can try to damage the locks to allow them to escape. This, however, adds the potential consequence of some prisoners trying to make a run for it and being swiftly executed. We choose not to damage them for now.
We see a cage full of mages who were exposed to qamek. They are utterly mindless, almost tranquil, but even…worse than that. In the huge tent next to them, we find a Qunari keeping watch over the poison. We quickly kill him and hide the body, and take a few vials with us for Viago.
When we reach the main pots, something happens each time that will allow us to make some more choices:
Pot 1: Another cook is already filling it. We can either tell them to fuck off or convince them that our food is better prepared since the other tents were befallen by rodents from the canal. Yes, we saw that. We do not lie. The Qun has no lies.
Pot 2: Pot 2 is broken because someone knocked it over and is now being punished for it. We can quickly scurry around and find a new pot to fulfill our duty here.
Pot 3: Pot 3 has a more merciful Qunari captain who let some prisoners have their fill first. You see some people eagerly looking up to you, waiting for food. Dammiiiiittttt. I don’t want to kill the citizens! So do we maintain our cover or find a way around this? Since we’re playing an idealist Crow, we choose to bullshit our way out of this. We make it look like as though one of the Antaam soldiers pushed us and we dramatically let our remaining food spill on the floor. Apologies, huge apologies, we shall get a new fill. The guard is being punished.
Once all is done, we get a very Ghost of Tsushima-style scene where de Riva stands amidst the Antaam and watches the soldiers slowly succumbing to Viago’s poison, except for the third camp. And some others obviously see the poison take effect before eating anything. We quickly dash to where we left our gear. A few minutes later, the Crows descend upon the camps. We re-emerge, once again dressed in our Crow outfit. Viago and Teia join us, and Viago begrudgingly admits that yeah, we’ve actually done a satisfactory job, whereas Teia nudges him teasingly, saying that he can be proud every once in a while.
We then battle against the Antaam, with Viago, and Teia fighting by our side. We mow down those who survived the poison. And because we didn’t break the prisoners’ locks, none of them prematurely escape into an early grave.
Ambush
As soon as we start letting out the prisoners, however, something changes. Something drastic. We see a strange light out on the water and look to the Butcher’s Dreadnought, only to see it go…
BOOM
The Dreadnought fully explodes into smithereens and the debris even reaches us here. All of House Valisti was on board that ship, including Antonio, as well as Daathrata and Ivenci. Before we can react, however, we are suddenly ambushed by a whole new wave of Antaam soldiers. Somehow, the military camp made it here in seconds. And they begin cutting down the escaping prisoners. Mierda, maybe letting them run earlier would have been a better idea. Some would have died, yes, but not as many as right now.
We engage in another, much fiercer battle against the Antaam, but the Crows are driven back. We are not used to open warfare. Now the Qunari have the advantage. We retreat onto the walls.
From there, we see how the streets of Treviso are crawling with Qunari as well and two great Dreadnoughts sail down the river. Where did those come from? Did the Butcher suddenly gain forces? How? Why? How did he know? How…how did he know that we would be planning this? This is too calculated to be a coincidence. Viago and Teia come to the same conclusion: someone betrayed us, betrayed Treviso, betrayed us all to the Butcher. Speaking of…if the Butcher knew this, then the exploding Dreadnought was no accident either. That means he has to still be alive. Maybe we can even save Antonio.
But we also see the Dellamorte Crows struggling in the streets. Teia and Viago begin to argue on what to do next, and we can make a choice here, another big one:
Do we follow Teia and aid the Dellamortes in the streets of Treviso?
Or do we stay with Viago and pursue the Butcher and try to save Antonio and Ivenci?
Well, Viago taught us that a contract needs to be finished, no matter what. We speak out in favour of pursuing Daathrata. Viago agrees with us and Teia rallies House Cantori to help the Dellamortes in the streets. We pursue.
The Butcher
As we race along the docks and fight our way through Antaam soldiers, we are joined by Varric who asks if now’s a good time to make it an outside operation. Viago doesn’t even hesitate to let him join, and so we fight. There are so many Qunari, it’s actually insane. The Crows are way out of their depth here.
While the rest of House de Riva is fighting, we, Viago, and Varric reach the remains of the Butcher’s Dreadnought. We see the corpses of all the House Valisti Crows floating in the water or burning on the wreck. We also find Antonio, who is barely alive and severely wounded. We pull him out of the wreckage and begin patching him up.
We then explore the still-stable parts of the Dreadnought for any signs of the Butcher. Just as we’re about to give up, we see a smaller Qunari ship sailing along the docks. We see the Butcher and Ivenci on it. Well, gotta save the Governor.
Without waiting for Viago and Varric, we hurry over the burning debris, acrobatically swing ourselves back onto the docks, shoot along the piers, jump over gaps and missing parts, see another ship, a fishing vessel, sticking out far enough that we could maybe risk it, quickly make our way there, jump on the boat, climb the mast, the Qunari vessel is almost past us, unsheathe our daggers, SWING OURSELVES FROM THE MAST, DESCEND UPON THE BUTCHER, EZIO AUDITORE!!!
Whoom
We are suddenly stopped, mid-air, as Ivenci stops us with magic, blood magic even; freezing our blood so that our fall is halted. The Butcher calmly turns around and gazes us straight in the eyes. Then, he slowly unsheathes a dagger coated in qamek, and slowly, almost sadistically so, stabs us in the chest.
Ivenci lets their spell go and we drop on deck, our vision blurring, our thoughts dissolving as the qamek spreads through our body. Ivenci is the traitor. But…they made the contract…why would they…
Ivenci looks at us with pure hatred, something unexpected. Slowly, we fight back and rise to our feet. The Butcher sighs and engages us in battle.
What follows is a very blurry, very short boss battle that basically ends with the Butcher stabbing us again and sending us into the waters of Rialto Bay.
Awakening
We wake up back at the Nest with Viago nursing us back to health. Fortunately, the qamek on that dagger was but a small dosis, so we are certain to recover soon. It’s always good to start acquiring immunity. Viago knows what he’s talking about. As we look at him, we see, for the first time that he’s genuinely worried about us. And no condescension hides that.
He explains that Varric found us floating in the water and dragged us out. If it weren’t for him, we’d be dead. He awaits us at the café when we’re ready. Ready for what? Well, for the other contract. Are you fucking kidding us, Viago? Viago dismisses our incredulity by reminding us that contracts are what we’re all about. He asks us what happened with the Butcher. We come back to our senses and tell him that we need to tell something to the other Talons. Viago understands and allows us to get ready.
Slightly slow and wounded, bandaged, we make our way to the auditorium. Teia meets us on the way, glad to see us alive. We see that Viago and Teia are the only unscathed Talons. Caterina is heavily bandaged, as is Antonio. Illario is taking over House Dellamorte while Caterina recovers. Antonio is the only Valisti left. But at least, thanks to us, there is still a Valisti left.
We tell them that Ivenci betrayed us. That they’re a blood mage. That they and Daathrata work together. The Crows are furious, especially Antonio, who wants vengeance for his house. But they also commend de Riva for, albeit while not having finished the contract, at least getting this valuable intelligence.
After the meeting, Viago and Teia take us aside and prompt us to return to the café now. Ivenci and Daathrata think we’re dead and that the other Crows did not receive information on the betrayal. Let us keep it this way for now. Us disappearing out of Treviso on another contract with Varric is a perfect opportunity. We ask what this contract is about but they still won’t say, stating that it’s best for Varric to explain it himself.
Meeting Varric
We meet Varric back at the Café Pietra. He’s glad to see we’re alright and if we’re ready to depart. On our way here we saw that Treviso is currently in a bit of a turmoil. It’ll take a while before all of this is settled. And now, we have two main targets to kill here: Daathrata and Ivenci.
Yeah, the fact that Ivenci’s a traitor is a huge twist in DATV (at least it's meant to be), but I think there is an interesting story to be told if we know they’re the traitor from the get-go. Now, we can wonder why they did it. Playing an Antivan Crow will gain us that information way earlier than any other origin.
We ask Varric what this other contract is about, and he says he’ll tell us when we’re way out of Treviso. We can get a little impatient and ask what kind of target this could possibly be that it requires such secrecy. Are we hunting a god or something? Viago and Teia exchange some glances, but we don’t notice.
Instead, Varric encourages us to drop the de Riva name for now, as the Crows…do have a reputation. Best if we just come across as a normal Tal-Vashoth. We need a new name.
Varric suggests Rook. He saw us go straight for the Butcher, and had Ivenci not interfered, we would have succeeded. A Rook is one of the strongest pieces on the board. We chuckle and say: “Close enough to a Crow while still sounding different enough.” Viago visibly and audibly groans in the background, while Teia laughs.
Leaving Treviso
Before we leave Treviso, we can have some final words with Viago and Teia. We do get a little bit more insight into how both of them kinda raised us while still keeping us as a part of House de Riva. They are basically our parental figures, which is super rare among the Crows unless you are blood-related. Even though Viago demeans us all the time, it’s clear he has grown to somehow care for us. While Teia gives us a lot of advice for how to handle ourselves on the road away from all the Crows, Viago simply says something along the lines of “Get this contract done.” At this point, we exasperatedly ask “Mierda, WHO is the target???” and Varric leads us out of the café.
What follows is a cinematic of Rook and Varric sneaking through the streets of Treviso, dodging Antaam patrols. Once we’re out, we take a look back at the huge old Chantry. Still confused on what this is all about, we turn away and follow Varric into the unknown.
And there we have it! A potential origin story for the Antivan Crows! Thank you for making it to the end. Next time, we shall head to the Necropolis and explore a potential origin story for the Mourn Watch. Stay tuned!
Rewriting Veilguard Part 18 - Regional Quests at Act 1 Weisshaupt
Rewriting Veilguard Part 17 - Regional Quests in Act 1 Treviso
Disclaimer: I don't hate the game, I actually think it's quite great given the development hell Bioware went through in those 10 years. This is more of a hypothetical universe where there was less of that behind the scenes drama. Just a fun writing exercise.
Introducing and Writing Side Quests for Weisshaupt during Act 1
Weisshaupt is going to probably undergo some of the bigger changes in this rewrite, namely being an explorable location in the first place. I consider the Siege of Weisshaupt to be one of, if not the best, missions in Veilguard, but it never really sat right with me that that was all we ever got of the legendary fortress of the Grey Wardens we’ve been hearing so much about over the course of the previous three games.
We have already seen some of my takes on Weisshaupt in the Grey Warden origin story, but now it’s time to integrate it into the main game. Similar to Treviso, I imagine this to be an optional location in Act 1, the visitation of which will, though, help us in later stages of the game. As such, same as with Treviso, there won’t be that many side quests associated with Weisshaupt at this point in time. That will change later, of course, but we still have to keep Act 1 Weisshaupt a worthwhile place to visit.
With that in mind, let us now continue our rewrite journey by introducing Weisshaupt into the game!
Arrival in the Anderfels
Before we get to properly explore Weisshaupt, we must first establish contact with the Grey Wardens. After our tumultuous adventures in Treviso, we find ourselves back on the Dumat. We could either be pursuing our main quest to search for Solas, or we could follow up on Davrin having to actually report back to Weisshaupt Fortress about the incident in the Deep Roads. Since we’re having a pretty completionist playthrough here, we choose to go with the latter first. Again, Weisshaupt is completely optional in Act 1, but if we do go there now, we shall be rewarded for it.
There’s a bit of trouble, however: Weisshaupt doesn’t really have a large source of water that the Silence can travel through to reach it. It gets its water from underground springs and trade agreements. If Davrin was going on his own, he could just take Assan and fly to Weisshaupt, but that’s out of the question here.
Eventually, Davrin comes up with a suggestion. We could take the Silence as far north as we possibly can if we follow one of Tevinter’s rivers and travel the rest of the way on foot. He knows the way. So that’s what we decide to do. Isabela grunts that she has to abandon the Dumat for such a long river trek, and getting back and forth to Weisshaupt is going to be absolute hell.
Davrin is a required party member to open up Weisshaupt as a location. As our second person, we shall be taking Harding. The Anderfels is a perilous place, and a skilled scout can very well be of use here.
We take the Dumat as close to Tevinter’s shores as we can, and then board the Silence. Assan is...obviously not going to fit into that tiny submarine, so he’s let out earlier. At least that’s how we can justify him being able to leave the hub.
We don’t have to see the journey to the Anderfels depicted on-screen, as we can very well visualise it in our heads with the information given to us. Nothing a loading screen and a depiction of the map can’t fix for us. There’s no need to waste resources here.
Eventually, the Silence emerges from a river deep in the Anderfels’ countryside. As a Veil Jumper, we...have never ever seen land so barren before. We must not forget that the Anderfels used to be a place of lush vegetation, but the effect of two Blights essentially turned it into Thedas’ Wild West, a Wild West mixed with Germanic elements, since that’s what the Ander language seems to be. As someone who lives in a German-speaking country, I can say to you that pretty much 90% of all Ander names have some sort of Germanic root. So, for this rewrite, I’m going to treat German as the Ander language, the same way French is meant to be Orlesian.
Anyway, once Isabela drops us off, she quickly disappears back into the river since she doesn’t really like the Anderfels. It gives her the creeps and feels unnatural to just walk in. Maybe that’s just her perception as someone used to tropical environments.
Right, so we have arrived in the Anderfels. As mentioned, our Veil Jumper is...not exactly impressed. Davrin gives us some lore about why the land is how it is, as we set off on the road towards Weisshaupt. We are actually in an ideal position, as it turns out, for we are on the very road that leads from Tevinter to Weisshaupt. It is called Carinus’ Road, for this is the path the legendary founder of the Grey Wardens supposedly took with his people, until he reached the place that would later become Weisshaupt. Davrin has read up on some Warden lore, but even he can’t say whether Carinus was real or not. He’s kind of like a King Arthur-type of person.
Carinus’ Road
As Rook, Davrin, and Harding advance further on Carinus’ Road, we can have a bit of banter to skip the time over. While Davrin drops us some Warden lore as mentioned above, Harding wonders if Stroud came this way all those years ago, when he set off to report on the events of Adamant Fortress. Davrin confirms this and mentions how the First Warden was not overly enthused by the news. Especially since that was his second year as a First Warden. Here we establish that the First Warden we heard about in Origins was a different one than Jowin Glastrum, because that wouldn’t make much sense otherwise, given how short a Warden’s lifespan is.
While we travel, we get some gorgeous scenic views of the Anderfels. These aren’t the Hossberg Wetlands, not yet. Our goal is to showcase the Anderfels as the barren wasteland it is, but even then, there’s beauty to be found here, in its own twisted way.
The Caravan
At one point, as evening approaches and we traverse the Hunterhorn Mountains, expecting to reach Weisshaupt soon, we suddenly come across the ruins of what appears to be a caravan of sorts. By investigating it, we quickly deduce that this was a Grey Warden caravan. Of course! Davrin tells us that new Warden recruits often use this road to get to Weisshaupt, and some Wardens pick them up at the border to get them here. This is a long-held tradition, dating back to the First Blight.
Harding, being a scout, spots several traces of footprints that haven’t yet been blown over by the sands. But before we can pursue them, Davrin cautions us: there are darkspawn nearby. What? Up here? On the surface? Just like that? Our Veil Jumper is rather distressed at that notion. Davrin explains that the Anderfels is such a blighted place that darkspawn often leave the Deep Roads to terrorise the settlements.
To make matters worse, a sandstorm approaches from the endless scorching plains and is about to reach us.
Well, we still have to help the Wardens, so we rush off after the caravan. No doubt they’re the reason the darkspawn have come in the first place.
It doesn’t take us long to find them, despite the sandstorm unleashing itself upon us. A group of Warden recruits has been pushed back against a rocky wall, surrounded by darkspawn. Shielding them from the beasts are...Antoine and Evka!
We immediately break into combat and fight the darkspawn. It’s not a particularly hard fight, as it’s just a bunch of hurlocks led by an alpha. But it is enough to establish just how dangerous a place the Anderfels is, if this is a common occurrence here.
Once the darkspawn are dealt with, Davrin reunites with Evka and Antoine, who then properly introduce themselves to Rook. Rook, of course, remembers them from Charter’s report.
There isn’t much time to talk, though, for it is revealed that one of the hurlocks managed to bite one of the recruits, a Tevinter woman named Ava, as it attempted to drag her away into the Deep Roads. The Wardens explain that Weisshaupt is the only place that can save her now, but we’re not sure how much time she has left. Plus, the sandstorm really isn’t making things easier. So, we can then contribute with a choice:
Do we risk Ava getting blighted and wait out the sandstorm?
Do we try to brave the sandstorm now?
Do we risk Davrin’s secret mission and summon Assan to take Ava to Weisshaupt?
Or do we kill Ava to prevent her from blighting anyone else?
It is a tough choice, indeed, and brings back some of that dark nature from the previous games. In the end, however, we take Davrin aside and ask him to take Assan and fly Ava to Weisshaupt. We’re sure Antoine and Evka can lead us there on foot.
It takes a bit of persuasion, but Davrin ultimately agrees. He’ll just have to land Assan somewhere outside the fortress to prevent the other Wardens from seeing him.
He takes Ava and allows her to lean on him, and slowly ventures out into the sandstorm with her, taking out his griffon whistle as he does so. Antoine and Evka are rather confused, but we assure them that Davrin knows what he’s doing.
The rest of us wait out the sandstorm for as long as we can. Eventually, though, Antoine and Evka sense further darkspawn approaching from the far distance. The sandstorm has calmed down enough for us to go, anyway, so that’s exactly what we do.
Weisshaupt Fortress
The small caravan continues its way through the darkening Hunterhorn Mountains as dusk is about to give way to night. This is all conveyed through a small montage sequence that just features us trudging up Carinus’ Road. Further and further we go, until we reach a narrow mountain pass that eventually opens up into a cliffside vale.
There, perched atop the highest peak, illuminated by the last rays of the fading sun, we see a giant castle made of pure white stone. This is Weisshaupt Fortress, the ancient seat of the Grey Wardens. The place we have heard so much about in the previous games is finally ready for our visit.
As a Veil Jumper and Dalish elf, we can’t help but feel utterly awed by the magnificent sight before us. Antoine and Evka grin. That’s usually what anyone’s first reaction to Weisshaupt looks like. I would like to invoke a similar scene to when we first see Skyhold. And for good reason! Before the Inquisition, Weisshaupt was the only place that housed an organisation made up of all kinds of different races and cultures without prejudice.
Unlocking Weisshaupt
As we move through the great portcullis of Weisshaupt, we are immediately greeted by Davrin. Ava is fine; she has already embarked on her road to recovery, in other words, the Joining, which we don’t yet know about as a Veil Jumper. But...the First Warden saw Davrin fly in on Assan and wasn’t all too happy about that. He now requests to speak to us immediately.
Evka and Antoine wish us good luck and are glad to have met us in person. But we do hear some form of resentment towards the First Warden. They then proceed to take the recruits into the fortress, where they are to undergo their Joining ritual.
Davrin takes Rook and Harding through the fortress without us getting a chance to explore anything. All we see are a few Wardens passing us by, but even that is more Wardens than we have ever collectively seen in one location over the course of the past games.
Eventually, we arrive at a war room that is quite grander in scale than the one we have on the Dumat.
There, we are met by High Constable Janos and the First Warden himself, Jowin Glastrum.
So...we are the supposed remnants of the Inquisition, the First Warden begins. Well, technically, we are just the northern branch. Glastrum immediately starts grilling us on how much we actually know about the Grey Warden secrets and how big of an effect we had on Davrin’s mission.
The First Warden appears to us as an arsehole at first, but we can quickly grasp that he’s a harsh but disciplined man. He takes the survival of his order very seriously. So, we choose to be forthcoming. We tell him everything, from Rasaan to the brood mother, the Archdemon’s prison, to us knowing about Assan and the other griffons. The First Warden is angered at first, and expresses his desire to punish Davrin, given that he just saw him fly a recruit into the fortress on Assan’s back. Rook makes a persuasion check and convinces the First Warden that it was our idea, and we are good at operating in the shadows. The First Warden can trust us. At that, Glastrum tries to conscript us into the Wardens so that us knowing about things wouldn’t be an external affair anymore, to which Davrin objects as Rook is way too important to risk potential death during the Joining ritual. As a Veil Jumper, we can slightly panic over why the Joining ritual would kill us. This convinces Glastrum that we haven’t been prying into the order’s secrets, and somewhat calms him down. He makes us swear we won’t disclose the griffon secret to anyone outside of our Inquisition branch, to which we agree.
Davrin also asks the First Warden for permission to join us for the time being, as there is a great threat to fight. At first, Glastrum wants to refuse, as he needs Davrin and Assan here, but Janos reminds him that him and Rook found out about the Archdemon’s prison being located by the Qunari. And we are the ones directly in the thick of that conflict now. This eventually causes Glastrum to give his permission for Davrin to join us, as we can’t have the Qunari attempt to awaken the Blight. And if they do, the Grey Wardens must know about it immediately. We...don’t tell him about the Dread Wolf, as that would just cause him to label us a mad conspiracy theorist.
Janos also reminds the First Warden that Warden Thorne and many other Wardens died because of something he ordered, so he can’t risk overlooking this threat. This, of course, references that Warden Rook died because Varric didn’t pull them out of the Deep Roads. To his credit, Glastrum seems to regret this mission and permits Rook and the rest of the crew to use Weisshaupt as a base of operations when they’re in the Anderfels. Janos, more kindly, states that there are some things the Wardens could use help with, if we have time to assist them. The First Warden dismisses us.
Outside the war room, we ask Davrin what that bit about Thorne was about. Davrin says, with a hint of resentment just like Antoine and Evka earlier, that Thorne was sent to Lavendel to defend it from darkspawn, but they were meant to perish in the attack to signal just how dire the situation with the darkspawn is. Weisshaupt, even though it appears magnificent, lacks new recruits, and the numbers of the current Wardens are thinning. Antoine, Evka, and Caronel were the only ones to survive that massacre.
Once the scene finishes, Weisshaupt and its surrounding wilderness are opened for us to explore.
As is the case with Treviso, Weisshaupt during Act 1 is an optional area. As such, there aren’t too many quests attached to it just yet. There will be faction-specific quests centred around the Grey Wardens, but we shall talk about them later. For now, we’ll be taking a look at the Regional Quests, of which there are two. As always, the following titles aren’t meant to be seen as the quest names, only as placeholders to get the idea across. Let’s begin!
The Mine
While traversing the Hunterhorn Mountains in Weisshaupt’s vicinity, Rook, Davrin, and Neve come across a man called Heinrich. He is the Steiger, or the Foreman, of the acclaimed Silberstein Mine, a place rich in silverite, which is the metal the Wardens forge their weapons out of, for it is most effective against blighted things. He is on his way to Weisshaupt to ask the Wardens for aid, for something has been taking his miners into the depths. Davrin is immediately up for this, for this sounds like some kind of monster he could deal with, and the Silberstein Mine is very important to Weisshaupt. Neve agrees as well, feeling reminded of some tasks when the Shadow Dragons had to fight some beasts in the sewers of Minrathous.
We then transition to the entrance of the mine, and here’s where I would like to exemplify that even the side quests in this game are curated and often have their own unique locations. This is very much possible, as games like Witcher 3 have aptly demonstrated.
Before we even go into the mine, we take a few minutes to talk to the remaining workers and maybe hear some accounts that may help us. Here’s what we can pick up on if we go through this effort:
The attacks always happened when a miner was on their own, cut off from everyone else, so whatever did it possessed some kind of tactical mind.
There was a collapse right before the attacks happened.
Upon being pressed by Neve, Heinrich admits that they delved too greedily and too deeply, and might have stirred something in the darkness. He begs us to find the missing miners.
Eventually, we make our way into the Silberstein Mine, and Davrin’s darkspawn senses immediately go off. There is something tainted down there. Naturally, Neve draws the conclusion that the miners probably accidentally dug into the Deep Roads and attracted a horde of darkspawn. We must be extra careful then, for Davrin is the only Warden here.
As we dive deeper into the mountain, we find that the passages feature increased amounts of giant spider webs. Oh by the gods, we’re going to be facing spiders. Yeah...this quest is probably not going to do any good for our fellow arachnophobes.
It doesn’t take long until we enter the most recently dug mining passage and are immediately assaulted by a group of giant spiders, with ample warning from Davrin’s blight senses. As a Veil Jumper, we have fought spiders in Arlathan Forest before, but those had simply been magically enhanced spiders. These beasts are utterly blighted and corrupted, and we hate everything about that.
Eventually, we pass into a cave system that...definitely hasn’t been used by the miners. This must be the passage they accidentally dug open.
As we traverse through the darkness and fight off some spiders along the way, we come across a great cavern that is full to the brim with raw silverite. It also happens to house a huge spider colony. But there is no trace of the miners, not here. We also haven’t found any bones, which suggests they might still be alive. But if we could free the silverite...well, we have a choice:
Do we just ignore that most perilous room of horrors and move on to find the miners?
Or do we slaughter the spiders in there to get our hands on the silverite?
Against our better judgment, we decide that the silverite is too valuable to pass up. As such...we move into the spider colony.
This fight is rather difficult, as we are faced with waves upon waves of giant blighted spiders. This is one of those spots where a higher level will do us much good.
Eventually, we defeat the spiders and look upon a huge stash of silverite. The miners will certainly be happy about that.
Now, further onwards. We still have people to hopefully save.
Eventually, we come upon a great cavern with another large spider colony. But this is also the nest of the Spider Queen, a giant, bulbous, utterly corrupted beast that is guaranteed to appear in your nightmares when you go to bed after this gaming session. If you’re an arachnophobe like me, please don’t play this mission before bed. Do something else afterwards. Maybe drink some hot chocolate or listen to some ASMR, I don’t know. That’s what I would do.
After being collectively spooked by the appearance of the Spider Queen, Rook notices the other miners. They are all trapped in cocoons around the chamber. Just as we realise that, the Spider Queen attacks.
This boss battle is absolutely tough, for the Spider Queen constantly keeps summoning her blighted minions while dishing out enormous hits herself. There is also a special gimmick involved: whenever her health gets low enough, the Spider Queen advances on one of the cocooned miners to consume them and heal herself. It is, therefore, very much advised that we free the miners before she gets to any of them.
After a long and horrifying battle, the Spider Queen lies dead before us. The miners are saved.
Before we leave, however, we get the chance to investigate the arena a little bit. At the very back, we find a massive hole in the wall that leads further into the darkness. This must be the entrance to the Deep Roads that the spiders emerged from. We will need to tell Heinrich so that he can have it sealed up.
As we return to the surface, physically and mentally scarred, Heinrich thanks us profusely, and we inform him of everything that transpired, including the silverite veins and the Deep Roads entrance. For saving all the miners, Heinrich doubles the reward. Davrin is in a good mood, for Weisshaupt will soon receive more silverite to forge weapons from.
Whether Heinrich actually seals up the entrance or keeps digging...we’ll have to wait until Act 2 for that.
The Drought
For our second adventure in the Anderfels, let us take to exploring the Hunterhorn Mountains around Weisshaupt once more. Rook, Davrin, and Lucanis encounter a travelling merchant who is currently on his way to Hossberg after doing some deals in Laysh. He tells us a most strange tale. On his journey, he rested in a small village called Grünberg, which was hit by a drought of a most strange nature. He was there when it happened: suddenly, the water in the well practically evaporated. Davrin wants to help out, for the Ander population is already spread out thinly. Lucanis thinks it’s a waste of time, but there might be some entertainment found. We agree to check it out, and the merchant gives us directions before travelling on.
After a while, we reach Grünberg, which is, indeed, quite a small settlement. The largest building is a Chantry, and even that isn’t overly large. We are immediately met by quite a suspicious lot, led by a Chantry mother called Hildegard, who immediately looks down upon us for being Dalish, as does the rest of the village. We must remember something about the Anderfels: it contains the most devout followers of Andraste in Thedas. This can, unfortunately, lead to some dangerous territory.
We ask about the drought, but the villagers seem to not really be bothered about it. We learn that it’s an annual thing, one that doesn’t really leave the confines of the village. When asked how we came to know about it, we speak of the merchant who informed us. This confuses Mother Hildegard, for no merchants travelled through Grünwald in recent times.
We ask if there is anything we can do to help, to which we immediately get the response that the Maker wouldn’t entrust an elf to solve this problem. We cheekily remark that the Herald of Andraste was a Dalish, which causes Hildegard to hesitate, but then she rebukes us by reminding us that Lavellan never claimed to have been chosen by Andraste, and admitted to the contrary being the case. As was said, the drought is a yearly event, and we have no meddling to do here. We are free to stay at the inn for the night, but she wants us gone by morning. When the crowd disperses, Lucanis remarks what lovely people live in this country.
Before we can make our way to the inn, we are met by a man called Eberhard, who invites us to discreetly visit his house if we want to know more. So, we take a wide berth around the village to make our way to Eberhard’s farm. As we do so, we notice that Grünberg seems to be preparing for some kind of festivity. What could that possibly be about?
At Eberhard’s farm, we get to hear a most strange tale: the droughts only started ten years ago. The Chantry sends someone to embark on a holy pilgrimage to the Green Hill, which the village is named after. The villagers volunteer willingly, and Mother Hildegard simply chooses randomly. Thing is, none ever returned from the pilgrimage. All that happened was that the water began to flow again.
We ask why Eberhard tells us this. He grows dark and says that his wife, Adelheid, was chosen for the pilgrimage ten years ago. And this time, his daughter, Ilse, is to go. He knows there is something off about the pilgrimage, and he doesn’t want his daughter to succumb to it. She already left for her pilgrimage yesterday. Davrin insists that we need to hurry. Lucanis wonders if there is more to be learned here. Eberhard believes the Chantry knows more than it lets on. Rook huffs. There’s no way a Dalish would be permitted to enter this sort of Chantry after the scene outside.
Lucanis leans forward and offers to sneak inside. He’s the best Antivan Crow around. A small Chantry won’t stop him! We ask him not to kill anyone, to which he reluctantly agrees, calling us a spoilsport.
Shortly after, Rook and Davrin stand outside the Chantry, hiding in a bush. We see Lucanis sneak into the building and spend some time inside. Davrin wages ten coins that Lucanis is going to kill someone. We bet otherwise.
Eventually, Lucanis emerges and, miraculously, hasn’t killed anyone. Davrin pays up with a growl.
Lucanis presents us with Hildegard’s personal journal, which we start reading, only to learn to our disappointment that it’s all in Ander. Luckily, Davrin knows Ander, so he skims a few entries. Apparently, Hildegard mentions that generosity turned to hunger, whatever that means, and now the pilgrimages have to increase.
At this point, as a mage, we can make an educated guess as to what that could mean. And...indeed. We come to the conclusion that a spirit of Generosity transformed into a demon of Hunger. But why? What happened? Then we recall that the droughts increased ten years ago. What happened ten years ago? Exactly, the Breach. The entire Veil was impacted. Even a secluded spirit far away in the Anderfels was not spared.
We need to save Ilse as quickly as possible, so we hurry away from Grünberg towards the Green Hill in the distance.
We arrive to find a most barren hill with dead trees, a typical Anderfels sight. We venture up the hill and come across the entrance to a cave. Readying ourselves for the worst, we proceed.
It doesn’t take us long to find what we’re looking for. Deep below the hill, we find a wellspring. Around it, we see the shrivelled up bodies of the demon’s previous victims. Next to the wellspring, lying on the ground, we see Ilse, Eberhard’s daughter. Above her stands someone who looks like an ordinary woman, but as soon as she turns to us, Spite emerges out of Lucanis and identifies the woman as an abomination.
Hunger, who is still possessing Adelheid, reveals to us that once it was Generosity, an old spirit living in these lands before the Chantry took hold here. It kept the wellspring fed all throughout the Blights until a cataclysm of the Veil transformed it into Hunger ten years ago. Since then, it’s been craving the life force of mortals. Hildegard came to vanquish it once, but eventually made a deal to sacrifice a villager every year to keep the water flowing.
Hunger notices our might and offers us a deal. If we leave it alone, it will gift us a flask of healing water that never runs out, a remnant of power it once held as a spirit. This would surely be useful in the battles to come. So...we now have a choice:
We could fight Hunger here and now, killing Eberhard’s wife in the process.
We could accept Hunger’s deal and take the potion.
Mage-exclusive option: we could enter the Fade and fight Hunger there, thereby freeing Adelheid of its possession.
This harkens back to the Connor situation in DAO. Back then, we needed an entire group of mages to get someone into the demon’s realm in the Fade. Here, we have Rook alone. This option also applies if another mage party member is present. Rook decides to give it her best shot and challenge Hunger in the Fade. We focus all of our magic and challenge the demon. At first, nothing happens. But then, Spite adds its own power to ours, allowing us to enter the Fade.
In the Fade, we quickly find the Hunger demon in its own little pocket. Furious at our refusal, the demon attacks us, and we are pulled into a one-on-one boss fight against the demon. It’s a tough fight, so we need to make sure we’re ready for it.
At the end of it, Hunger lies defeated before us, and we deliver the final blow. The demon screams at first, but the scream soon turns into a sigh of relief, as the spirit’s essence disperses across the Fade to be remade.
Back in the Waking World, both Ilse and Adelheid awake from Hunger’s influence, and the water flows again, no longer dependent on a spirit’s influence. But it also means that the water isn’t guaranteed to remain pure anymore.
Both the girl and her mother thank us profusely, and Spite lets Lucanis take control again. He feels...weird. Spite has actually cooperated for once?
We then make our way back to Grünberg, where we are met by an angry mob led by Mother Hildegard. She is about to send the villagers upon us for daring to interrupt this Maker-given ritual, when Adelheid steps forward and exposes her deal with Hunger all those years ago. As further proof, we present the villagers Hildegard’s journal.
This, combined with Adelheid’s account, is enough to turn the villagers against Hildegard. They want to publicly tear her apart for contributing to so much death. We now have a choice:
Do we let the villagers do their thing?
Do we stop them?
Well, Hildegard has done some less-than-favourable things, but we won’t let an entire village turn into murderers on her account. We urge the villagers to stop, and just about manage to keep Hildegard out of harms way. Well, punishment is still demanded, so there are some things we can do:
Have Hildegard imprisoned to serve her time.
Have Hildegard banished from the village to wander the Anderfels on her own.
Have Hildegard sent to Val Royeaux to be judged by Divine Victoria.
This time, we actually get to use our connections to the Inquisition. We choose to have Hildegard be sent to Val Royeaux, before the Sunburst Throne, where Divine Victoria (aka Leliana) will deal with her. The villagers accept this outcome, and Hildegard is taken away. We can’t resist a petty remark that she was saved by a Dalish savage.
Eberhard embraces his wife and child and thanks us, declaring us heroes of Grünberg. There is a celebration, but this time on our account. Eventually, however, we bid the people farewell, make sure the well has water again, and depart back to Weisshaupt.
Back on the Dumat
With our side quest ventures completed, for now, we find ourselves back on the Dumat. It’s high time we resume our search for Fen’Harel.
Fortunately, not just one, but two leads emerged in the meantime. Maevaris writes that there is unrest in Minrathous’ Slave District as talks of an uprising grow louder. And Morrigan has made contact from Arlathan Forest, that there is something in need of our attention.
Finally. The wolf hunt may resume.
The Other Rooks
And now it's once again time to have a look at what the other Rooks could have done in this chapter!
Shadow Dragons
Rook would have some familiarity about Carinus' Road from history lessons in Tevinter.
Hildegard despises Rook for being a follower of the Imperial Chantry.
Grey Wardens
Rook immediately knows everything about how to get to Weisshaupt.
Rook senses the darkspawn at the same time as Davrin.
Evka and Antoine know Rook from the past and the reunion is more heartfelt.
The people Rook has conscripted so far are part of the caravan to Weisshaupt.
Rook can oversee the Joining Ritual of the people he recruited.
Rook senses the blighted spiders immediately.
Rook can read Hildegard's journal by knowing Ander.
Rook can enter Grünberg's Chantry by pretending to sense the Blight and ordering a Grey Warden inspection.
Rook can conscript Mother Hildegard.
Antivan Crows
Rook can sneak into the Chantry herself.
Rook can convince the people of Grünberg to make a contract on Hildegard.
Mourn Watch
Rook can summon spirits to occupy Hunger's victims and gain an edge in the coming fight.
Lords of Fortune
Rook can strike a bargain with Heinrich to make themselves a co-owner of the Silberstein Mine in a very Hawke-style manner.
And that would be it for today, guys! Thank you for reading, and I hope you had fun. Next time, we shall be looking at one of the two next main quest scenarios, which should be rather juicy. See you there!
Rewriting Veilguard Part 19 - The Slave Uprising
Find the Shadow Dragon version of this chapter on AO3
Disclaimer: I don't hate the game, I actually think it's quite great given the development hell Bioware went through in those 10 years. This is more of a hypothetical universe where there was less of that behind the scenes drama. Just a fun writing exercise.
Writing an Origin Story Mission for the Shadow Dragons
Now that we have dealt with our World State, it’s time to pick Rook’s background. When I first learned that there would be six factions to choose from, I was honestly very ecstatic. You’re telling me we’re getting six different origin stories for Rook? Did BioWare finally listen to the fans’ wishes to get one more game with DAO-style prologue missions before the big main plot begins? Then I learned that six of the companions you meet would each represent one of those factions, and I was like “Amazing, so you will definitely have one party member with whom you can at least align interests and goals from the very start. One with whom you can already establish some manner of connection and relationship before the adventure begins.”
What we ended up getting was…sort of something in the middle. Your backstory is brought up and you get quite a bit of unique dialogue regarding your factions...at least during the first half. If you’re a Shadow Dragon, there’s a lot of Minrathous dialogue tailored to you specifically. If you’re a Grey Warden, you get some unique dialogue whenever the Blight is involved.
But there was…something missing for me. You see, when we start the game, we’re immediately thrown into this epic mission where Rook, Varric, and Harding find Neve and race against time to stop Solas from tearing down the Veil. It feels very much like we’re starting somewhere in the middle rather than at the beginning. It's the Mage-Templar War all over again but in an even more extreme case. And that, in my humble opinion, is due to the lack of an actual prologue, one that gives us time to properly establish who Rook is. DA2 did not have this problem, as Hawke, for their limitation of being human only, had a very well-crafted and developed background that constantly kept coming up and staying relevant. DAI had the problem that, no matter what race you chose, the Inquisitor still felt more or less like the same person (looking at you, Lavellan, who needed Morrigan to explain elven gods to you). And I do very well remember how sour of a taste that left in many peoples' mouths.
Let us, therefore, assume that we are in the creative executive chair for this game, we're in charge. Let's further assume that we took that criticism to heart and decided to do something about it. So, here’s what the next few parts of this hypothetical rewrite of Veilguard will focus on: creating six unique playable origin stories that would very much be doable without the vampiric leech known as “development hell” hovering over you. This chapter will focus solely on the Shadow Dragon origin story, so stay tuned for the others.
Creating Rook
Once we have finished customising our World State (because we are veterans of the series and did not skip to the default one), we move over to the actual character creator for our main hero. And before we even get to Rook, we get a screen that allows us to pick our background, our faction, our starting place in Thedas.
When clicking on each of the factions' tarot cards, just like in the actual game, we get small introductory texts giving us a little taste for what to expect. Here, however, said text is going to be different to the one we get in DATV.
You see, when reading through those backstories, I got the feeling that all of them sounded like outlines for what could have been the origin story quest. I am actually 100% confident that BioWare planned on including prologue missions at one point but had to scrap them due to development hell reasons. But here's the problem. All of the six backstories essentially boil down to “you upset some higher authority and now your faction wants you out of the spotlight.” No matter where you come from, your essential situation is exactly the same. All the choices regarding Rook’s personality have already been made for us.
Actually playing the origin story allows us to roleplay in a roleplaying game (shocking, I know). So, the origin text we get when we click on the Shadow Dragons is simply going to be:
“You are a Shadow Dragon. This underground resistance opposes corrupt rulers and slavery in Tevinter. Coming from all walks of life, they are determined to bring justice to the people. As a member of House Mercar, a renowned Soporati family known and famed on the battlefield against the advancing Antaam, you have much influence to bring, and much to lose.”
That’s just the small little snippet we see when hovering over the option. But that’s all we’re gonna get for now. There is no mention yet of Rook’s personality as we’ll get to shape it ourselves. But I'm already letting you know, no, we're not going to be able to play a vicious murder hobo here. You can be aggressive and cruel, but not to the point of being an irredeemable monster. Rook still needs to be someone who can be trusted with the main quest. That being said, we're not taking the Marvel approach here, either, where everything you say and do somehow contributes to either a lighthearted joke or being an out-of-nowhere holier-than-thou heroic inspiration for everyone around you. There are instances where that is appropriate, but it has to be earned.
Just like in Veilguard, no matter what faction you take, you can play all races. However, contrary to Veilguard, here the world will actually react to who and what you are in a more substantial manner. I am in no way an advocate for racism and xenophobia. But both of those are very much present in Thedas. Elves are not treated like humans, especially in a place like Tevinter. Commoners are not treated in the same way as nobles. Our job here is to reflect the world of Thedas, not our own. The players are smart enough to differentiate between the two.
Having said that, depending on what race and class Rook is, the stakes vary:
If Rook is a human, they are the direct heir of House Mercar, destined to take over the family name one day. If Rook is a human mage, they have just been appointed to the Laetan status, granting their family more political influence.
If Rook is a dwarf, they are an adopted scion of House Mercar, which does work with dwarves since, thanks to the ancient treaty between Tevinter and the Dwarven Empire, dwarves enjoy considerably more privileges than elves and qunari.
If Rook is an elf or a qunari, they are an official slave of House Mercar, but it’s made pretty clear in the beginning that House Mercar’s slaves are slaves in name only, while actually being more akin to paid servants. House Mercar simply refers to them as slaves to stay under the Magisterium’s radar and actually uses them to pass on information to the Shadow Dragons.
For our Shadow Dragon run, we shall be taking on the role of a distinguished gentleman named Verus Mercar, a male human mage. Now that Rook has been finalised, we, at last, click the most-desired button to start the game.
We get another, more specific narration from Varric, where he give us our chosen faction’s backstory. We get a recap on how Dorian and Maevaris founded the Lucerni shortly after the war with Corypheus and how much of a ray of hope this group was in the twisted and corrupt society of the Tevinter Imperium. But then, some of the more powerful and older Altus families began to heavily push against them, eventually leading to Maevaris being framed for treason and losing her seat in the Magisterium. She took all the blame on herself so that Dorian would be able to retain a spotless reputation and continue their work on the great political stage. Maevaris took the remaining Lucerni underground and formed the Shadow Dragons, continuing their mission under a different name. Now unbound by political restrictions, the Shadow Dragons are free to take more radical measures in their fight against oppression and slavery. And Varric is confident that the perfect candidate for his mission can be found in this group.
The Shadow Lair
Our story begins in Minrathous, in the underground base of the Shadow Dragons. And right off the bat, we’re making a change regarding said base’s location. In DATV, it stands in a random building somewhere in Dock Town that pretty much anyone could access. I get that they were probably going for the “hide in plain sight” approach, but let’s have some fun here.
In this rewrite, the Shadow Dragons are literally operating from the underground. Now, Minrathous’ underground system has two things that are very beneficial for a secretive rebellious organisation:
Vast catacombs. The catacombs of Minrathous are so massive that they can store food to survive years of siege. Minrathous, like so many cities and settlements in Tevinter, is built on the bones of Elvhenan. You can easily get lost in those catacombs.
Gigantic sewers. The sewers are arguably even more treacherous than the catacombs, because we have seen in Tevinter Nights what can lurk there. Imagine the sewers of the greatest city in the world, the greatest magical city in the world. Surely it comes with its own set of urban legends akin to the sewer gator. But in a city like Minrathous, those legends are probably true. Failed magical experiments, lyrium-infused mutations, abominations of former mages who failed some twisted blood magic experiment, possessed objects; all this can be found in Minrathous’ sewers. Dangerous for everyone, and therefore perfect for the Shadow Dragons.
The Shadow Dragons operate from a place called "The Shadow Lair”, a section of an underground district known simply as “The Undercity”. That’s where all the poor and forgotten retreat if they wish to disappear from the world but have no means to leave the city, or criminals who flee the Imperium’s justice system. Slaves who wish to escape. And on that note, let me talk about something else.
I was personally disappointed that Veilguard didn’t really touch on Tevinter’s slavery system. It felt a bit like I was treated with kid gloves and not given the trust to being able to handle dark topics. But Tevinter, as has been established in all DA media before this game, is a pretty dark place for anyone who isn’t a human mage. And it’s important to depict that as it shows the stakes and just how rotten of a society the Imperium is. We need to see what the Shadow Dragons are actually fighting for. It’s not enough to just tell us how much a freedom fighter group we are, no, we need to see it.
Meeting the Leaders of the Shadow Dragons
So Mercar meets with the leaders of the Shadow Dragons, namely Maevaris and the Viper. From this conversation, we get the general gist of what’s about to happen and why we are here: House Mercar decided to get a bit more involved with the Shadow Dragons after both parties discovered a massive plot for something big involving Minrathous' vast slave population. Whatever it is, it’s happening somewhere in Dock Town, and we are to rendezvous with Neve Gallus, a local and renowned private investigator who is in league with the Shadow Dragons, to get to the bottom of this.
Now, let's talk a bit about Maevaris. This is no longer the influential Magister we heard about in DAI and saw in subsequent books and comics. This is the leader of an underground slave-fighting force who still tries her absolute best in making a true difference. Tevinter has been endlessly corrupted for thousands of years. It takes a very strong will to oppose that with absolute conviction. And Maevaris is one such person. She still hasn't lost her sense for fashion and wears elegant yet practical robes. When you stand next to her, you just feel that power and magisterial grace, but not in an oppressive, but supportive and encouraging manner. This is someone we admire and want to follow.
Then we also have Ashur, the Viper. I like the concept they had in Veilguard, so let us expand on it. The Viper is the Shadow Dragons' equivalent of a Spy Master, he who has contacts in all the cities and always knows what's up. How did he manage to establish such a massive interconnected network? Welllllll....more on that later, but those who have read about a certain fan theory regarding him might know where I'm going with this. For now, let's just say he's part of an influential Altus house, which is true! He's secretive, his face is veiled, and not just with a physical way, no, he has an illusion spell placed upon his face, one that distorts and blurs it for anyone who's not supposed to see it...which is everyone.
An Old Friend
Just as our conversation with Maevaris and the Viper reaches its end, a familiar face strides into the Shadow Lair: Varric Tethras. Yes, we actually get to see Rook’s first meeting with Varric here! Maevaris greets and introduces him to us. Mercar gets to have a first chat with Varric, where he assesses our personality. This vibe check is what allows us to determine Rook’s general personality: are we diplomatic, humorous, or aggressive? As I said earlier, Varric wouldn’t pick an evil person to fight against Solas, but we should still have some kind of roleplaying room regarding Rook’s way of thinking and speaking.
At this point, I'm sure all of you who played DAO noticed what I'm doing here, but Varric’s purpose in these prologues is the same as Duncan’s. He’s the one who recruits you into the larger fight and acts as a mentor figure for a while. I was actually fully expecting that to be the case in Veilguard when we were told that Varric recruited Rook out of their faction. Well, he did, but I would have liked to have seen it! Alas, we shall do so here!
Exploring the Shadow Lair
After the conversation, we get to have a quick look around the Shadow Lair before leaving for Dock Town. This serves as the Shadow Dragon's general exploration and interaction tutorial, where we get to see just how much love was put into crafting each encounter and interaction.
We can talk to Maevaris and Varric some more and learn about the former Magister's past and her motivation behind what used to be the Lucerni. She is not, like, going to tell you her life story, you don't really know her that well, but this serves as a moment to pry some additional information out of her. And this is where we'll see the return of persuasion checks into the Dragon Age series! Yes, you can actually level charisma again, using it to unlock certain outcomes and extra dialogues. In this particular moment, we notice that Varric and Maevaris seem to be quite close. With high enough starting charisma, which we could have determined in the CC, we learn that Maevaris and Varric are actually quasi-related through the latter's late cousin, Thorold. They were due to marry but he died before it could become anything official. Still, everyone in her circle treats it as a true marriage, and Varric is all too happy to count her in his family.
We can talk to the Viper and learn, well, not really more about him specifically, but definitely more about the overall state of Tevinter's other cities. We learn that even the Antaam-occupied cities still have Tevene agents infiltrated on the inside, including some Shadow Dragons who try to halt the Qunaris' progress by ways of subtle subterfuge and the passing of information.
We can meet Lorelei, one of the Shadow Dragons' main merchants and suppliers, and learn about her being one of the city elves Loghain sold to Tevinter all the way back in DAO. She will give a few remarks on how the Hero of Ferelden dealt with the Alienage and how she and King Alistair made it a better place from all she heard.
We can have a bit of a look at the Undercity itself and just see how much of a poor and dark place it is. This is the gutter, no, this is below the gutter. The people here wish to disappear. They are miserable, most of them have given up hope. The Shadow Dragons are the only ones who actually care about and provide for them.
Since the Undercity is below modern Minrathous, we can see traces of ancient elven architecture on display, including mosaics and frescoes. One particularly ancient and nearly indistinguishable one depicts a group of elves fighting a high dragon. Whatever could this mean? Hmmmmmmmm....
Entering Dock Town
Dock Town is pretty much right above the Shadow Lair, the gutter above the actual gutter. The entrance to the Shadow Lair is quite hidden with enchantments, known only to Shadow Dragons and their associates.
Dock Town is going to stay pretty similar to what we see it in the game. If there is one place in Minrathous where everyone could mingle without being necessarily immediately prosecuted, though it does still happen when the Templars have it out for you. However, there will be two major changes. The first is that, in addition to the perpetual rainfall thanks to the magic keeping the Archon's Palace aloft, Dock Town is also kept in perpetual shadow. Partially from the Archon's Palace, partially from the high towers and castles around it, Dock Town is just designed, with full intention, to feel like the district of the poor. The atmosphere is gloomy, but those who live here found a way to exist, especially by forming close bonds, not able to afford being all too choosing. And then, there is the other major change: slavery is still a thing. Yes, surprise suprise, the slave-trading capital of the slave-trading nation, notoriously known to the rest of Thedas as the nation that has slaves, has slavery!
Dock Town is…well…a place where ships dock. That includes ships of slave traders and prisoners of war. Tevinter is still locked into a war with the Qunari, so there will be a lot of that reflected in the environment. As we walk through Dock Town, we see guards on high alert, slaves and prisoners being led away in chains. We’re doing some important environmental storytelling here that lets us know exactly why Tevinter is a place that needs to be liberated and changed so desperately.
Meeting Neve Gallus
We find Neve Gallus at the Cobbled Swan, a tavern gloomy like everything else in Dock Town. We find her watching a wisp-powered performance, where Cida Ciconia sings a newly-written song about a Magister who lost all his fortune to a poor but clever thief. Even in Dock Town, magic is everywhere, as Minrathous is the most magically-powered city in the world. Let's reflect that whenever and wherever we can.
We're playing quite a young and well-read Mercar, so our dear Verus has definitely heard of some of Neve's cases before, particularly the one involving her and a group of Venatori trying to summon some kind of ancient demon below Minrathous (as can be read in Tevinter Nights). In this instance, we can choose to be rather geeked out by her, to which Neve responds with mild indifference. Right here, we can see a small change to the Neve we got in Veilguard. This Neve seems, at first, to be even colder to us, completely unwilling to form any manner of friendly bond. This is a first impression but there is more to it, definitely more!
So Neve tells us that a huge part of Dock Town was closed off for a great event, a former small coliseum that hasn’t been used in decades. Coincidentally, several unpurchased slaves and prisoners of war are being dragged into that area. And here we can see that, whenever Neve talks about her case or pursuing the Venatori, something in her changes. She gets more passionate and livelier, especially when the conversation centers around Venatori.
Neve has a good lead to assume that the Venatori are somehow behind this because of course they are. She gives us a recap on what the Venatori are and how she had multiple run-ins with them already. She is to be absolutely certain that Mercar can be trusted as they will need to work together on this. In response, Verus shares his side of the information, that his father, Charon Mercar, who is also a respected Legatus, oversaw a strange pattern in how many prisoners of war and masterless slaves, primarily from places like Ventus and Carastes, Qunari-conquered cities, have simply disappeared, and how surprisingly many military vessels have been transferred to Minrathous. Since Neve is an investigator, it’s fun to make this part of the journey truly feel like a crime mystery.
Once all information has been shared, Neve declares that it’s time to go.
Approaching the Coliseum
Neve takes us across Dock Town’s roofs towards the closed-off area of the coliseum. There, we see just how massively guarded it is. The official excuse for all this is a military rebuilding operation. Horrifyingly, this is much closer to the truth than we realise. There are Imperial Templars and Legionnaires patrolling the outskirts, so we have to find our way in.
Neve directs us to a secret hiding spot, where we meet Tarquin, an Imperial Templar working for the Shadow Dragons. Not even he knows exactly what’s happening, but something big is definitely going on. We don't know Tarquin yet, only that the Viper contacted him and Neve to work together on this. And work together we shall, but a little disagreement arises. While Neve is all about approaching the Coliseum in a stealthy manner by sneaking through the darker, more ruined parts and observe the proceedings from upstairs, where no guards would hinder them, Tarquin suggests hiding in plain sight that would allow us a closer look at everything. Which is why he got us military mage gear.
There are two options before us: do we sneak in from above and observe from the shadows, or do we disguise ourselves as Templars and participate in a more open manner? This right here gives us another choice regarding Mercar’s way of doing things:
Follow Neve and observe the proceedings from above, quietly gathering the information you need.
Follow Tarquin and disguise yourself as an attendant, getting a much closer look at the proceedings.
So I’m feeling a little brave right now. I think my Mercar would try to do the bold approach to get better results, even if it means a higher risk. For this playthrough, I’m choosing to follow Tarquin and let myself be disguised. Neve begrudgingly follows along.
Entering the Coliseum
A few minutes later, Mercar, Neve, and Tarquin approach the Coliseum gates in disguise. Tarquin wears his Templar armour, while Mercar and Neve are dressed as mages of the Legion.
Once we enter the arena, we have the chance to explore it for a little while. Doing so allows us to encounter the following:
We can have an early chat with Magister Zara Renata, who will, of course, be very relevant later, along with her lackeys Felicia and Calivan, all of whom are prominent members of the Venatori. Neve knows about them from her tireless research into the Venatori. And Felicia's brother, Livius, was of course widely responsible for carrying out Corypheus' will at Adamant Fortress.
We may encounter Magister Bataris, alongside his son Albin and get early hints of just how far the Venatori corruption runs, as Bataris talks about having a meeting with the Knight-Commander later.
If we make a good enough persuasion attempt at the Templar Captain guarding the entrance to a basement, we shall enter it and discover the prisoners and slaves intended for some heinous affair. Here, and only here, if we perform this correct dialogue choice, and being a human mage, unfortunately, certainly helps here, we get to see that our father, Charon Mercar, is among the imprisoned. And the worst of it all? He doesn’t even recognise us. Actually none of the slaves and prisoners react in any way, as all of them seem to be under some sort of spell. As we look closer, we can see that all of them have strange spiked collars around their necks, filled with crimson-glowing blood. This is blood magic that keeps them entranced. If we want to risk it, we have time to break our father’s collar and ensure that perhaps, he can escape. So we do just that. Neve knows exactly what these things are: slave collars from Ancient Tevinter. But they were outlawed centuries ago for being too cruel of a controlling mechanism, even for Tevinter's standards. Well, "outlawed" with big quotation marks around that word. Tevinter is the land of very closed doors after all.
The Imperator
Following our exploration of the Coliseum, we get streamed into a crowd of onlookers as the Imperator of Tevinter’s legions, the Supreme Legatus himself, Magister Aemilianus Laskaris, enters the centre of the arena.
We know from DATV that Tevinter has an Imperator, and the Imperator is not the same as the Archon in this context. While the Archon is the overall ruler, the Imperator is the highest military commander. Think of this guy as Tevinter’s version of Loghain or Gaspard. Laskaris also happens to be one of the loudest voices responsible for forcing the Lucerni out of the Magisterium.
Laskaris delivers a speech in which he proclaims just how atrociously Tevinter is faring against the Antaam. Here we get some early insight into the fact that a large chunk of the Qunari army broke off from Tevinter and is now bearing down on Antiva and Rivain. We don't get an Antaam that abandoned the Qun here. No, instead, all of this is the Arishok attempting to seize as much territory as he can. But even against this smaller Antaam army that still wages war against Tevinter specifically, the Legions are failing.
Laskaris cites lost cities such as Ventus, Carastes, and Neromenian as evidence for the desperate situation Tevinter is now facing. Therefore, something must be done. Something drastic. He presents, to the gathered onlookers, the Salvatio Initiative. Basically, all unpurchased slaves and prisoners of war are to be given to Tevinter’s legions, where Laskaris and the Legates serving under him will perform blood magic rituals to turn them into mindless but ravaging soldiers against the Antaam. Dangerous cannon fodder essentially. He will use tonight’s demonstration to convince the gathered members of the Magisterium to pass a law that will officially permit Tevinter’s legions to use blood magic. Well, we know, Tevinter has always used blood magic behind the aforementioned closed doors, but this will mean that all safety measures are off, all precautions, all careful attempts at hiding it. And the worst part is: since slaves are considered nothing but tools, it won’t even be seen as unethical by the large portion of conservative Senate members. And prisoners of war? Qunari? Who cares about them anyway, right? This is the darkness and true corruption permeating Tevinter. This is exactly why the Shadow Dragons exist to bring the light.
Laskaris then ascends to a viewing platform above the arena. Several doors open and he directs all slaves and prisoners to be brought forth. They are all wearing the blood collars. Upon the Imperator’s command, him and several blood mages under his leadership, activate the collars and turn the slaves and prisoners into an absolute frenzy. A battle erupts in which the sheer destructive power of the now-mindless fighters is demonstrated.
Mercar now has a choice to make, and it is the biggest one there is in the prologue:
Do we stealthily fight the blood mages and try to rescue the innocent mind-controlled people without blowing our cover? We do, however, risk our father dying.
Do we rush in headfirst and challenge Laskaris directly, saving our father but maybe dooming more innocents and risking exposure?
Do we put our personal emotional interest above the greater good or vice versa? Well, because we broke our father’s collar earlier, we can at least assume that he’s going to be able to fight for himself with a clear head, so let’s focus on the blood mages in a stealthy manner.
Neve and Tarquin quickly take us behind the scenes as the crowd watchers in apt interest. There are seven blood mages, including Laskaris, who need to be dealt with. This serves as our combat tutorial as well as the party-of-three format. Since all blood mages are in elevated areas above the onlookers, we can engage them without alerting anyone. First, we jump into a group fight where we take out Laskaris' six blood mages.
Once they are dealt with, we sneak right up to Laskaris and try to either knock him out or backstab him altogether. This results in the same outcome but tells a lot about Mercar’s personality. Do we kill this guy and end it now? Or do we try and incapacitate him so that he can still be of use for the future?
Regardless, Laskaris sees it coming. He casts a spell on us and throws us into the arena, gliding down himself. What follows is a solo boss battle against the Imperator. It’s a tough battle, one that we are logically meant to lose. If we get Laskaris down to 0HP, miraculously so unless we play on Storyteller mode, the cutscene will slightly change but the outcome remains largely the same.
Laskaris lashes out and wounds us, causing us to fall down, bleeding, losing our mask, exposing ourselves to Laskaris, while the slaves and prisoners stage a mad revolt around us, forcing the gathered magisters and Venatori to flee the scene. But because we freed our father from his collar, he comes rushing in to save us, engaging Laskaris in a one-on-one duel. Despite “only” being Soporati, he puts up quite a fight with his huge two-hander. We want to help him, desperately so, but we are just too weak. Laskaris is impressed by Charon’s strength, but ultimately, deals him a mortal wound. Just before Laskaris turns to finish us off, he is struck in the shoulder by…Bianca!
Varric steps into the fray and fires off a row of bolts against the Imperator, allowing Neve and Tarquin to take us away as we pass out. As they do so, the Viper appears and casts a spell that shrouds the whole arena in fog.
Back at the Shadow Lair
We awaken in the Shadow Lair and are greeted by Varric. It turns out that he was using this whole mission to assess us from the background, to determine if we are the one he’s looking for. And he decides that, yes, we are. Laskaris, the Venatori, all of this is just one puzzle piece of something much greater. We can press Varric on what this could possibly be, but he won't tell us just yet. Instead, he lets us know us that we should disappear. And he might just be able to help with that. We can be incredibly outrageous about this. We just discovered the biggest plot to endanger slaves ever since the Magister Sidereal tore open the Veil to reach the Golden City! We can’t just leave right now to pursue something we don't even know about!
At this point, Maevaris joins us and agrees that Mercar has to disappear for a while, now that Laskaris knows who we are. We can’t be seen with the Shadow Dragons for the time being. Doing so would just endanger the whole cause.
Reluctantly or readily, that depends on our personality, we concede that there is sense in Varric’s words. Varric advises us to adopt a codename as well, like so many agents of the Inquisition did back in the day. He jokingly suggests "Rook" given how we just went for the greatest danger in a straight line. We laugh but accept.
Afterwards we get a final chance to talk to the members of the Shadow Dragons before we depart, and get a last look at the Undercity. Neve returns to Dock Town to keep an eye on Laskaris and the slave rings, as well as search for any Venatori ties.
What follows is a cutscene where Rook and Varric depart the Shadow Lair and leave Minrathous altogether. One last time, Rook looks at the city he swore to fight for, then turns around and follows Varric into the unknown.
And that's a wrap on Part 2, and our pitch for a potential Shadow Dragon-centric origin story. Do I claim it to be perfection incarnate, the definite path BioWare should have taken? No, of course not, that would be rather preposterous.
This is still meant to be seen as a just-for-fun creative writing exercise on what could have been had there been less behind-the-scenes drama.
Next time, we shall head to the Anderfels and explore the Grey Warden origin story! Looking forward to seeing you there.
Rewriting Veilguard Part 14 - The Battle of Marnas Pell
Disclaimer: I don't hate the game, I actually think it's quite great given the development hell Bioware went through in those 10 years. This is more of a hypothetical universe where there was less of that behind the scenes drama. Just a fun writing exercise.
Rewriting Lucanis' Recruitment Mission
Lucanis Dellamorte is a character I have very mixed feelings about. Well...that can be said for pretty much all of Veilguard’s companions, but there is something special about him. He practically screams “wasted potential” to me. When you look at his concept alone, you get such an amazing character: the deadliest assassin of the Antivan Crows, known as the Demon of Vyrantium, one who specialises in killing mages, has been captured and experimented on by the Venatori, to the point that a demon of Spite is forced into him. And now he has to somehow grapple with that. Amazing concept! Unfortunately, not much was done with him in the game, at least in my opinion. I think there could have been more.
Which is exactly what this rewrite chapter is going to attempt to do. Lucanis’ recruitment mission is one of the better ones, I would say. The Ossuary is a fantastic set piece, and the concept of the Venatori taking a temple of Ghilan’nain to repurpose it for their own needs is genius. I did say I would give credit where it’s due.
What exactly are we aiming to do in this chapter of the rewrite? Well, we aim to adapt the Ossuary chapter into the plot we’re creating, and expand on its core idea. Rook infiltrates the Ossuary and rescues Lucanis, Lucanis turns out to be possessed by Spite, and we then kill Calivan, the prison ward. All the while, the Antivan Crows seek their master assassin’s swift and save return. All of this is good on paper. Let’s see if we can add more to it.
Briefing on the Dumat
So, we have the choice. Do we investigate the Ossuary or the Deep Roads? After Marnas Pell, we have a few leads. Neither of them screams Solas at us, but they are both important matters to which he would likely draw his attention as well.
For this mission, as the title already suggests, we chose to investigate the Ossuary first, the mysterious Venatori prison where slaves are delivered to in secrecy. What is it that they’re planning on doing there? Considering it’s the Venatori, it’s probably nothing good.
After selecting the mission, Varric calls for a meeting in the Meeting Chamber (yeah I probably have to rename this room in a later draft), and informs us that Charter got an update for us regarding her investigation into the Ossuary.
Rook picks up the report and starts reading. And now comes the perfect opportunity to introduce a new game mechanic: an updated version of the War Table missions!
The Spy Network
Instead of War Table missions, we have Spy Reports. Let me give you a brief explanation of what these are. So, remember how in DAI, you had the War Table, where you did a lot of timer-based missions, and choosing the advisor determined the outcome? Well, in Dreadwolf, we’re doing away with the sheer quantity, the timers, and the different advisors. At first, this sounds detrimental and like a step backwards. Oho, but just you wait.
There is a lot going on in Thedas right now, and Rook obviously can’t be everywhere. So, this is our opportunity to see things outside of Rook’s perspective. No, the Spy Network isn’t giving us fully rendered playable missions, where you’re another character. No, no. However, it does provide us with something that slightly tilts in this direction.
Let us use Charter’s report here as an example for this.
Searching for the Ossuary
Instead of Rook just reading Charter’s report, the screen fades to black, and we suddenly hear Rook’s voice change into Charter’s.
When we fade back again, we suddenly find ourselves in an illustrated take on Thedas. It’s like a combination of BioWare’s tarot-like paintings and Dark Horse’s DA comics.
Charter narrates how she found her way to the besieged city of Vyrantium, and we see a panel of her standing on a hill overlooking the place. After Marnas Pell, Laskaris’ legions managed to advance further east. And now, they’re looking to take back Vyrantium from the Qun. It’s currently held by an Antaam kithshok referred to as “Staffbreaker” by the local population. Apparently, he was so ruthless in the conquering of Vyrantium that people began to see the Qunari as more evil than the Magisters, something that had never before been accomplished. This is all from a codex entry in Veilguard but here, we get to adapt that into something we can actually see.
Charter’s task is simple: she has to infiltrate the estate of Magister Zara Renata, which is where Staffbreaker currently resides. But she also knows that Zara has a secret vault somewhere in the estate, and that’s where she’ll likely find information regarding the Ossuary.
We then get a small choice:
Does Charter infiltrate the city while things are still calm?
Or does she wait for Laskaris to attack and slip in during the chaos?
Since Marnas Pell worked so well, Charter elects to wait until the attack begins. A few hours later, night falls, and the Imperator launches his assault on Vyrantium.
We get a panel of Charter deftly moving through the chaotic streets, dodging Antaam warriors when needed, quickly approaching the Renata Estate. At this point, you might ask yourself: Why would Zara Renata leave her own estate unguarded? Why would she simply leave it? In Veilguard, she’s often mentioned to be in Vyrantium.
Well, Veilguard kind of forgot that Vyrantium was under Qunari occupation. I don’t have to remind anyone what the Qunari do to Magisters. Best-case scenario, they’re killed straight up. Worst-case scenario, they’re given the qamek treatment. The Qunari attack on Vyrantium was also so vicious and decisive that the Magisters simply had no time to prepare. So, Zara had to retreat to Minrathous before she could even begin to cleanse her vault.
Anyway, Charter reaches the Renata Estate and quickly slips inside. She takes out a few Antaam warriors but, luckily for her, most of them are already on the frontlines, engaging with Tevinter’s forces.
As she makes her way through the Renata Estate, she is suddenly ambushed by two cloaked figures. After a quick exchange of blades, in which Charter stands her own against two, the figures agree to talk and reveal themselves as Teia and Viago, our favourite Crow couple. If we didn’t play the Antivan Crow origin, this is our introduction to them.
Once they learn of their mutual connection through Varric and Harding, Teia tells Charter of a contract they’re currently on: they are tasked with assassinating Staffbreaker, a contract made by someone within the Imperial Legion. Charter relays that she’s here for the Ossuary. That gets the Crows’ attention, for they, too, are searching for it, a request given to them by the First Talon, Caterina Dellamorte. Charter proposes a team-up, since they’re looking for the same thing, and tells them of Zara’s secret vault. Teia and Viago agree to work together, and thus the deadly trio continues through the estate.
They find Staffbreaker surrounded by Antaam guards in the upper areas of the Renata Estate. Quite telling that the kithshok is not leading the battle with his troops. Not very Qunari-like of him, is it? This is our first clue that some of the Antaam generals may be starting to stray away from the ways of the Qun.
Charter can either:
Join Teia and Viago in the shadows and take out Staffbreaker and his troops in secrecy.
Or cause a distraction that will lead Staffbreaker’s troops away.
Charter is a very confident elf and chooses the second option. And this is where we get a glimpse at that “Master of False Identities” title Charter has going for her in the lore. Apparently, she’s an Oscar-worthy actress who can transform into basically anyone. Charter is just her current identity. We don’t actually know her true name.
This time, Charter turns into a convert of the Qun, an elf who embraced the teachings of Koslun. She enters the room and alerts Staffbreaker that some of the Vyrantium citizens have gone rogue and are now raiding the qamek supplies. Staffbreaker immediately sends his troops away to deal with the situation. Charter leads them down a corridor, intending to dispatch of them in the basement, when a massive fire spell launched from one of the Imperator’s ships rips the wall apart, and sends the Qunari tumbling down the outer walls. Well, that was a lucky incident for once.
She returns to find Teia and Viago making quick and vicious work of Staffbreaker, completing their contract. With Staffbreaker dead and the estate empty of Qunari, the trio quickly gets to work and searches for Zara’s vault. Eventually, they locate it beneath Zara’s private bathhouse, a rather odd choice.
After scouring the vault, Charter eventually finds what she’s looking for: records of an expedition funded by Zara and a few other Magisters, including Gereon Alexius and Livius Erimond, to locate a legendary place called ‘The Cradle of Creation”, an ancient structure rumoured to have sunk into the sea. Another record shows the exact location, which lies somewhere deep within the Venefication Sea, the large body of water surrounded by Rivain, Arlathan Forest, and Par Vollen. Yeah, I know, in Veilguard, the Ossuary is stated to be somewhere in the Rialto Bay, just outside of Treviso, but I...heavily disagree with that. It’s just way too conveniently placed.
Now, Charter inquires as to what the Crows want at the Ossuary. Teia and Viago then share a secret with her, which Caterina kept from all other Crows: the Venatori are thought to have captured one of their own: the Demon of Vyrantium, Lucanis Dellamorte. And they wish to free him.
Charter immediately senses an opportunity and proposes a deal: The crew of the Dumat shall infiltrate the Ossuary, as is their original plan, and free Lucanis, should he still be alive. In exchange, however, Lucanis shall join the crew, and the Crows will receive a contract quite worthy of their time. Teia and Viago agree, under the condition that Lucanis first be brought to Treviso, to prove to everyone that he’s alive. Then, Caterina will approve the contract.
Charter and the Crows leave the besieged Vyrantium, and eventually part ways.
And that’s a mission of the Spy Network for you! It’s not as detailed or elaborate as Rook’s story, but it does the trick of exploring the world of Thedas through other means. And, by depicting this type of mission in a sort of visual novel-style way, it’s also definitely something worth looking at. This distinct style shall be kept for this sort of mission only. It’s also much more cost-effective than rendering everything in 3D graphics, while still allowing us to see more of Thedas.
Also, I know this was a pretty lengthy description, but in practice, this should take about five minutes in actual game time.
Once the mission ends, Charter’s voice shifts back to Rook’s, who concludes reading the report.
Neve and Bellara immediately have something to say about the Cradle of Creation mentioned in the report. Neve read about it in a history book. Turns out Tevinter has quite a large number of stories related to buildings that sank into the sea, if we recall the Palace of Almadrius at the beginning of the game. Bellara, on the other hand, mentions that in ancient tales, Arlathan was much bigger than the forest we know today. Maybe the Cradle of Creation was an elvhen ruin. If it’s close to the forest’s coast, it’s very likely. As a Veil Jumper, we, of course, know that ourselves.
Meanwhile, Varric and Harding comment on the Crows’ involvement here. They have heard of the Demon of Vyrantium, but he was assumed dead. If Charter truly made a deal with the Crows to recruit him, should we find him, he may be an incredibly worthy addition to the crew of the Dumat. An assassin whose main targets are mages, Venatori mages at that, would be great in fighting someone like Solas, a powerful and ancient mage. Isabela only has limited experience with the Crows, recalling that one side adventure with Zevran back in DA2.
Right then! Now that we know where the Ossuary is, it’s time to pay the Venatori a visit. Once the meeting is adjourned, the Dumat sets sail and we make for the Venefication Sea.
Arrival at the Ossuary
So, after playing Veilguard and learning of the unused concepts, I remain absolutely convinced that the Ossuary is a remnant of a time when the Dumat was still a thing. I always found it quite odd how Rook just sails out into the sea and somehow teleports into the Ossuary. Even calling it teleporting is rather generous; it’s just a straight-up fade to black! Well, in this rewrite, we do have the Dumat, and thus shall utilise this concept as we can.
After a while, our favourite dragon submarine reaches a particularly murky part of the sea, which seems intentional, according to Isabela. And we agree, since we can sense some kind of magic out in the water. Concealment, perhaps.
After a while, though, we can see lights in the distance. There’s our destination. Time to board the Silence. This time, Isabela shall remain aboard the Dumat, in case quick help from the larger vessel is needed.
Well, the Rook’s party boards the Silence and Varric takes the steering wheel. What follows next is an incredibly atmospheric cutscene of the Silence gliding through the murky waters, towards the strange lights. I can imagine some killer ambient soundtrack playing here.
After a while, we leave the murkiness behind and find ourselves in a clear area deep beneath the waves. And before us, we see the Ossuary.
It is a magnificent sight to behold. A great ruin stands at the bottom of the sea, and we can make out that it is, indeed, of elvhen origin, something Bellara is both delighted and angered by. Delighted that another piece of elvhen history is about to be uncovered, and angered that the Venatori are defiling it.
The ruin itself is largely intact, having seemingly survived the great destruction of Arlathan. The Venatori seem to have raised a force field around it, no doubt employing various spells. Neve wouldn’t be surprised if the same kind of magic is used here as in Minrathous. But how exactly do the Venatori get prisoners down here? Better question: how do they get down here? Nobody else in the world possesses a submarine like we do.
A few moments later, we get our answer: from somewhere above, presumably a ship on the surface, a group of Venatori descends on a large platform. One of them casts a force field around it. It’s the same type of platform people use in Minrathous to get up to the floating buildings, such as the Archon’s Palace. As they reach the great force field around the Ossuary, they simply phase through it, as though gliding through gel. Imagine something akin to the Gungan shields in Star Wars.
Okay, so the plan is easy enough. We find a secluded spot, move the Silence through the shield just enough for us to exit it, and then whoever remains at the wheel steers her out again. At this point, we get to choose our one party member for the group, since Lucanis is going to be our second. Given how relevant the Venatori are here, we pick Neve.
Quietly, the Silence lowers itself to the bottom of the sea, where it almost touches the sand dunes. It moves in through the shield until it’s halfway there. Rook and Neve climb out and land on the sand. Okay, so far so good, we’re not spotted yet. We wave for the others to join us. But just as they are about to do so, a massive shadow appears out of the darkness of the sea. For a moment, we think it might be the Dumat, but no, oh no. We are approached by a Cetus, a gigantic sea serpent, a sea dragon essentially. And it’s coming right for the Silence. Bellara and Harding urgently motion Varric to steer the Silence away. Varric curses but manages. Just in time. The Silence surges away right as the Cetus is about to close its jaws around it. The great beast then begins to pursue the rest of the party, and soon they are lost in the murkiness. Well fuck, we should have known the Ossuary has a guard dog!
Yeah so, I always wanted to see some kind of sea monster in Dragon Age. And there are some, according to lore, the Cetus being one of them! And since we’re going with the concept of an aquatic approach to our base and means of transportation, we have to include sea monsters at some point. So here’s one! I think it’s a fitting way to introduce one by having it guard the Ossuary.
Rook and Neve quickly rush towards the nearest ruin before anyone sees them. Well, the rest of the party won’t be helping us anytime soon. We can only hope that they’re faster than the beast. And there also goes our escape plan for now. We don’t know how to contact anyone. So...we’ll just have to wing it. Yippie.
Into the Ossuary
As we make our way towards what we believe to be some kind of entrance, we are suddenly intercepted by a Venatori patrol, of whom we make quick and short work.
As the Venatori lie dead before us, Neve suddenly has an idea. What if we were to disguise ourselves? The Venatori have cloaks and masks; nobody would recognise us, not even Rook for being an elf. So...
Do we disguise ourselves as a Venatori member? We will constantly have to roleplay accordingly as to not arouse suspicions.
Or we can leave it, blasting and stealthing our way through instead.
I would like to mention that the Venatori option only comes up if Neve is in the party or Rook is a Shadow Dragon. And even then, it only works if Rook is a human or an elf, as dwarves and Qunari are way too obvious to spot.
Rook absolutely hates the idea, but she is open to spilling as little blood as possible. It would be nice not to be attacked at every corner. So, we choose to play a little dress-up. Rook makes sure to cover her face, and Neve even puts a boot over her prosthetic. Well, we’re going to make for some fine Venatori mages. Neve just suggests leaving the talking to her, since she has far more experience with the Venatori than us.
We approach the entrance into the ruins, and are immediately stopped by Venatori guards, who inquire if we’ve seen what the Cetus is so mad about. Neve immediately eases into the situation and dismisses the Soporati guard for asking stupid questions. If anyone’s wondering, yes, this is my take on us having to dress up as Venatori to spy on the enemy. And as you may have noticed, I made sure to cover our face and head, since we’re an elf and would otherwise immediately be discovered.
Now that we have entered the Ossuary without a fight, it’s time to do some exploring. But we best do it fast, since we likely won’t remain disguised forever.
Through Venatori Eyes
So, now comes a part of the mission that promises to be incredibly interesting. We’re going to try and get through the quest without attracting any hostile attention. Will we succeed? Let us see.
As we walk through a corridor with Neve, we discuss our objectives. We have to find out what the Venatori are actually doing here, what they need the slaves for, and where Lucanis Dellamorte is being held.
At some point, we pass the remnants of a gigantic halla statue. As a Dalish elf, we quickly make a deduction: The Ossuary must have been a Temple of Ghilan’nain during the days of Ancient Elvhenan. Bellara would love this. But why is it called the Cradle of Creation in old records? Ghilan’nain only made the halla, but she’s more associated with Navigation, Guidance, that sort of stuff. What exactly did she make here?
Eventually, we reach something that looks like an improvised recreational centre, more specifically a canteen. Here, we see Venatori sitting and chatting like ordinary people. This could be our chance to overhear some vital information. We decide to stay together, just for the sake of safety.
We make ourselves as inconspicious as possible and just walk around the room. Here’s what we can overhear:
Calivan, the Warden, is receiving more and more pressure from Zara Renata. The last few batches have been largely unsuccessful; progress is essential if they hope to further their plans.
Sorocan Pomonius, the son of the Magister who was killed by Fenris in Marnas Pell, is currently here, having recently delivered more slaves.
Some “subjects” have withered and died during the last ritual.
The Demon of Vyrantium is being kept in the most secure cell they currently have. Only Calivan and Sorocan have access to it.
Okay, so we finally have our confirmation that Lucanis is alive. And he’s here, amazing. Now, all we need to do is find and free him. Since Calivan is probably out of reach at the moment, we should be aiming for Sorocan. Now we only need to somehow reach him.
As Rook and Neve discuss how to proceed forward, the door suddenly opens and two men enter the room. One of them is quickly identified as Sorocan, for people refer to him as such. The other one, though, is an enigma. He has a strange aura about him, has long, black hair, looks almost androgynous, although the masculine slightly prevails, and his eyes are strangely golden, similar to Morrigan’s but darker and more insidious.
Sorocan announces that he needs a third Venatori to accompany him right now, ideally a mage. For a high-ranking Venatori he seems to be rather solemn and soft-spoken, which is kinda terrifying when you consider what he does.
The strange man by his side slowly steps forward, looks around...then points right at us. Rook needs to accompany them. And she needs to do so on her own. When Neve tries to follow, the man stops her and says that one will suffice, as Magister Pomonius has just declared (Sorocan is a Magister now, since his father is dead).
Rook is terrified, but she comes along, desperate not to take off her mask. The man by Sorocan’s side scrutinises us with such intensity; it’s as though he can see right through us. Something about him definitely isn’t normal.
Rook is then forced to accompany Sorocan and the stranger. Rook gives one last desperate “please help me” look towards Neve, but it’s too late now. We’re committed to this charade.
Sorocan and the stranger take us down several corridors and a staircase. As we do so, we see the Cetus pursuing the Silence in the distance. Luckily, our vessel has a pretty beastly design, for Sorocan immediately assumes the beast is just chasing its next meal.
At one point, the stranger asks us where we came from. Where were we most recently stationed? There seems to be mischief in his eyes as he says that. In our stress, we say Marnas Pell, to which Sorocan reacts with surprise and grief. Were we there? Were we there when the Blue Wraith murdered his father? Yes, we say, we were. Sorocan then asks accusingly why we didn’t do anything to save him. Why did we not prevent Pomonius’ death? And now comes a moment where our high charisma is essential. Luckily, we have that, so we manage a quick lie by saying how we were chasing some escaped slaves through the city when it happened. This seems to put Sorocan at ease, more or less, even though he’s still grieving.
Eventually, we are led into a vast chamber below the temple, containing numerous cells along the earthly walls. And as we enter, we hear screams, begging, and unnatural growls and roars. We pass the cells, and see, at first, people in an absolutely terrible state, slaves and prisoners of war begging to be released. But then, we pass one cell, and get a good look at the whole extent of the Venatori machinations. We see an abomination, one that desperately claws and bangs on the cell walls, determined to get out. And then we see more, and more. What do the Venatori want with abominations?
Rook, Sorocan, and the stranger eventually join a slightly larger group of Venatori, of whom Sorocan immediately takes command. It seems we are about to find out what’s going on here.
We enter a round chamber, which has a mural of Ghilan’nain on the floor. As a Veil Jumper, we immediately make that connection. Sorocan orders us and the other mages (there are seven of us in total, including Sorocan himself) to form a circle. A few moments later, a group of Venatori guards appears, leading an elven man in their midst, a slave by the looks of it, beaten, battered, and utterly chained. Sorocan then makes a speech on how even non-mages are going to be able to serve the ”rising gods” in a meaningful way. What does he mean by that? Who does he mean by that? Razikale and Lusacan?
The elf is then pushed into the midst of Ghilan’nain’s mural. Sorocan pulls a lever, and the ceiling opens to reveal...imprisoned spirits, attached to the physical world by a strange artefact. Players of DAI will immediately recognise it as one of the elven artefacts Solas had us look for in order to strengthen the Veil. It seems the Venatori have repurposed one of them in order to trap spirits in the physical world. This did actually happen in Tevinter Nights, in a story about Lucanis, no less.
Sorocan then approaches the elf and cuts him with a ritual dagger, drawing his blood. He then immediately begins performing a blood magic ritual. And we see in horror what the Venatori are actually doing in the Ossuary: Sorocan connects the elf’s blood with one of the spirits trapped above, and then forcefully begins pulling it down, down, closer to the elf, who begins to scream in pain. We are, with our own eyes, seeing a spirit being forced into a person’s body.
Now, a choice is given to us, quite a heavy choice:
Do we let the ritual proceed to maintain our charade?
Or do we stop Sorocan, exposing ourselves but saving the elf?
Or, a Veil Jumper-exclusive option: Do we disrupt the ritual by damaging the elven artefact? We know how to do this, for we’ve seen them in Arlathan Forest before.
Rook can be tough, but this is just too horrifying of a thing to witness. We can’t let this happen. No more abominations! As the other Venatori mages reach out to support Sorocan’s magic, Rook aims upwards and fires a spell right into the weakest part of the artefact.
Immediately, the artefact shatters and the spirits are free. Some immediately vanish back into the Fade, while others, like Justice and Valour, move in with murderous intent. The Venatori are immediately attacked, and Rook joins into the fight. Sorocan tries to put up a fight, but he’s no match for the combined power of Rook and the attacking spirits. He’s quickly overwhelmed. Now, in any other situation, we might have spared Sorocan, but a spirit of Justice makes the choice for us and absolutely annihilates the Venatori Magister.
Now on a rampage and no longer caring about disguising ourselves, we rush out of the ritual chamber, accompanied by the remaining spirits, and turn the cell complex into a Venatori meat grinder. We are joined here by Neve, who has been following the procession discreetly. At some point, some of the Venatori open the cells and we’re attacked by abominations, of which we make short work.
As the Venatori lie dead, Rook stands in the middle of the chamber, breathing heavily. Neve inquires about our well-being. We can either be tough, furious, or absolutely at a breaking point. After Marnas Pell straight to this insidious bulshit, Rook has a momentary breakdown, and Neve calms us down, reminding us to be in control of our emotions around spirits.
Eventually, Rook calms down and agrees. At this point, we’re still not the official leader of the whole northern operation; that’s Varric. So we do get this opportunity to be more vulnerable in Act 1 and lean on others. There’s no shame in showing that!
Once everyone has calmed down, we move to free the elf from his shackles, who thanks us and introduces himself as Neriel, a slave from Marnas Pell. Sorocan brought him along, as well as other slaves. Okay, so there are definitely more than what we’ve seen in this one chamber. Oh yes, definitely. Besides, we still have to find Lucanis. Do we have a way to get out of here? Yeah, we do, we say. But we need to somehow distract the Cetus first.
At this point, we are elegantly approached by the stranger. And now we realise that he wasn’t exactly participating in the ritual. He was also not there when we killed all the Venatori. He claps his hands and congratulates us for making this scenario so incredibly interesting.
Okay, we’re done with the games. Who is this guy, and why isn’t he attacking us? He dodges the questions and tells us that he’s been observing the Ossuary for a while, looking for the perfect moment to strike and free the slaves here. Okay, so he’s actually on our side? Despite being shady as fuck? He then gives us a piece of information: in Calivan’s tower, we can find the source of the magical force field. If we destroy it, we destroy the Ossuary. But we’d better save that for last, because those amounts of water will quickly kill us all if we don’t hurry. He nonchalantly asks if we have a way to get out of here? Yeah, we do. But the Cetus is kind of in the way. Ah, yeah, that. The stranger tells us of a gong located not far from here. The Cetus is trained to respond to it.
Right, then we find Lucanis, free the slaves, find the gong, get the Cetus distracted, organise the Dumat to pick up the slaves, then destroy the force field and make good our escape. And what about Calivan, the Warden? Well, it would be great if we didn’t encounter him at all, but if we do, let’s try to deal with him quickly. While we take care of Lucanis and the Cetus, the stranger, Neriel, and the remaining spirits will distract the Venatori and free all remaining slaves. Before they leave, we ask him one more time who he is and why he’s helping us. He smiles and simply replies with “I made a choice.” While he doesn’t directly state who he is, people familiar with Dragon Age up to this point might be hearing a bell ringing somewhere in their heads. I would invite you to take a guess on who this might be. It will be revealed eventually, but not in this chapter.
Lucanis Dellamorte
We return to Sorocan’s corpse and, indeed, he has the key to the deeper cells, including Lucanis’. Well, the time for dress-up has passed; now it’s all guns blazing.
Rook and Neve open the door to the lower cells, dug deep into the earth beneath the temple, and we rush in immediately, while the stranger, Neriel, and the spirits distract some of the Venatori and free the slaves. We suddenly hear Calivan’s voice projected across the Ossuary via an amplifying crystal. What in the Void is going on? All Venatori must immediately gather by the cells.
As we delve deeper into the cell complex, we come across two more ritual chambers guarded by Venatori, containing spirit-trapping elven artefacts. Being the liberators we are, we destroy the artefacts, freeing the spirits. But now comes something rather unsettling: when we destroy the last artefact, the spirits cry out to the Dread Wolf to save them, and take them back home. Immediately after, they vanish back into the Fade.
We pause and consider. Why are the spirits calling out to Fen’Harel? Do they expect him to save them? Is Solas aware of the Ossuary? Is he perhaps watching us right now, at this very moment? That man hasn’t even appeared in the flesh yet, and he’s already making us paranoid every step of the way.
On our way, we are attacked by both Venatori and abominations. Whenever we slay an abomination, there’s a chance that it will cry out to Fen’Harel as well. Somehow, all the spirits seem to be aware of him. What is Solas doing in the Fade? But more importantly...both spirits and demons seem to be drawn to him.
Eventually, we reach the deepest cell of the Ossuary and fight off a couple of Venatori mages. We then use Sorocan’s key to open it, and quickly enter.
Before us, we see a large icy formation, encasing a human shape. That must be Lucanis. We swiftly destroy the ice, and a man plummets out onto the ground before us.
Right, so, before we move on, I would like to comment on Lucanis’ introduction in the actual game. We meet a few Venatori, Lucanis shows up, dressed in full Crow attire, with all his weapons, kills everyone with ease, and immediately shows he’s possessed by Spite. Personally, I think we need a bit more intrigue here. So, let us now look at Lucanis’ introduction in this rewrite.
Instead of standing upright, dressed in full Crow leathers, Lucanis is lying on the ground, unconscious from his imprisonment, dressed in nothing but torn rags. It’s immediately obvious that this man has been tortured and put through hell. We perform a healing spell on him, and he slowly wakes up. His first words “Who are you? Who sent you?” still work in this context.
We give him a brief introduction. We’re Rook, this is Neve, we’re here to rescue him and destroy the Ossuary. Afterwards, we shall bring him to Treviso, and then, if Caterina is willing, we shall hire him.
Lucanis slowly gets up, quickly coming back to his senses. What we say makes sense to him. And if Caterina agrees, he’s our man. Despite being through so much, he still has the capacity to quickly turn on his Crow mentality.
We help him stand and leave the cell, but are quickly ambushed by three Venatori mages. To our surprise and awe, Lucanis quickly dashes forward and, while dressed in rags and with no weapons, utterly dismantles the Venatori, killing them with his bare hands. We just got a demonstration of how great of an assassin he is. And this is him after waking up from unconsciousness, and without any armour or equipment. Imagine what he can do when he’s at full strength. It also shows us that Lucanis doesn’t need Spite in order to be dangerous.
Lucanis quickly searches the dead Venatori and loots two daggers, which, while an embarrassment compared to Crow daggers, will do the trick for now. Before we leave, he needs to complete his contract, namely Calivan. Crows never break contracts. That one incident in Ferelden doesn’t count. Well, looks like we’re not dodging Calivan, after all. But first, we must reach the gong.
The Gong
Reaching the gong doesn’t take us long, fortunately. It even lies directly on the way to the Warden’s tower. While we encounter some Venatori on the way, most of them are busy with the larger force freeing the slaves.
Eventually, we reach the gong, which is located in a semi-flooded chamber outside the force field. It’s guarded by a Venatori mage and a few abominations, engaging us in a short fight.
Once that is done, we immediately hit the gong with full force, hoping it’s not too late. A loud sound echoes across the entire Ossuary.
We then get a cutscene of the Cetus immediately ceasing its pursuit of the Silence. The beast coils its way around the tower and slowly pokes its head out of the water, right into the chamber. Oh damn, we...didn’t really account for that. The Cetus sees us and lets out a deafening roar.
We are then engaged in a mini-boss battle against the Cetus. It will snap and bite, and occasionally shoot torrents of highly pressurised water on us. We’re not equipped for this sort of fight. Rook is going to tell Varric that they need a monster hunter later.
At some point, Lucanis jumps up and pokes the Cetus’ eye with his daggers. The beast roars and screeches, and thankfully retreats back into the water. Squirming and in pain, the Cetus vanishes in the murky depths. A few moments later, the Silence appears and navigates right into the chamber. The hatch opens and Varric, Harding, and Bellara poke their heads out. Varric thanks us for finally getting that beast off their back. They tried to reach the Dumat but it would always block their way.
Rook gives them a quick update on the situation. We need the Dumat here as soon as possible. The Ossuary is going down, and we need to escape with the freed slaves when it does. Varric agrees and then, when seeing Lucanis, offers to take him aboard, given his state, but Lucanis refuses. Calivan first.
The Silence departs and quickly vanishes in the dark waters, while the Cetus is still licking its wounds. Well, only two things remain now: Calivan and the force field.
The Warden’s Tower
Having provided the rest of the party with the opportunity to reach the Dumat, Rook, Neve, and Lucanis head back into the Ossuary, with our main goal now being the Warden’s tower, where Calivan resides. The man’s voice occasionally echoes across the facility, growing increasingly agitated at the chaos happening everywhere.
As we fight through some more Venatori, we ask Lucanis why the Venatori are doing what they do. He didn’t really hear much, but it’s apparently all in service to Razikale and Lusacan, the two remaining Old Gods. Neve wishes to finally know more. She is aware that the Venatori returned to their Old God roots after the fall of Corypheus, but is there anything tangible and specific there? Are the Old Gods whispering to them again, if the tales of old are to be believed? Or are they just delusional? We need to know more.
At this point, we also begin to wonder what Lucanis was doing in the most secure cell. We can see that he’s not an abomination; otherwise, we wouldn’t even be fighting side by side. Lucanis doesn’t say much, only that he was a success.
We reach the Warden’s tower and quickly begin ascending to the top. As we do so, we see a gigantic mural of Ghilan’nain and Andruil, perfectly crafted from thousands of mosaic pieces. They seem to be walking side by side. As a Dalish, we know that Ghilan’nain was Andruil’s chosen, according to legends, so this seems to very much confirm that.
We fight through a few more Venatori, until we reach a large door. There, Lucanis knows, lies Calivan’s study. Normally, an Antivan Crow would at least attempt to be discreet with their approach, unless they’re incredibly confident or outnumber their targets. But Lucanis wants to look Calivan in the eye as he kills him, purely out of spite.
Well, it’s not like Calivan has anywhere to run, so through the door we go.
Calivan
Calivan’s study is at the very top of the Ossuary. From here, he can basically overlook everything. As we enter the room, we are immediately met by the man himself, who seems to be at the end of his nerves.
This whole Ossuary business was Zara’s idea, and all he does is stand in for her. With everything happening at the Ossuary right now, he doesn’t even know what to tell her. And they have been so close to achieving more successes, as Lucanis here proves.
Neve asks Calivan what this is all for. And Calivan confirms that, apparently, the Old Gods have been whispering again. It turns out that the Venatori leadership currently consists of a Triumvirate, and all three are Dreamers. Zara happens to be one of them. Calivan reflects on the organisation a decade ago, when they had a tangible god to worship, and a leader to follow who actually had Tevinter’s best interests at heart; unfortunately, the Magisters eventually found out that she was of slave origin. He is, of course, referencing Calpernia. While she was in charge, the Venatori felt like something greater. It is here that we learn that Calivan is one of the Liberati, a former slave who was taken into apprenticeship by Zara after showing his magical skills. Zara kept that hidden and made him appear as a Laetan, instead. It was his secret hope that Calpernia would remain in control. Perhaps he would feel less like a traitor then. Now, he’s just a puppet for Zara, forced to torture and experiment on slaves. He couldn’t bear the guilt, so he convinced himself mentally that he was enjoying the whole process, effectively dying on the inside.
Well, Lucanis comments, if he feels dead already, then the next step won’t be as hard as it is for some. No matter how tragic Calivan’s backstory might be, Crows don’t break contracts. And Lucanis can’t bring himself to feel pity towards this man right now.
And so begins the boss fight against Calivan. At first, it starts off rather basic, with him throwing all kinds of spells at us, pretty similar to what happened in the actual game. Eventually, he releases the last of the Ossuary’s abominations on us, which we have to fight off, creating a greater challenge. But this is only the first phase, and it doesn’t last very long.
Eventually, Calivan produces a vial of blood, a phylactery, Lucanis’ phylactery to be specific. But how and why? Lucanis is no mage, so why would they need a phylactery here? And how does it even work? Calivan then performs a blood magic spell, and Lucanis starts attacking us, somehow being controlled via blood magic. We can either knock Lucanis out or fight Calivan and eventually destroy the vial. We attempt to go for the latter and dodge Lucanis as best as we can, which is easier said than done. After all, he is an Antivan Crow.
The third phase is where it gets interesting. Weakened and wounded, Calivan succumbs and...transforms into an abomination. It’s revealed that he himself had been forced through the ritual by Zara at some point in the past, making him one of the successful cases. And the demon that possesses him is one of Regret. So, now we’re fighting Calivan in the form of a Regret abomination. While the attacks are powerful, they are also slower and more hesitant, almost like he wishes to finally be released from his enslavement to Zara’s schemes.
In that third phase, something overcomes Lucanis. He shivers and screams, and then starts laughing, as his eyes glow purple. Spite has taken over. And this is how we’re introduced to Spite in this version of the story.
At the end of the fight, Spite, currently in control of Lucanis’ body, lunges upon Calivan and impales him several times, until the abomination finally lies dead at our feet.
Rook and Neve have an understandable WTF reaction to what they have just seen. Spite gives us a crooked smile, before cursing. “No! Too! Short!” Lucanis bends over, and when he stands straight again, he’s back to his normal self. Spite has retreated.
Alright, we’re so having this conversation right now. Is this what success looks like? Is Lucanis an abomination? But why is the demon not fully in control? Why only sporadically? And why doesn’t Lucanis’ whole body transform unnaturally? Being an abomination is usually a one-way ticket if the demon takes control.
Lucanis...absolutely has no idea how any of it works. He just knows that a spirit was forced into him, and it eventually became Spite, directly fuelled by Lucanis’ own thoughts of revenge and how to humiliate the Venatori for what they did to him.
Right...so the Venatori are creating controllable abominations. That is...highly disturbing. But we know that now! And we also know that there are three Venatori leaders. Neve is especially excited about this. If we can get to Zara and the other two, whoever they may be, we may dismantle the organisation for good.
We will discuss that whole topic of Spite later, once we’re safe. Now it’s time to vacate the Ossuary.
As if right on cue, we see the massive shape of the Dumat breaking through the dark waters. It slowly navigates towards the bottom of the sea, close to the force field. We see how the rescued slaves are being led towards the giant ship by the spirits. The giant “hangar” gates open, and Isabela and Varric, along with the other companions, begin ushering everyone in. Lucanis is absolutely awed by what he’s seeing down there.
Right, so the slaves are taken care of. Now to the force field. We know where it’s source is: right below us, in the basement of the Warden’s tower.
Destroying the Ossuary
As Rook, Neve, and Lucanis make their way down into the basement, we get to have a very relevant discussion: how long will it actually take for the force field to vanish once its source is destroyed? Will it be gradual or instant? And if it’s instant, how will we bring this place down without dying ourselves? Well, we’ll have to see what we find down there first.
We make our way into the bowels of the Warden’s tower, where we eventually enter a round chamber, containing two large statues of Ghilan’nain and Andruil. Together, they are holding a lyrium crystal in the shape of a halla. For anyone wondering, no, this isn’t one of Ghilan’nain’s labs. This is something else. There are several veins of lyrium spreading across the room, forming strange elvhen symbols. There is a lot of magic in the air.
Right, so this is how the Venatori were fuelling the force field. There was this whole room of lyrium down here, powering an otherwise simple spell into the stratosphere.
We find that we’re not alone. Before us, we see Neriel, the elven slave we freed from the ghastly ritual earlier. He’s currently in the process of taking the lyrium halla for himself. We call for him to stop, and so he does. He asks us if the slaves are freed and safe. We confirm this. He is pleased to hear that. Now, he shall bring down the Ossuary, and take the halla. We then deduce a sinister truth: Neriel is another agent of Fen’Harel.
Neriel reveals that Solas knew about the Ossuary for a while and sought to free the slaves and spirits trapped within. While that was his primary concern, he also gave the order to retrieve the lyrium halla, for he requires its potency. This gives us another look at the Dread Wolf. He seems to truly be concerned for the well-being of the oppressed. Or is it just something he told Neriel? What if the halla is all he cares about?
Once Neriel removes the halla, the force field will vanish, and the Ossuary shall flood. As a token of personal gratitude, he will allow us to reach the Dumat before he brings the place down. But we need to hurry.
At this point, we can inquire about the Dread Wolf. We can try and convince Neriel to tell us more. To maybe give the halla to us? To turn away from Fen’Harel? Whatever he may have said, he wants to bring down the Veil and destroy the world. Neriel shakes his head. No. Fen’Harel seeks to restore the world. The world of the elves. A world without Tevinter. Without slavery. Without death. But how many will die to achieve that goal, we ask. What is the Dread Wolf prepared to sacrifice for that world to come back?
At this point, we are joined, once again, by the stranger. He saunters next to us, and gives Neriel a very interested look, asking him about the choice he is about to make.
Neriel, however, is absolutely loyal to Solas. He will remove the halla now. We should probably run now. The stranger shrugs, and moves as fast as lightning. A moment later, Neriel finds his chest impaled by a dagger. With absolute disbelief, he collapses and dies.
In utter shock, we ask the stranger why he just did that. He bought us some more time away from the Dread Wolf’s gaze. If Neriel had returned to him, he would have known everything about us. And we can’t have that. Before we can respond, the stranger takes up his dagger and rams it into the halla, causing several cracks to appear. He muses that we have a few minutes to reach the Dumat before the force field disappears, and urges us to go along. But...will he not join us? Will he die here? WHO IS HE?
The man just gives us a wink and promises that he will see us again, under, perhaps, different circumstances.
No time for this, we have to run. And run we do.
We get a cutscene of Rook, Neve, and Lucanis absolutely booking it out of the Warden’s Tower, through the now-empty Ossuary, out onto the sandy dunes, towards the Dumat. As we run across the sand, the force field vanishes, and water begins cascading down on us. Varric quickly ushers us in while Isabela is already closing the doors. And not a moment too early. The last thing we see before the Ossuary is crushed by the waters of the Venefication Sea is the stranger standing amidst the ruins, smiling.
We immediately join Isabela on the bridge as she navigates the submarine away from the crumbling place of dread. But the danger isn’t over yet. The Dumat starts shaking and groaning, and we see the Cetus re-emerge from the darkness, coiling its vast serpentine body around our ship.
Isabela curses. Of course, a fucking Cetus! No matter what she tries, the beast just won’t let go. It even starts biting into the hull.
Isabela then activates her personal amplifying crystal that was built into the ship, takes a deep breath, and calls in rising stress: “Sandal! BIG enchantment!”
In the Room of Runes, Sandal’s eyes immediately glitter. “Enchantment?” he asks. Bodahn urges him to be careful since they haven’t had a chance to properly try it out yet.
Sandal runs towards a newly installed, very large, flaming rune, and presses his hand upon it. For a moment, his eyes glow in a deep blue.
Outside, the Dumat’s maw opens wide, and unleashes the Dragon’s Breath. An absolutely devastating surge of arcane fire, powered by runes, tears into the Cetus, annihilating it. Its grasp around the submarine relaxes, and its massive body sinks into the depths.
Isabela leans back and sighs in relief. She activates the crystal again. “Good job, Sandal.”
Back in the Room of Runes, Sandal gives his father a wide grin. “Enchantment!”
This was, of course, our Dragon’s Breath upgrade in action! By completing side quest, selling stuff, hoarding coin, we managed to buy it. As such, the Cetus is now fried. And Sandal is happy.
Debrief
At some point later, the group reconvenes in the Meeting Chamber. The Ossuary is destroyed, dealing a huge blow to the Venatori. And Solas, as we suspected, was in on it. We still don’t know who that stranger was. But we freed the slaves. And we got Lucanis.
Regarding the slaves, some of them wish to join the crew of the Dumat. If we fight for peace, and against the Venatori, they want to contribute.
Do we employ the slaves?
Do we give them all to the Shadow Dragons?
At this point, Rook has just seen another agent of Fen’Harel, and he was killed to make sure Solas doesn’t know about the Dumat. But...the slaves are already here. They know about this. So...it might even be safer to keep them here. So, in this case, we agree to give a home and a job to everyone who wishes to stay here of their own free will.
So, we freed Lucanis. We can either head to Treviso right now and arrange a meeting with the Antivan Crows, or we can follow up on that intel regarding the Deep Roads. Lucanis, while preferring to go to Treviso and see his people again, is open to either. Caterina agreeing to him joining the crew is just a formality. Besides, he owes us for freeing him. We should consider him our man.
We are...nervous, however, given that whole Spite thing. Varric reminds us of Anders, and how he, while having committed a devastating act, was largely able to exist with Justice/Vengeance in him, and he still seems to be doing so, given that he hasn’t heard anything about him suddenly dying. Isabela is more open and accepting of Lucanis’ situation, stating how open the communication between Rivaini and spirits is. Lucanis’ situation is special, yes, but the concept is not too out of reach. Well, we shall be still watching him, for Lucanis’ own safety.
Lucanis himself is...fascinated by our task to stop the Dread Wolf. He doesn’t believe that the elven gods are actually gods, or exist at all, but a powerful mage masquerading as the Dread Wolf? That he understands. And he’s ready to pursue him.With that, the meeting is adjourned.
The Meditation Chamber
With Lucanis now a part of the team, a new section of the Dumat is now accessible to us: the Meditation Chamber.
It was fun having Lucanis hang out at the Lighthouse’s pantry, but I committed myself to providing each new place with a game-related function, so...yeah. Allow me to elaborate.
The Meditation Chamber is located somewhere in the lower section of the Dumat. It’s a dark chamber, only barely lit, with a transparent floor that allows us to see the endless depths of the sea beneath the submarine. If you have thalassophobia, this may not be an ideal place. But then again, if you have thalassophobia, the entire submarine might not be ideal.
Lucanis finds himself strangely at peace here, despite still being deep below the sea. And the stillness of the room allows him to always remain calm and collected, not giving Spite any easy chance to take control.
So, now Rook can also meditate. And here’s what it does: When Rook meditates, we gain a momentary increase for a stat of our choosing. So we can get a little boost to attack, or defence, or magic resistance, or perhaps even charisma. This effect lasts for one mission only, be it main or side quest, but can be reapplied whenever we return to the Dumat. And so the Dumat has gained another invaluable crew member.
The Other Rooks
And, as always, now comes the time to talk about what the other Rooks may have encountered during this mission!
Shadow Dragons
Rook can make the Venatori dress-up suggestion.
Being a Tevinter mage, Rook can blend into the Venatori far more easily.
Rook can imprison Sorocan and give him over to the Shadow Dragons.
Rook recognises Calivan from the events of his origin story.
Grey Wardens
Rook can conscript Sorocan into the Grey Wardens.
Rook once again gets a moment of Stone Sense in the lyrium chamber.
Rook imagines that he hears a voice carried by the lyrium inside the halla, calling for help.
Antivan Crows
Charter finds a quicker understanding with Teia and Viago due to Rook being an Antivan Crow. A connection is already established.
Rook can complete her contract on Sorocan by assassinating him.
Rook instantly finds common ground with Lucanis by being a de Riva.
Lucanis is willing to give Rook a share in the Calivan contract.
Mourn Watch
Rook can use her necromantic skills to try and calm down the spirits at the Ossuary, urging them to break the elven artefact themselves.
Rook feels something odd about the stranger, traces of something old and spiritual.
Lords of Fortune
Rook can find a secret room in Calivan's study, containing several valuables.
By looking around in the lyrium chamber, Rook can find a precious necklace, with a halla amulet made from a fine jewel.
Being from Rivain, Rook can explain the spirit communication culture to the crew.
And that is it for now! I'm not going to describe the introduction to Treviso in this chapter. I'll reserve it for when I talk about the regional quests of that area. Otherwise, this would have been way too long. Next time, we shall be tackling Davrin's recruitment mission and descend into the Deep Roads. Stay tuned!
Rewriting Veilguard Part 16 - Davrin
Find the Shadow Dragon version of this chapter on AO3
Disclaimer: I don't hate the game, I actually think it's quite great given the development hell Bioware went through in those 10 years. This is more of a hypothetical universe where there was less of that behind the scenes drama. Just a fun writing exercise.
Expanding Veilguard's World State Editor
Like many of us, I was disappointed with the total amount of choices carrying over from past games being only three, one of which dealt with romance, two with decisions made in the Trespasser DLC, and all of them being from Inquisition. This already set the precedent that we shouldn’t really be expecting the game to be as connected to our carefully curated Thedas as we have come to be used to from previous titles—no more uniquely flavoured codex entries, no more small but sweet cameos here and there that make the world itself feel like a larger place that we had helped shape.
Given The Veilguard’s very troubled production history of multiple delays, staff layoffs, and all-around restarts of the entire project, it is honestly a surprise that we even got three choices, so credit where credit is due. They made with what they had. But what if The Veilguard had this vision from the start? What if there wasn’t any of this meddling? What if BioWare simply had more time and control? What if they could truly let us import the World State this game deserved?
Now, for this hypothetical rewritten playthrough, I’m going off of the fact that the Dragon Age Keep will not be used; I actually found it a neat idea to tick my three choices in the character creator, and it would have probably been better had Inquisition done something similar. Why do I think that? Because it means we are not running into any dangers of servers potentially shutting down (yes, thank you for that looming Sword of Damocles for all Inquisition players, BioWare) , leaving us trapped in the canon we happened to have imported last. Converting the Keep into an offline editor was a good idea, but unfortunately not executed nearly enough as, let’s face it, we all expected. So we’re gonna have some fun for Veilguard.
Disclaimer: I’m going to refer to the game’s title as Veilguard from now on, not “the” Veilguard. I really don’t like the change of having a “the” in a series of otherwise one-word, or one-number, titles.
Of course, we have to be realistic about this. It is virtually impossible to implement every single decision from across all three games, and those that can be implanted can’t alter the main plot too much. We've had David Gaider explain this very dilemma in great detail when it came to the development of Inquisition. Certainly, we like to imagine and picture things, but let’s approach this from an actually doable point of view. Nobody has limitless resources, and neither shall we.
Right, so imagine you just booted up the game, listened to the killer main menu theme, pressed the start button, and then, before anything else happens, we get an opening narration. But instead of Varric talking about Solas immediately, thereby raising questions for anyone who hasn't played the predecessor, we’re gonna set the stage for the general state of Northern Thedas: with the South experiencing a few years of relative peace, the North is a wholly different story: Tevinter and the Qunari have engaged in a bloody and brutal all-out war that threatens to reach its culmination, the Grey Wardens are growing more reclusive with the Anderfels experienced increased Darkspawn Raids, strange magic thins the Veil and warps reality in Arlathan Forest, a part of the Antaam is now occupying Antiva and Rivain, pirates raid the eastern seas with increased brutality, strange whispers arise from the depths of the Grand Necropolis, basically, everything is in chaos. But Varric is certain that one person is the key to all this. Cue the distant howling of a wolf and six red eyes in the dark. Cut to black.
Instead of being immediately thrown into Rook's character creator, we can choose between either going to said CC, or we can click on another button called “World State”. Not just something about the Inquisition. And it would take up half of the screen instead of being shoved somewhere in the corner of the final CC page, which many people missed. I could have missed it too, had I not known beforehand that it was going to be there! Seriously, the way it was presented in Veilguard was almost like BioWare was going "Hi, hello, yes...it's there...but it's not much and we're kind of ashamed to even show it to you." You can't convince me they were not fully aware of the disappointment many DA veterans would have by how they presented that button.
Now, in our game, when we click on World State, we get this message: “You can customise the protagonists and several events from the games Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II, and Dragon Age: Inquisition. These choices will have both major and minor effects on this game's plot. If this is your first Dragon Age title, you would be advised to skip this section, as you may otherwise risk getting overwhelmed. A default World State has been created for your convenience.”
Why did I add this disclaimer? Because it would show us, right from the get-go, that we respect both new and old players. If you’re a new player, feel free to skip this part as it won’t matter to you anyway and, quite frankly, you wouldn’t want to spend an eternity in the character creator doing things you might not even be familiar with. But if you’re a returning player or someone who has read up on recaps and watched countless lore videos, come on right in, we’ve got you covered, don’t worry! We know how much time you spent meticulously crafting your World State for Inquisition, so join us and customise to your heart’s content.
If you choose to not skip ahead (honestly the only time I would click “skip” on that shit is if I was a new player), you will be presented with three tarot cards, one shows the griffon, the symbol of the Grey Wardens, one shows Kirkwall’s heraldry, and one shows the Inquisition’s banner. Here’s your previous three games. And now we get to customise them. The little gremlin in me would be quite gleefully rubbing his hands at this prospect.
The way this is going to work is that I'll be presenting all the options we can customise, and then I'll be giving you my own, personal World State, which we shall be using for our rewrite here.
Dragon Age: Origins
We open the first slide and are immediately hit with a crimson screen and an ambient reprise of several of Inon Zur’s themes from DAO. I loved this part in the game, when you click to customise your Inquisitor and are immediately hit with “Calling the Inquisition”. Ugh! PERFECTION! Imagine the same happening with a DAO screen and you're immediately hit with either the main theme or that serene party camp music. Now let’s actually customise things.
The Hero of Ferelden
Before people get too excited: No, I'm unfortunately not going to bring the Hero of Ferelden back for a major role, for the same reasons that prevented them from showing up in DAI. However, and this is a huge however, I do have plans for them nevertheless. And what exactly those plans are...well, you'll see. For now, let us customise what we can.
The Hero: Here, we get to tick the race, gender, class, and background for our Warden. Not an in-the-flesh CC, I'm afraid, but we do get those fancy BioWare tarot cards. And guess what? That would already be more than enough for what we can do. At least we know the game acknowledges their continued existence for now, instead of only being degraded to some vague mention of Ferelden's "national heroes". Our Hero for this World State shall be Meira Cousland, a human rogue.
The Warden’s Fate: Did the Hero of Ferelden perform the ultimate sacrifice? No, she didn't. Meira had Morrigan perform the Dark Ritual.
Romance: Who did your Warden romance, if at all? Meira romanced Alistair.
The Companions
Now that our Warden is set, we jump over to DAO’s companions. Each companion has their own little mini-section. The first few questions will always be “Did you even recruit them? And if so, did they survive? If so, were you on good terms or not?” Meira recruited all companions, was on friendly terms with them, and all survived.
These questions, depending on the answers, will immediately lock or open the more specific ones. Which are, as follows:
Did the Warden have Morrigan perform the Dark Ritual? Yes, she did.
What is Alistair’s ultimate fate? Alistair is the King of Ferelden, and Meira rules at his side.
Was Sten reunited with his sword? Yes, he was.
What happened to Loghain? Loghain was executed at the Landsmeet.
What happened to Marjorlaine? Marjorlaine was killed.
The Battle of Ostagar
What happened to the prisoner at Ostagar? Meira fed him.
The Arl of Redcliffe
What is Connor’s fate? Connor survived.
Is Isolde alive? Yes, she is.
Did you help Bevin and return his sword? Yes.
The Urn of Sacred Ashes
What happened to the Urn? The Urn was not defiled.
Broken Circle
Who did the Warden support? Meira supported the mages.
The Nature of the Beast
How was the situation between the Dalish and the werewolves resolved? Zathrian and the Spirit of the Forest both died, and the curse was broken.
A Paragon of Her Kind
What happened to the Anvil of the Void? The Anvil was destroyed.
Who rules Orzammar? Bhelen.
Did the Warden help Brother Burkel create a Chantry in Orzammar? Yes.
Did the Warden prove the Legion of the Dead was connected to a noble house? Yes.
Did Orta join the Assembly? Yes.
Warden’s Keep
What happened to Sophia and Avernus? Sophia was slain, and Avernus was permitted to continue his research under more ethical conditions.
Denerim
Did the Warden complete Slim Couldry’s crime wave? No.
Who rules Ferelden? Alistair and Meira.
Who killed Urthemiel? Meira.
Awakening
Now, when we get to Awakening, we get the option to recreate the race, gender, and class of our Orlesian Warden-Commander, but only if the Hero of Ferelden died slaying Urthemiel. If the Warden is alive, this option is locked. Furthermore, we get the same questions about Awakening's companions we got in DAO. Meira recruited all companions into the Grey Wardens and was on friendly terms with them.
Then, there are two more specific questions.
What happened to the Architect? Meira spared the Architect.
What happened to Vigil’s Keep and Amaranthine? Both survived the Mother's onslaught.
Witch Hunt
Did the Warden travel through the Eluvian with Morrigan? No, Meira did not.
As you can see, I have not included all the possible choices, but we all remember the question marks over our heads when pretty much nothing of what we ticked in the DA Keep ever came up in DAI. With this more curated set of choices you can be damn well sure that all of them will be taken into account. Not all of them will heavily feature in the game; in fact, many of them are for flavour and codex entries only, but there is still merit in those. We know there is a whole lot of stuff happening in the South thanks to the letters the Inquisitor regales us with. So let’s put some world-state uniqueness to those letters. I do actually have things planned for the South, so stay tuned for that. But in this rewrite, some of these choices will, in fact, feature in a more substantial manner.
And that’s Dragon Age: Origins done! Moving on to the next one!
Dragon Age II
When we enter this screen, the CC assumes Kirkwall’s orangey-yellow tone and we get a reprisal of the key DA2 themes by Inon Zur, the most prominent one being, of course, Hawke’s family theme. This one is not going to be as big as DAO, but there are a few important factors nevertheless, especially concerning possible deaths and survivals.
The Champion of Kirkwall
Unlike the Hero of Ferelden, Hawke will actually be customisable in this one. Because no matter whether or not they were sent to the Fade or Weisshaupt, there is always the potential for them to still be alive. So, here are the choices regarding Hawke:
The Champion: Here you can customise Hawke’s gender, class, and personality. Our Champion shall be a male warrior called Garrett with a humorous personality.
Who did Hawke romance, if at all? Garrett romanced Merrill.
The Party
Pretty much every companion’s card, aside from a few, will have the questions “Did you recruit them?”, “Are they still alive?”, and “Were they friend or rival to Hawke?” at the forefront. Most of it is gonna be flavour, but it’s still my flavour, dammit! Garrett recruited all possible companions, saw to their survival, and was on friendly terms with all of them.
What happened to Bethany or Carver? Carver is dead and Bethany became a Grey Warden.
What happened to Isabela and the Tome of Koslun? Isabela returned to Garrett's side and gave the Tome of Koslun to the Arishok.
What happened to Fenris and Danarius? Fenris killed Danarius.
What happened to Merrill, her eluvian, and Clan Sabrae? Merrill restored the eluvian and Clan Sabrae survived.
What happened to Bartrand? Bartrand survived.
What happened to Anders when the Chantry exploded? Garrett spared Anders' life.
Did Hawke approve of Anders' actions? No, he did not.
Did Aveline marry Donnic? Yes, she did.
The Tale of the Champion
Did Hawke protect the Bone Pit from all its dangers? Yes, he did.
What happened to Feynriel? Feynriel travelled to Tevinter.
Did Hawke let Zevran go? Yes, he did.
Did Nathaniel survive? Yes, he did.
Did Hawke side with the mages or the templars? Garrett sided with the mages.
Fewer choices are carrying over here compared to DAO, but many of the events that occurred in DA2 are only relevant to Kirkwall’s immediate fate, which is already resolved by the time of DAI. Many of these will be flavour again, but some of them, I’m not going to say which, will definitely have a bigger impact.
Right, we’re done with DA2, let’s move on to the last one!
Dragon Age: Inquisition
And here we get to the big one, the game that most directly impacts much of Veilguard's story. We click on the last page and get the green shades and DAI’s ambience themes, a beautiful reprisal of Trevor Morris’ great hits. I would like to once again reiterate how emotional the CC music made me feel here when I was playing the game. Let us now customise our choices.
The Inquisitor
While the Hero of Ferelden will be a background figure in letters and codex entries, and Hawke more of a minor character with a significant role, the Inquisitor will have a much larger presence. Just how large, you’ll find out soon. But for now, let’s customise them:
The Inquisitor: Here you can customise your Inquisitor’s race, gender, class, and specialisation. Their personality as well, for while it wasn’t as apparent as with Hawke, the Inquisitor does still have a distinct range of dialogue choices. You can still be diplomatic, lighthearted, or even rough. Our Inquisitor is a female elven mage called Elera Lavellan, who specialised as a Rift Mage and has a diplomatic personality.
Who did the Inquisitor romance, if at all? Elera romanced, and who else could it be for the purpose of this playthrough, Solas.
The Inner Circle
As with the other companion sections, pretty much all slides here will feature the “Did you actually recruit them?”, “Are they still around?”, and “Are you friends or not?” questions. Alongside a few specific ones that will definitely have more of an impact here. Elera recruited all companions and is on friendly terms with them.
Did Dorian resolve the issue with his father? Yes, he did.
What happened to Blackwall? Thom Rainier went to the Grey Wardens.
Did the Iron Bull remain loyal to the Qun? No, he did not.
Did Cassandra rebuild the Seekers of Truth? Yes, she did.
Did Cassandra discover the book of secrets? Yes, she did.
What happened to Harmond? Harmond is alive and forced to work for the Inquisition.
Which path did Cole choose? Cole became more human.
What happened to Solas’ friend? Solas freed Wisdom.
Did Varric track down the red lyrium source? Yes, he did.
Did the Inquisitor give Vivienne the heart of a snow wyvern? Yes, she did.
How was Cullen’s lyrium dilemma resolved? Cullen is no longer addicted to lyrium.
How did the Inquisitor help Josephine resolve her family’s fortunes? Josephine was able to elevate the Du Paraquettes to nobility.
Was Leliana hardened or softened? Leliana was softened.
The Path of the Inquisitor
Did the Inquisitor embrace or denounce their title of Herald of Andraste? Elera denounced it hard.
Did the Inquisition side with the mages or the templars? The Inquisition sided with the mages.
What manner of alliance was formed with the mages? The Inquisition recruited the mages as allies, not conscripts.
What was the general principle upon which the Inquisition was founded? Order and stability.
Who rules Orlais? Celene rules Orlais, and made peace with Gaspard and Briala.
Who stayed behind in the Fade? Hawke.
What happened to the Grey Wardens after Adamant Fortress? The Inquisition declared an alliance with the southern Wardens.
What happened to Samson or Calpernia? Samson was the Inquisition's nemesis and was given to Cullen.
Who drank from the Well of Sorrows? Elera.
Did the Inquisitor respect the rituals at the Temple of Mythal? Yes, she did.
Who became Divine Victoria? Leliana.
The Inquisition’s Influence
Did the Inquisitor ally with the Hinterland cultists? Yes.
Was the rift in Crestwood closed? Yes.
Was Caer Bronach captured? Yes.
Did the Inquisitor make a deal with Imshael? No.
Was Suledin Keep captured? Yes.
Was Griffon Wing Keep captured? Yes.
Was Sutherland’s company formed? Yes.
What tone did the Inquisitor’s judgments take? Elera was diplomatic and recruited most of her captives into the Inquisition.
Jaws of Hakkon
Did the Inquisitor learn Ameridan’s fate? Yes.
Was Hakkon slain? Yes.
Did the Inquisitor share the truth about Ameridan? Yes.
The Descent
Did the Inquisitor stop the earthquakes from destroying the Deep Roads? Yes.
Trespasser
What is the ultimate fate of the Inquisition? The Inquisition was disbanded.
What is the Inquisitor’s final goal regarding Solas? Elera swore to redeem Solas.
Again, this looks like a lot, and it is, but bear in mind that a lot of these will only have minor impacts on the story in the form of cameos and codex entries. However, there are several major DAI choices that will have significant consequences.
And that’s the World State editor finally done! I believe all of these choices are able to feature in some capacity, be it big or small. But no matter if it’s a big world-changing consequence or simple flavour texts and cameos, it will still be our Thedas, our own unique version of it that we helped shape.
Now that the past is dealt with, let’s look at the present. Next time we’ll talk about Rook, the six factions, and why a DAO-style origin story selection would have not only been beneficial but very doable.
Rewriting Veilguard Part 17 - Regional Quests in Act 1 Treviso
Rewriting Veilguard Part 16 - Davrin
Disclaimer: I don't hate the game, I actually think it's quite great given the development hell Bioware went through in those 10 years. This is more of a hypothetical universe where there was less of that behind the scenes drama. Just a fun writing exercise.
Introducing and Writing Side Quests for Treviso during Act 1
Treviso is a bit of a difficult topic in Veilguard, at least for me. On one hand, it’s an absolutely gorgeous map, one of the best-looking there is in the game. I love how absolutely Italian it looks (down to the city’s name, which is just directly taken from a real-life city in Italy), and the idea of the Antaam occupying it would lend itself to some very interesting conflict between the Qunari and the Antivan Crows. On the other hand, nothing that happens in Treviso feels particularly...well...unique to the location. If you take all the Treviso stuff that isn’t directly tied to Lucanis and place it somewhere else, the plot wouldn’t really change all that much. The Qunari could have occupied any city with the exact same outcomes. Here, I will give credit where credit is due; at least Minrathous and Arlathan Forest have instances and quests that feel like they could only be taking place in those locations.
So, what we shall be aiming to do here is introduce Treviso and its quests in a way that feels specifically tailored to that particular region of Thedas. In addition, we shall also tackle how the Antivan Crows present themselves outside their origin story. How would they react to outsiders who now have to work with them?
So, without further ado, let’s explore Antiva.
Arrival in Treviso
So, let us now return to our game. We have just recruited Davrin in the Deep Roads and are now faced with a bit of a choice. Do we continue with the main story and our efforts to find the Dread Wolf, or do we follow up on our two newest companions’ requests to take them back to their respective home bases?
At this point, I would like to present something: Going to either Treviso or Weisshaupt during Act 1 is completely optional. The two locations will become important in later acts, but right now, the only reason we’re going there is to deliver our companions’ reports to their leaders. As Rook, we can very much say that we’re going to absolutely ignore all of it and focus on the main quest. However, that might have difficult consequences for both the locations and our companions later, first and foremost being our relationship with them. At this point in the story, Treviso and Weisshaupt act more like the Fallow Mire or the Hissing Wastes in DAI: Entirely skippable, but you probably don’t want to skip them because you’ll be missing out on some very interesting content. I actually really liked exploring Inquisition’s optional maps because of the lore discoveries to be made there.
So, to stay in our companions’ good graces and perhaps gain additional favour with the respective factions, we shall be putting our main quest on hold for the time being. It’s time to do some exploration and begin the forging of additional alliances. Besides, we’re completionists to the core, we’re going everywhere, and we’re doing everything.
With that in mind, we set course for Treviso. And this time, it should be incredibly easy to get there as it lies right on the coast of the Rialto Bay.
While the Dumat journeys through the deep waters of the North, Varric approaches Rook and Lucanis in the Meeting Chamber. The Crows know we’re coming and expect us. But there is also troubling news. It is here that we fully learn that Treviso is actually currently being occupied by the Antaam and that we should ready ourselves for difficulties. Lucanis is utterly enraged by this and loudly wonders how such a thing is even possible. How could the Antivan Crows have permitted this?
So yeah, something that struck me as rather odd in Veilguard was how Lucanis...does not react to Treviso being occupied by an army of Qunari. He treats it as something utterly casual, as though he is already familiar with it all. But that shouldn’t be the case. Lucanis was imprisoned for over a year, and the Butcher attacked during that time. So how would Lucanis be familiar? Did Zara tell him just to taunt him? It’s possible, yeah, but I personally think it’s way more interesting if Lucanis doesn’t know. Obviously, he would know if we’d be playing an Antivan Crow because we were literally there to see it. But we’re playing a Veil Jumper. We weren’t there. This is a first for us.
Lucanis immediately begins to think about ways the Butcher could have conquered Treviso, but he just can’t come to a conclusion. We’ll just have to get there and see for ourselves.
At some point, the Dumat arrives in the Rialto Bay, and we get to choose our second party member, as Lucanis is kinda required for this introductory bit. In order to make things go a little smoother, we shall be taking Varric. After all, he already knows some of the Antivan Crows and how to talk to them. The rest of the party stays behind until we know how things actually are.
Boarding the Silence, Isabela takes us towards Treviso. The first thing we see, however, is the small but formidable fleet of dreadnoughts docking outside the city. This is nowhere near on Kathaban’s level, but still more than enough to pose a threat to a single major city. Isabela really doesn’t like what she’s seeing as she’s once again reminded of her time in Kirkwall and how much of it was her direct fault. Varric, too, feels reminded of the Arishok’s occupation but also shrugs and remembers all the things Rook did with the Qunari already. Maybe we’ll be lucky again.
Across the Rooftops
Isabela lets us out by a very secluded place in the Drowned District, far away from any Qunari. Upon seeing the dreadnoughts, Lucanis’ rage grows, and for a moment, it’s almost as though Spite will come out, but he restrains himself just in time. We need to find out what in the Void is going on here, and for that, we’ll be meeting the Crows. Varric scheduled a meeting at the Café Pietra, which is, of course, the same café we visit in both the actual game and our Antivan Crow origin story.
As we are about to head for the streets, we see a huge Antaam patrol passing by. Lucanis tells us that the streets do not seem safe right now. Therefore, we’ll be traversing the Crow way and make for the rooftops. As a Veil Jumper, we are used to travelling across high places, but rooftops are new.
We then watch as Lucanis easily scales window ledges and cracks in the stone. It should look like a scene from Assassin’s Creed. We gape at him in awe. We can’t do that! Lucanis grins and points at a nearby ladder. We’ll just use that. Varric grumbles that he’s really getting too old for this.
Once we’re atop the roof, Lucanis complains that we’re being really slow right now. Some proper athletic exercise would do us wonders. But then, we are treated to an absolutely gorgeous view of Treviso. Now, we see the city in its entirety. And this is where Lucanis delivers a slightly rewritten take on the intro monologue we get in the actual game when we first enter Treviso. On that note...why is Rook the one telling us about Treviso in the game? Sure, it makes sense for an Antivan Crow Rook, but I was playing a Shadow Dragon from Minrathous. I wasn’t familiar with the place. I don’t know, it just seemed a little odd that this was the only place where such an intro happened, whereas we just walked in everywhere else.
Anyway, we follow Lucanis across the rooftops. And while we’re doing that, we occasionally get to see Antaam patrols down in the streets. At one point, we even see how two Qunari pull a man out of his house and drag him down the street. We have a small, minor choice here:
Do we ignore the man’s pleas for help?
Do we interfere?
Lucanis cautions us against drawing too much attention to ourselves before we even have a full picture. But we just can’t leave him to his fate. We have seen firsthand what the Qunari do to some prisoners in Tevinter. This man is either going to be enslaved, killed, or given the qamek treatment. So, we hurry from the rooftop and lunge at the two Qunari.
The battle is quite short and not even difficult. When it’s over, the man thanks us profusely. We learn that he is actually a merchant from Dairsmuid who got stuck here when the Butcher’s fleet arrived and sank his ship. The Qunari have been pursuing him for a while because they found gaatlok on board and want to know who sold it to him. But he kept his client’s name hidden. Well, he thanks us for our help, he certainly owes us a favour, but he has to hide again now. And so, he disappears in the alleyways. You might want to remember this encounter, as it will factor into something later.
Well, back to the rooftops we go! It’s not far now to Café Pietra.
Café Pietra
We make it to Café Pietra, which looks...strangely intact given the Qunari are occupying the city. Perhaps the Antaam is simply not interested in destroying culinary places, who knows?
Lucanis, even though still angered by the presence of Qunari in his city, for the first time feels something akin to comfort. Café Pietra is a place he used to spend a lot of time in, sometimes with his cousin, Illario, and quite often on his own. This place has a strange tranquillity to it.
But we do notice something strange: where are the Crows? They were supposed to meet us right here.
Varric sighs, sits down, and orders himself the strongest brew they have. This is certainly some kind of trap, and he wants to at least be drunk enough for when it springs. Ah, but this place only serves tea and coffee in terms of drinks. Varric sighs and orders the strongest coffee, which Lucanis joins him in. As a Veil Jumper, we have never heard of coffee before. What is that? And why are we so relaxed when this is certainly a trap? Lucanis and Varric both laugh. They have both been in more traps than they can count. And we ourselves may recall a certain Venatori encounter in Minrathous.
So, we sit down and order a coffee. We get a fun little moment where we can roleplay Rook’s reaction to it. In our case, we are shocked and utterly overwhelmed. And why are we suddenly so awake?
At some point, a group of Antaam warriors enters the café. Ah, there is the trap. So, somehow, the Qunari knew about our meeting with the Crows. And where are the Crows themselves? Have we been set up?
As the Qunari block the exit, we are joined by another person, one Lucanis recognises immediately: Rayan Ivenci, Governor of Treviso and the most influential of Merchant Princes in the region.
This is our first look at Ivenci if we haven’t played the Antivan Crow origin. You might remember that I did some changes to their character. The biggest one was that they are openly villainous from the very beginning. Yes, there was a short deception to get the Crows to where they wanted them to be, but after that, they are outed as a traitor in the prologue. Yes, there is probably a way to set up Ivenci’s plot twist in a way that feels satisfying, but the way it was done in the game was so incredibly obvious that they might as well not even have bothered. So, in this rewrite, we get to explore Ivenci’s character as an antagonist. And I honestly think their character benefits from that. Now we can focus on why and how they are aligning themselves with the Butcher, which are far more intriguing questions than having us guess whether or not they are a secret twist villain.
So, Ivenci declares to us that we are breaking Treviso’s new laws. Antivan Crows are no longer tolerated in the city. It’s time to put the assassins back in their place. And the Demon of Vyrantium should have stayed dead. Varric expresses relief that at least one scumbag in Thedas does us the courtesy of openly being one.
What follows is a fight, in which Ivenci sends all the Antaam warriors against us. This fight is way more difficult than the side encounter we had earlier. But, as we dwindle the Qunari numbers down, we are suddenly joined by two figures clad in black leather: Teia and Viago!
Glad to see them, we quickly overcome the rest of the Qunari, and are about to jump Ivenci, when they suddenly display blood magic powers to us. They use their own blood to form sharp projectiles that wreck the majority of the café. In the confusion, Ivenci escapes. You might remember from the Antivan Crow origin that Ivenci is a blood mage, but only Rook and the Butcher got to see those abilities. In this world state, our De Riva is dead, so they never got to tell anyone. As such, Ivenci caught us off guard. Well, we’ll get them next time.
Once we’re recovered, Teia and Viago greet us, and Lucanis is greatly pleased to see them. Turns out that the Crows let it slip to Ivenci that the Demon of Vyrantium was coming home, knowing they wouldn’t be able to resist the bait. Unfortunately, they escaped. And now they will retreat back to their palace, which is guarded by the fiercest of the Butcher’s warriors, among other anti-Crow traps.
We then introduce ourselves to the Crows as Rook, and Teia especially thanks us for saving Lucanis. Viago tells us that we quickly have to get back to the Nest. Once we’re there, the First Talon shall approve Lucanis’ contract to us. Teia looks at Lucanis and states that he looks absolutely terrible. He has to get himself reequipped. Lucanis sighs. Yes, he is aware.
The Nest
What follows next is a cutscene of Teia and Viago leading our trio across the rooftops, towards Treviso’s Chantry. As we have already established in the Antivan Crow origin, our rewrite places the Crows’ base not in the Cantori Diamond, but in the gigantic upper area of the Chantry. Rook, being entirely unfamiliar with hopping across rooftops, is incredibly exhausted by the time we get there. Viago states that Rook and her team are about to be presented with a special privilege, for only Crows usually get to enter the Nest. But these are strange times, so an exception will be made. This particular exchange does not influence the gameplay whatsoever, but it’s crucial to acknowledge in-universe that Rook is an exception to the rule.
Anyway, just like in the Crow origin, we enter the Nest through a secret passage in the walls of Treviso’s Chantry. We might have expected some kind of dank attic area, but oh no. What we see is a quite luxurious villa-like interior that has somehow been ingeniously built into the Chantry.
We are immediately surrounded by various Crows, who are both awed at Lucanis being not only alive but returned to them and also pointing daggers at Rook and Varric. Lucanis immediately calls them off and places us under House Dellamorte’s protection. Nobody is to harm us. If they do, he will personally see to their demise. The Crows back off. But then, we are joined by none other than Illario!
What we get here is a genuinely emotional reunion between the two cousins. Unlike Veilguard, I don’t want to make Illario yet another obvious twist villain. And it doesn’t really line up with his character that we got to see before the game’s release. They squabble; there is definitely a rivalry between them, but I just can’t see Illario purposely aligning with the Venatori in order to imprison and torture Lucanis just so that he might have a shot at leading House Dellamorte. While that is his aspiration, I don’t think it would eclipse his brotherly love for Lucanis (even though they’re cousins, they grew up akin to brothers).
In this rewrite, Illario, as you might recall from the Crow origin, was given the chance to lead House Dellamorte, and, by extension, the Crows, while Caterina was injured. And here we learn that Illario has actually been doing a pretty good job so far. An excellent job, even. This is the role he was born for. He minimised Crow casualties, reinforced the Nest’s protection, and has eyes and ears in the entire city to be up to date on both Ivenci and the Butcher’s plans. He let it slip to Ivenci that Lucanis was coming back, knowing full well his cousin was more than prepared to deal with this danger.
Lucanis, upon learning all this, congratulates Illario. He hopes that Caterina sees his skills now. We do get to see that Illario is somehow reluctant, though. Lucanis being alive and well naturally means that the title of First Talon rightfully belongs to him again, once Caterina passes. But Lucanis reassures him. For now, he is under contract to travel with Rook in search of a most prestigious target. In the meantime, Illario is very welcome to keep up the good work. Illario doesn’t admit it, but that statement does fill him with relief. He enjoys his current position of power, and not having to contest his beloved cousin makes it all the better.
We are led through the Nest towards the First Talon’s private chambers, which are currently occupied by an injured Caterina Dellamorte. But, make no mistake, she might be injured, but she is far from out of it. When we enter the chamber, Caterina rises from her bed, and immediately starts berating Illario for not having informed her of the latest situations again. Then, she looks at Lucanis, and berates him too, for having the audacity to disappear for such a long time. But then, the two embrace. Caterina is harsh on her grandchildren, but there is still love there.
She is pleased to hear that Lucanis fulfilled his contract on Calivan and that the Ossuary is destroyed. She then eyes Rook and Varric. It’s truly rare when someone who makes a contract actually proves themselves competent in their own right. She thanks us for saving Lucanis, and, as promised, approves his contract with the crew of the Dumat. In addition, we are free to use the Nest as our base while we operate in Treviso.
She dismisses us and orders Lucanis to make himself presentable again before he disgraces the family name.
Unlocking Treviso
What follows is a cutscene in which Rook, Varric, Teia, Viago, and Illario sit at a table somewhere in the Nest and discuss everything that’s been going on in Treviso lately. So basically, we get a recap of the events depicted in the Antivan Crow origin story. The Butcher and Ivenci have allied; the entirety of House Vallisti, save Antonio, has been eradicated. Viago bears a most personal grudge against the two, for they have killed the most promising member of his house, referring, of course, to the De Riva who would have been Rook had fate aligned itself differently.
Since then, Illario tells us, Ivenci openly welcomed the Antaam into the city, granting them official permission to occupy and rid it of Crows, blaming the massacre in the streets we saw in the origin squarely on them. The Antivan Crows, safe to say, have been outlawed in Treviso. Since then, no more Crows have come to the city. Fortunately, nobody quite knows how to besiege the Nest. For now, they are safe here. It’s troubling, though, that Ivenci is a blood mage. Blood mage, governor, Merchant Prince, this person would make it far in a place like Tevinter.
Teia knows that Rook and Lucanis have a different mission, one of greater danger than anything here. But if they can spare a moment, the Antivan Crows would welcome outside help for once. And it’s important that she’s the one saying this, as she’s easily the most idealistic of the Crows. We made a point in the Crow origin to establish that Caterina purposely picked the Crows with a larger moral compass to assist in Treviso, while the truly cold and uncaring assassins are operating elsewhere.
As we’re speaking, the door suddenly opens, and in walks Lucanis. Now, he is fully groomed, recovered, and dressed in the leathers of the Antivan Crows. Now, he wields his own daggers, looking incredibly confident and ready to take on the world. This is the first time we see him in his full attire, which I think is much better than finding him fully equipped in the Ossuary.
Lucanis is now at our full service. We are offering him the contract of a lifetime, and he is surely not going to miss it. Illario sighs and chastises Lucanis for being such a show-off wherever he goes. But everyone in the room is happy to welcome him back to the Antivan Crows.
And now, the city of Treviso has been unlocked to us. Now, we can explore and do side quests, both regional and faction-based.
But, this chapter is only going to focus on the regional ones. As I said before, the faction-specific ones are going to be shown at a later stage. For now, let us explore the city.
Since Treviso in Act 1 is an optional area, there isn’t that much to do compared to Minrathous and Arlathan Forest. However, I do have two regional quests prepared for you, which will hopefully prove just as interesting as those that came before.
As always, the names I’m presenting here aren’t meant to be the actual quest names, just some working titles for now.
The Gondolier
Okay, so Treviso is so obviously inspired by Venice that I think there just has to be a quest that focuses on the most iconic thing about Venice: gondolas!
I think we should amp up the Venice inspiration even further and have parts of Treviso only be accessible through rooftops, boats, and a few bridges. And we can also do some environmental storytelling here: Since Qunari don’t have that kind of structure in their cities, we can say that they have started building additional bridges between certain sections of Treviso in order to get around more easily. In fact, Treviso operating so heavily on water might just be the reason the Qunari don’t have as big a presence yet as they might wish. Sure, they have dreadnoughts, but they are way too huge to pass through the canals. Treviso has no army save the Crows, but it has pretty effective defence mechanisms purely based on the way it’s built.
Let’s begin this quest with Rook, Lucanis, and Neve walking through the streets of Treviso at night, preferably in a zone free of Antaam warriors, when we suddenly become aware of a strange commotion by the docks. We approach to see a screaming young woman being grabbed and placed on a gondola by a very tall, cloaked figure. There is a man on the docks, calling for the figure to give the woman back to him. But the figure evidently casts some magic, and the gondola surges away on the dark canal.
The man, whose name is Tommaso, begs us to help him. His daughter, Cinzia, has been forcefully abducted by the gondolier. Tommaso is a wealthy fisherman and promises us a hefty reward if we help him. Lucanis knows Tommaso and Cinzia, having often bought fish from them at the markets. So, we pick up the trail and rush after the gondola.
What follows is another timed event, where we can’t leave the gondola out of sight for too long while racing across rooftops and over bridges. Sometimes, we have to cunningly dodge Antaam patrols or risk entangling ourselves in a combat encounter.
Assuming we successfully pursue the gondola, we chase it to an abandoned and half-ruined mansion close to the Drowned District, a building that experienced its fair share of ruin. No gaatlok or anything, it’s just an old place that has succumbed to time.
We pursue the cloaked figure and Cinzia inside, until we encounter them in a room. The figure is bent over Cinzia, who has fallen unconscious, casting some kind of magic on her. We can then:
Attack the figure immediately to prevent it from doing further harm.
See what the figure actually does before making hasty actions.
This time, we choose to attack immediately, which triggers a mini-boss fight with the cloaked figure. It’s actually rather difficult because it hurls all kinds of primal spells like fire and lightning at us. But in the end, we defeat the stranger, and the cloak falls off.
To our surprise, we find the stranger to be a Qunari. But not just any Qunari. We see that his horns have been sawed off, and there are traces of his mouth having been sewn shut recently.
Neve immediately recognises the Qunari as a Saarebas. But he bellows with a very deep voice, telling us not to call him that. He is simply The Gondolier. We learn that, in the early days of the occupation, he managed to escape his Arvaraad by viciously drowning him in a canal. Presumed dead by the Antaam, he hid in this house for a long while. Neve notes that Saarebas are usually resigned and accepting of their fate, as they know no other way. Could this particular one be Tal-Vashoth, or even simply Vashoth, who was captured by the Qunari? The Gondolier confirms this but won’t expand on his backstory.
We demand that he release Cinzia. At this point, however, Cinzia stands up on her own and brings an entirely new perspective to the table.
See, what actually happened was that Cinzia wished to escape Treviso. What nobody in the party knows is that the Gondolier has been a sort of vigilante in Treviso, a thorn in the Antaam’s side. He is known to help those escape who are pursued by the Qun. And Treviso has a lot of people the Qunari see as wrong and needing to be moulded into something “useful”.
Then why was Cinzia screaming, and what was the Gondolier doing bent over her so sinisterly? Well, turns out that Cinzia was wounded, and the Gondolier just healed her. Wounded? How? By her father, Tommaso. And here we get to see just how meticulous, cold, and methodical some generals of the Qun operate. So basically, Cinzia and Tommaso are both involved in fishing. The Butcher noticed that Tommaso is rather wealthy and has kinda let himself go in terms of arrogance and wealth. As such, he has judged that either he or Cinzia must be turned over to the Qun, so that one of them can fish for the Antaam and the other may lead a more balanced life. Tommaso was taken over by cowardice and put forth Cinzia to be given to the Qunari. Cinzia, however, ran away and called upon the Gondolier as she saw him sailing the canals at night. Tommaso pursued and wounded her so that he might take her with no resistance. It was in exactly this moment that we stumbled into the story.
Well damn, we probably should have asked some questions first. Neve suggests that we just leave and pretend we never caught them. Lucanis immediately wants to orchestrate a contract to be put on Tommaso, possibly influenced by Spite. However, before we get to make any kind of decision, we hear sounds from outside. We look and see that Tommaso has led an entire Antaam patrol to our doorstep, overcome with fear for his own life if the Butcher found him without his daughter.
Okay, this just got more serious. There are quite a few Qunari out there. Lucanis weighs our options. It would be smarter for us to just slip away without attracting the Antaam’s attention. But it would mean potentially sacrificing the Gondolier and Cinzia to the mercy of the Qun. Neve urges us to help. This is a very clear case here.
So, we can:
Leave the Gondolier and Cinzia to be picked up by the Qunari.
Face the Qunari ourselves and allow the Gondolier and Cinzia to get away.
After seeing everything the Qunari did in Tevinter, we just can’t abandon the Gondolier and Cinzia to a most gruesome fate. As such, we decide to face the Antaam group ourselves.
If we hadn’t fought the Gondolier, he would have joined us here, but since we have, he’s now too weak to help us.
Outside, we face Tommaso and the Qunari, who demand we surrender, immediately seeing us for the Bas-Saarebas that we are. We can, at this point, choose to intimidate them a little. We make a high persuasion check and relay to them that we’re the ones who fought Kathaban in Marnas Pell and walked away victoriously. The Arishok’s fleet admiral only lives thanks to our mercy.
Some of the Antaam hesitate, no longer quite sure of whether or not this battle truly will be as one-sided as they presumed. Since Lucanis is in our party, he will not, for any reason, allow the Qunari to survive this encounter and potentially report on us. We are therefore drawn into another fierce battle against the might of the Antaam.
Once it’s over, us having been forced to slaughter every single Qunari, Tommaso kneels before us, trembling. He begs us to spare him. Cinzia runs out and accuses him of practically gifting her to the Antaam. Tommaso explains that she was the much better choice. He knows how to run his business, and she can find a new placement amidst the Qun, a new role. She always complained about not being satisfied in Treviso. Now is her chance.
Lucanis, at this point, gives in to his anger at the man and steps forward to slice his throat. As a mage, we can tell that Spite is growing stronger. We can:
Let him kill Tommaso.
Spare him and give him another fate.
While we are angry at Tommaso ourselves, we don’t want Lucanis to darken his grasp on himself. We hold him back, which does cause some disapproval to come in. Now, we have another choice. What do we actually want to do with Tommaso? We can:
Let him go and live out his life.
Let him go against a favour.
Give him to the Qunari.
Change our mind and actually let Lucanis kill him.
In this instance, we choose to let fate do its thing. Tommaso may go. But we threaten him that should he ever cause problems again, we will come for him. But we also tell him how pathetic this is. As a Veil Jumper, our parents came together because people were fleeing the Antaam. There is nothing to be gained by sacrificing your loved ones to them. And, we will only let him go against a favour. This requires a persuasion check, which we accomplish, and Tommaso accepts. Lucanis is pissed, but Neve approves. There are ways he can be watched, and if the Qunari still want something, they’ll come for him anyway.
Tommaso staggers to his feet and runs away, leaving Cinzia behind with us. We return to the Gondolier, who has now healed himself enough to move again. He thanks us for not abandoning him and Cinzia. But now that the danger has passed, they will have to move. It won’t be long until the Butcher hears of what happened. He’ll be needing another hideout in the future. But, thanks to Rook and her party, he will have a future in which he can continue helping the unfortunate ones. With that, the Gondolier leads Cinzia away, and we return to the streets of Treviso.
The Qamek Thief
Our second side quest takes us, once again, to the streets of Treviso. Rook is accompanied by Lucanis and Bellara. At some point, we come across a house from which we hear loud sounds and screaming.
We run to see what’s happening and notice a young woman being dragged away by a bunch of Qunari. We can either ignore this or rush to help her. We choose to do the latter, and dispose of the Qunari in a quick fight that isn’t all that difficult.
To our surprise, the woman acts disappointed upon being freed. When offered help, she refuses and puts a healing spell on herself. Aha, so she’s a mage. Her name is Sofia, and this is where things get interesting. We learn that Sofia was once part of the Circle of Magi in Antiva City. After the Mage-Templar War and the conflict with Corypheus, she travelled to Cumberland and became part of the reestablished College of Enchanters, which is, of course, led by none other than Fiona. This, of course, very much depends on the World State we have, but in our case, Leliana is Divine Victoria and the mages were the Inquisition’s allies, so College of Enchanters it is.
Sofia explains that she wants to be captured by the Antaam so that they may deliver her to one of the Tamassrans, as they have qamek supply. But why would a mage of the College wish to steal qamek? That is a purpose she won’t reveal to us just yet. We can either help her or keep going our separate ways.
Well, in this case, we are rather intrigued, as is Bellara. So we accept the quest. This promises to be good.
Our first task is to...well...get ourselves captured, or rather Sofia, though we are most welcome to participate. After all, we’re a mage ourselves, and mages immediately get put to the qamek. We can either:
Go directly to one of the Antaam’s outposts in the city and cause some chaos there.
Or we can frighten some civilians at the marketplace.
We choose the former, as we don’t want to risk too much attention than what this is already going to produce.
So, we find ourselves a small Qunari outpost, manned by about five Antaam members. Now, we get to make another choice, and this will have some interesting effects on the immediate story:
We can let Sofia do her thing and follow the Qunari to wherever the Tamassran is, so we can then assist in the qamek theft.
Or we can, and this is a mage-exclusive option, let ourselves be captured alongside Sofia, instructing our party members to follow us in secrecy.
Rook really doesn’t want to do it, but...she’s also curious. What is it about Sofia? Also, it’s not like we can’t handle ourselves against the Qunari if things really take a bad turn. So, we choose the latter. Let’s cause some chaos.
Rook and Sofia step towards the Qunari, and Sofia does the talking. She hams up her Antivan accent to sell her status as a local and demands that the Antaam leave Treviso, or else they shall face our magical fury. The Antaam, of course...attacks.
We put up a fight, but not too much of one. Eventually, we are knocked down (that fucking hurt, thanks Sofia), and brought away. We see that Lucanis and Bellara follow us from a distance.
The Qunari brings us to an abandoned warehouse not far away from the Drowned District. We are placed in chains and pushed inside. There, we are greeted by one of the Tamassrans, a fairly young Qunari who seems to have only recently departed Par Vollen. She speaks to us in a gentle voice and instructs the warriors to place us in the cells. Behind her, we see several people labouring on what appears to be Antaam armour. We also notice that these people are absolutely mindless. They have already been exposed to qamek.
We find ourselves imprisoned...but there is something strange. We seem to be the only two prisoners. Everyone else is already lost.
We now get a chance to talk to Sofia a little bit. So...what exactly is she hoping for? We are so hopelessly outmatched, it’s actually insane. What exactly is her goal here? How are we going to get to the qamek? Sofia tells us to simply be patient.
Eventually, the Tamassran arrives, flanked by two Antaam warriors. She tells us that we are about to be released from the torment that is our fate as Bas-Saarebas. We are going to experience enlightenment and serve as part of the Qun. We shall become part of the greater whole. We perceive something interesting, though. It would appear that the Tamassran’s heart is not wholly into it. She seems to say it with some manner of bitterness or even regret. With some good voice acting, we can certainly get that across.
The Tamassran opens a chest and produces qamek. And, let me just talk about the way qamek looks for a second. You see, in Veilguard, it’s presented as this poisonous substance with green gaseous fumes. However, in earlier depictions, especially the comics, qamek is presented in a much more mysterious way. It looks like a glowing, golden orb of sorts that needs to be held close to the victim in order for it to work. In fact, it’s very much implied that qamek is something of inherently magical origin, something the Qunari are quite ignorant towards. To go from that to green gas is a bit...well, I don’t know, I think it’s a bit of a downgrade. So, for this rewrite, we shall stick with the original depiction of qamek because it’s just so much more interesting.
So, the Tamassran prepares to deal out the qamek. At first, she approaches us. But that seems to go against whatever Sofia had intended, as she starts to immediately act out, and even summons a blast of magical energy that knocks one of the Qunari out. She is immediately restrained. The Tamassran gives her a pitying look, before applying the qamek to her instead. Rook tries to help, but the Antaam restrain her.
What happens next is actually rather interesting. Instead of losing her mind and becoming nothing but a flesh puppet for the Qunari to command, Sofia seems...entirely unaffected. She smiles at the Tamassran, who looks at her in shock, before clasping the qamek orb with both hands. The glow increases, and suddenly Sofia fires a massive arcane blast that kills all the present Qunari.
Sofia stands and helps us up, effortlessly putting the qamek back into the chest. We look at her in shock. This should not have happened. As a Veil Jumper, we heard stories from our adoptive father on what qamek did to the people who were exposed to it. Mages in particular should be immediately lobotomised by it. So what in the Void was that? Sofia tells us that she’ll explain another time. But for now, we should know that qamek has no effect on her. She is immune.
Wow, someone actually immune to qamek who isn’t a Qunari? That’s insane! Not even Qunari are fully unaffected when closely exposed to it. So what is going on here?
We can’t really talk now. Suffice to say, Sofia is a pretty unique case. In any case, we should leave.
Just before we do, the Tamassran suddenly stirs. Sofia readies herself to kill her. We can now choose:
Do we let Sofia kill her?
Do we spare her?
In an act of mercy, we prevent Sofia from killing the young Tamassran, stating that we saw that her heart wasn’t fully in it. Sofia insists that she will betray them to the Qun, and she can’t have any of them knowing that there is someone out there who’s immune to qamek. We insist, and even have to persuade Sofia. In the end, she relents. The Tamassran may live.
We get back into the main area of the warehouse and are immediately surrounded by the rest of the Antaam stationed here. At this moment, the doors fly open and we are joined by Lucanis and Bellara, who have successfully tracked us and are now coming to our aid.
We make short work of the Antaam and escape into the streets of Treviso, where we quickly hide in one of the numerous alleyways.
Well, that was certainly an experience, and we’re not sure if we’re keen on repeating it. Rook asks Sofia if she has what she needs, which she affirms. We can then be a bit curious and ask why she didn’t go to Tevinter, as there is much more qamek to be found in the main host of the Antaam. Sofia chose Treviso because Antiva is her homeland, and because the Butcher’s occupation being so much smaller gives her an advantage, for there are fewer Qunari she has to deal with. For now, we part ways. But what does she even need the qamek for? Well, maybe we’ll see each other again. Next time, Sofia will tell us more.
Once Sofia is gone, we tell Lucanis and Bellara about her immunity to qamek. Lucanis finds that incredibly interesting. If she would share her secret, maybe the Crows can equip themselves. Bellara is more interested in the scientific aspects behind that immunity. Is it something in her blood, perhaps? Or her mind? Or her magic? Well, we will only know if we meet again. For now, we are done here.
The Other Rooks
As always, now it's time to look at what the other Rooks might have done in this part of the game!
Shadow Dragons
Rook can make a gloomy prediction for what will eventually happen to the citizens of Treviso if nobody stops the Butcher. But he can also admit how unusual this particular occupation is.
Rook has heard of the Antivan occupation earlier because Tevinter tracks all Qunari activity.
Rook is much more familiar with the concept of qamek and what it does.
Grey Wardens
Rook can state some Grey Warden lore by talking about how the Fourth Blight took its central stage in Antiva in particular.
Rook can invoke the Right of Conscription on Tommaso.
Antivan Crows
Rook, of course, knows everything about the Butcher's occupation, and so does Lucanis, so they come to Treviso very well-prepared.
The Crows already know that Ivenci is a blood mage and are thus able to deal them a significant wound during the meeting. They still escape, but they are scarred for the remainder of the game.
Rook has a much more heartfelt reunion with Teia and Viago, Viago in particular, even if he denies it.
Everyone at the Nest treats Rook with far less suspicion.
Rook can orchestrate a contract to be placed on Tommaso after the quest.
Mourn Watch
Rook feels a strange sensation coming from the qamek, almost as if there is something spiritual about it.
Lords of Fortune
Rook can blackmail Tomasso for a huge chunk of his recent fishing profits in exchange for his life.
And that's it for this time, guys! Thank you again for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! Next time, we shall be introducing Weisshaupt Fortress, as well as receiving some side quests for that region. Stay tuned!
Rewriting Veilguard Part 18 - Regional Quests at Act 1 Weisshaupt
Find the Shadow Dragon version of this chapter on AO3
Disclaimer: I don't hate the game, I actually think it's quite great given the development hell Bioware went through in those 10 years. This is more of a hypothetical universe where there was less of that behind the scenes drama. Just a fun writing exercise.
Rewriting Davrin's Recruitment Mission
When we first learned about Veilguard’s companion roster, Davrin was one of those I was actually excited for the most. I am a massive fan of DAO, and to see an actual Warden among the companions again filled my heart with joy. And he had a griffon, too! So the events of Last Flight would, in some capacity, be acknowledged. He was also one of the companions we heard of first, all the way back in that tech demo. The Wardens were going to be an important part of the story once again, and I was very much here for it.
What we ended up getting in Veilguard was alright, I suppose. The Wardens are actually one of the factions I am the least disappointed in, even though there were still some questionable decisions made. Mostly, I believe them to be cases of wasted potential.
Let us look at Davrin. His concept is amazing: a former Dalish who joined the Wardens to fight against evil. He is a monster hunter and also one of the first Wardens with a griffon in centuries. There is so much you can do with it. Unfortunately, most of what we do is take Assan out on walks. There was something very interesting going on with the Gloom Howler story, so there is that.
But in this entry, we shall focus on rewriting Davrin’s recruitment mission for our take on Veilguard. And this one is going to be rather different. While the previous companions still allowed us to take the bare story threads their recruitment mission entailed and adapt them for our needs, for Davrin...we’re going to need to do a bit more work.
Briefing on the Dumat
So, we continue with another briefing aboard the Dumat. We have obtained some priceless intelligence from the Ossuary, as well as freed and recruited Lucanis. Now it is time to follow up on the other lead: the Deep Roads. What do the Qunari want down there? What are they searching for?
Well, we are about to have some answers, for Charter’s report has come in. Yeah, so, since we could have gone to the Deep Roads before the Ossuary, we, naturally, also need a Spy Report mission for here, as the concept needs to be introduced no matter what.
Just like with the previous one, Rook slowly starts reading the report, and her voice eventually morphs into Charter’s, and another Spy Report begins.
The Qunari and the Deep Roads
Once more we dive into the distinct visual style of the Spy Report. Charter’s mission begins in the Tevinter city of Vol Dorma, which lies further inland. It’s also close to the border of the Anderfels, only a few days’ journey at most. The city also serves as the ancestral seat of House Laskaris, for those who wish to know more about our dear Imperator.
Charter has managed to track down the Qunari all the way here, but is now in need of assistance. As such, she has reached out to some of her contacts among the Grey Wardens. And in a small tavern far away from the city centre, we meet them. They are none other than Antoine and Evka. If we haven’t played the Grey Warden origin story, this is the first time we see them in the game.
Antoine and Evka have been in contact with the Inquisition ever since encountering Varric and Harding in The Missing. Yeah...I do question a little how so many characters just happened to run into Varric and Harding in those comics, but it is far less egregious of a story decision than some of the things Veilguard did, so we shall just take it for what it is. Plus, it makes establishing connections here much easier.
So, anyway, Charter knows that there must be some kind of hugely important entrance to the Deep Roads somewhere in the region, to which Evka and Antoine agree. While the two were mostly stationed in the Anderfels and only had one other venture into Tevinter besides this one, there are records they got to study. Evka, being from Orzammar, has been particularly interested in learning all she could about how the Deep Roads were originally set up, before being nearly utterly destroyed during the First Blight.
Together, the three discuss how the darkspawn have been known to leave the Deep Roads in great numbers during earlier Blights, and always in this region. Perhaps the Qunari are looking for that specific entrance.
All this time, Charter throws inconspicuous glances around the tavern, as though she’s observing something or someone.
Antoine begins poring over some maps and eventually deduces that the most likely entrance would be that of the Varanin Thaig, once one of the Great Thaigs, before being lost to the Darkspawn Horde. It lies deep beneath Tevinter, somewhere in this region. And Antoine even knows how to get there!
Charter nods before asking, “Is that right so far?” into the room. The trio is then ambushed by a group of Ben-Hassrath spies, which are quickly dealt with. The one left alive last, a young human, seems to be a rather new convert, for his heart is not fully in it. He begs for mercy and offers to lead them to the Deep Roads, and past the Qunari outposts.
Well then...
Will Charter deal with the spy right now?
Or will she allow him to take them to the Deep Roads?
Charter is pragmatic, so she spares the Ben-Hassrath spy for now, and orders him to take the trio to the Varanin Thaig.
What follows next is a beautiful transition of Charter, Antoine, and Evka following the Ben-Hassrath spy through the streets of Vol Dorma, and then through the wilderness of Tevinter. In the meantime, the man reveals that the Qunari have indeed launched an expedition into the Deep Roads, and it’s being led by Rasaan, the highest of the Tamassrans, chosen successor to the Ariqun, and the personal advisor to the Arishok. Charter asks whether Rasaan is still doing this unofficially, to which the spy knows no answer.
Eventually, they reach a great crack in the earth, a gorge almost. This is the entrance to the Deep Roads, to the Varanin Thaig. And they immediately see a Qunari outpost.
Now we have another small choice to make:
Do we sneak inside completely unnoticed?
Or do we play a Qunari convert, and leave Antoine and Evka behind?
Well, Antoine and Evka are Grey Wardens, and they very much look the part. There is no way they can play convincing converts. We tell them to stay put, and order our new spy friend to get us past the outpost.
To his credit, the spy keeps his word to us. Since he is an actual Qunari convert and Charter is an excellent actress, they get past the Antaam guards without any issues whatsoever.
In the main camp, which is located just beyond the entrance to the Varanin Thaig, Charter observes Rasaan conversing with another high-ranking Ben-Hassrath, one known as Ashasala. Ashasala is to lead the first scouting expedition beneath the Thaig. Beneath Varanin Thaig, they are finally going to find answers. But she also cautions against the darkspawn.
Aha, so they’re looking for something beneath Varanin Thaig! Very good. That’s all the information Charter can gather for now.
Together with her Ben-Hassrath spy, she returns to Antoine and Evka and relays her findings. The Wardens agree that they must quickly report this to Weisshaupt. Charter says that she will bring this matter to the crew of the Dumat, and that this could be a valuable partnership, should they and the Wardens meet in the Deep Roads.
Antoine and Evka bid Charter farewell and take the Ben-Hassrath spy along with them, for he had requested to join the Wardens as that was his true dream as a child. So...they’re going to invoke the Right of Conscription on him.
Charter, meanwhile, heads off into the night, and the report concludes.
Arrival in the Varanin Thaig
The voice shifts back to Rook’s, and we find ourselves back on the Dumat with the normal game graphics. After having read Charter’s report, we don’t very much look forward to encountering more Qunari. Rook asks if anyone here has any experience with this Rasaan, which Isabela affirms. She had a rather unpleasant experience many years ago. Rasaan is obsessed with finding out the true names of things, for she believes it will give her power over them. Varric remembers that encounter, as well as the account of Brother Genitivi, Phillam, a Bard!, and (Formerly) Sister Laudine, who had a run-in with her in a strange elvhen library that “fell” into the Deep Roads.
So, Rasaan is a pretty serious deal among the Qunari we have to face. Well, we faced Kathaban already and that went surprisingly well. Isabela cautions us that we shouldn’t expect the same kind of treatment from Rasaan. She’s as shrewd as the Qun allows one to possibly be.
So then, the Varanin Thaig is our next destination. And we might even get help from the Grey Wardens. Should we then expect darkspawn? Probably, it’s the Deep Roads after all. The two biggest questions we’re facing right now are: What exactly is it about the Varanin Thaig that made it so attractive for darkspawn during past Blights? And what about it has roused the personal interest of the Qunari, even Rasaan herself?
Well, that’s enough questions for now. We won’t get any answers by sitting around here. Isabela sets course for the uttermost south of the Nocen Sea, and we get another cutscene of the Dumat moving through the waters.
Once the Dumat arrives on the shores of Tevinter, Isabela quickly searches for a river that could take the Silence further inland. But she’s not sure if it could take us all the way into the Deep Roads. We might have to walk some distance.
Thankfully, the Silence is able to take us quite a good chunk into Tevinter’s mainland, even past Vol Dorma. But at some point, we have to park our little submarine, and Isabela promises to pick us up when we’re done.
The last part of that cinematic sees Rook and the whole party so far traverse through Tevinter’s wilderness, until, at night, we reach the giant crack that Charter has told us about. This is the entrance to the Varanin Thaig, and the Deep Roads. As a Veil Jumper, we have never been into the Deep Roads, so this is a rather new experience for us.
Ahead of us, we see the Qunari outpost on the surface. So, what do we do? We can’t really replicate Charter’s trick, and we have no Qunari among us to pull of a potentially successful masquerade. Yes, one does not need to be Kossith to pass off as Qunari, but Charter had an actual convert the Qunari would have recognised. We have no such advantage. No, this time, we need to do things a little differently.
It is here we get to pick our party member (just one, since Davrin will be joining us later). While the rest of our crew distracts the Qunari with acts of sabotage, the two of us shall sneak ahead and learn about Rasaan’s expedition. Well, this is going to require a lot of stealthing and scouting, so we’re choosing Harding to accompany us. While it would be nice to see Lucanis in action already, he’s still not in top shape, so we’ll keep him with the others for now. Both Neve and Lucanis have experience in fighting the Qunari, as does Varric. Bellara will support them with whatever tinkering magic she can bring up. She does have experience with caves, at least!
Rook and Harding stay in the back, while the rest of the gang gets to work. Varric saunters up to the outpost and introduces the Qunari to Bianca by permanently damaging their outpost’s doors. As the Qunari emerge to fight, Neve freezes them while Lucanis attacks from the shadows with his daggers. Bellara, meanwhile, shoots magical bolts further into the outpost.
With the Qunari sufficiently distracted, Rook and Harding quickly move past the fighting and descend into the earth, towards the Varanin Thaig.
The Qunari Encampment
Rook and Harding arrive in the first layer of the Varanin Thaig, which is the Qunari encampment Charter spoke of in her report. Harding notes that it isn’t nearly as full and occupied as the report made it out to be. This can only mean one thing: Rasaan’s expedition has already departed further down. But what about this Ashasala? She was to lead the first venture into the Deep Roads. Did something happen that made Rasaan follow her? Perhaps we could find some reports in the camp. All we need to do is sneak around. Harding would very much prefer to stay out of trouble and let the others catch all the attention. Of course, if we are caught by Qunari, we can fight our way out of it as we desire. As a Veil Jumper who still isn’t fully used to open combat, we agree with her, and thus, our sneaking around begins.
It is entirely possible to pass this whole segment without any combat whatsoever. Since we picked Harding as our companion here, she’s naturally good at stealth, so all we have to do is follow her lead by picking the best hiding and sneaking spots. At some point, the rest of the party descends from the upper outpost and focuses the Qunari attention on themselves, making it easier for us to obtain the information we need. Of course, we can choose to help the other party members by diverting some of the Antaam to us, but we choose to stick to the plan. The others are seasoned fighters; they know what they’re doing.
As we sneak around the Qunari encampment, there are a few things we can find:
A report from Ashasala to Rasaan, requesting immediate assistance in the Deep Roads, as they have been ambushed by darkspawn.
An exchange of letters between Rasaan and the Arishok, wherein the Arishok warns her not to be tempted to stray from the path again. The Dread Wolf is all our enemy, and the Qunari can only fight him as one body. This is an indication of the books and comics, where it was mentioned that Rasaan did some unsanctioned things with her part of the Antaam.
A journal entry by Rasaan, in which she reflects on the failure of Dragon’s Breath, and how Solas was behind it. We get a bit of insight into how that operation truly tested the morale of the Qunari, especially the Antaam, but the Arishok and Rasaan were still able to put minds at ease, even though Rasaan committed unsanctioned attacks on Tevinter, which eventually forced the Arishok’s hand to return to full-scale warfare.
A short set of notes written by Ashasala, through which we learn that the Varanin Thaig truly is ancient. It seems to have been one of the first thaigs to have been built, shortly after Kal-Sharok.
A final note from Rasaan on how she is about to set off after Ashasala. Whatever happened to her, they need to find the sealed passage deep beneath the thaig.
After obtaining all that very valuable intelligence, we head back to the rest of the crew for a short exchange. They have, by now, managed to incapacitate most of the Qunari who were left behind, and the rest are currently forming a last wave of attack. Rook tells Varric that she and Harding will press on after Rasaan, and that something seems to have happened to Ashasala. Varric cautions us against the darkspawn. It would be really good to have Grey Wardens at our side now. It’s unfortunate that they didn’t tell Charter when and where we would meet up. Maybe they’re already further down in the Deep Roads, kicking ass. Who knows? Varric says that they’ll be joining us soon, once they’re done with the rest of the Qunari. Rook and Harding then wish them good luck and storm off into the darkness.
Pursuing Rasaan
With Varric and the rest of the team holding off the Qunari, Rook and Harding quickly make their way further into the Varanin Thaig. Harding comments on how she remembers being in the Deep Roads before. The most recent event was when she was hunting Solas with Varric. But by far her most memorable experience was in Ferelden, when she provided support to the Inquisitor as she descended into the heart of a Titan. Rook heard a few vague stories about the Titan on the Dumat and wonders what that was like. While Harding never saw what happened there with her own eyes, she saw enough from the outside and heard enough from the Inquisitor. It must have truly been breathtaking and terrifying at the same time.
As we descend further into the Varanin Thaig, there are a few things we can come across:
We get attacked by a bunch of deepstalkers, marking their return from DAI.
We find a large statue of a mighty dwarven lord. We presume it to be the first Varanin, after whom the thaig was named. Harding makes a note to research this house when we get back to the Dumat.
We find a few dead Qunari in a nearly collapsed passageway, presumably a few members of Ashasala’s party.
All in all, this is a relatively short section, and only serves as a transition between two bigger phases of the mission.
Rasaan
Eventually, Rook and Harding make their way onto a big stone bridge over a dark abyss. As we cross it, our way is blocked by several Qunari. Their leader steps forward, and she is unlike any Qunari we have ever seen: she is tall, obviously, but her clothing is both a combination of priest-like robes and leather armour. Beneath it, parts of her body are painted in dark red vitaar. Her eyes are of a deep orange, and her long horns have been painted ruby-red. This is Rasaan. I have taken inspiration from her promotional design from Heroes of Dragon Age because I just think she looks sick in it.
Rasaan orders us to stop and go no further. She introduces herself, removing any confusion in regards to her identity. She then demands to know who we are. We introduce ourselves as Rook, to which Rasaan immediately cuts us off. This is not our true name. We can then either be cordial and reveal our true name of Aldwir, or we can remain stubborn and insist that Rook is our current name. We choose the latter, as Rasaan has no business knowing our real name.
Displeased, Rasaan utters something in Qunlat to her followers, then slowly steps further onto the bridge and wants to know what we seek here. Upon seeing Harding, she quickly deduces that we are from the remnants of the Inquisition. As such, we must be seeking the Dread Wolf, is that not so? After all, such was how matters ended at the Exalted Council. She, too, has been looking for the Dread Wolf’s true name, and she nearly found it, in a precious library beneath the Silent Plains. However, what she found instead led her here. So, how did we come by this information? Have we been to the library ourselves or have we simply followed her? Well, it matters not. She can’t have the Inquisition get involved in the affairs of the Qun again.
We attempt some diplomacy and offer to work together with Rasaan. We don’t have to be enemies. As she guessed correctly, our foe is the Dread Wolf. We would all be better off if we united against him. Rasaan remarks on how the Qun offered an alliance to the Inquisition before, and received nothing but betrayal in return. She will not aid us in our death throes, for that is how she perceives the Inquisition right now. Besides, we are Saarebas. There is no trusting us.
Rasaan brandishes two golden scimitar-like blades and moves in for the attack. This triggers a mini-boss sequence in which Rook and Harding go up against the Tamassran leader. Rasaan moves with both grace and efficient brutality, causing us to truly weigh each of our moves. No matter how the battle ends, eventually, a cutscene plays. Rook, Harding, and Rasaan fight in the middle of the bridge, while the rest of our crew finally joins us. Rasaan then barks an order to her Antaam warriors, and one of the Qunari throws a gaatlok grenade onto the bridge. Before we realise what’s happening, the grenade explodes, and the bridge crumbles. Rasaan brandishes a new Qunari gadget: a grappling hook. With that, she quickly pulls herself back to her people and watches as Rook and Harding plummet into the abyss. Varric curses as he and the rest of the party watch us fall. Then, all goes black.
A Horrifying Awakening
Eventually, Rook opens her eyes. We’re lying somewhere dark. The fall was deep, but we’re surprisingly still alive. As we slowly sit up and grunt in pain, we realise that we’ve landed on something...soft.
We rise and notice that the ground beneath us is black and fleshy. With slowly rising panic, we call out to Harding, and hear grunting in the distance. Quickly, we hurry over and find her lying on equally black and fleshy ground. After helping her up, we take a look around...and see glowing eyes in the dark, which quickly multiply. Harding curses. We seem to have landed in some kind of darkspawn nest.
And then they emerge, hurlocks and genlocks, much in the design as we remember them from DAI. Since we haven’t played the Warden origin here, this is our official introduction to the darkspawn in this game.
The creatures surround us, roaring and seething. And Rook and Harding get ready to fight. The fight against the darkspawn is tough, firstly because our health has been massively reduced after the fall, and we sustained several injuries. Secondly, there are just so many of them. The time for stealth is over; this is pure fighting for survival.
We fight, and fight, and fight, but there just doesn’t seem to be an end to them. We truly have landed in a nest. But then, we see something land in the horde ahead of us, followed by a great explosion that kills a bunch of darkspawn at once. A moment later, we are joined by a figure wearing the armour of the Grey Wardens.
Davrin
Before our eyes, surrounded by dead darkspawn, stands none other than Davrin. He assumes that we are the people he was supposed to meet for a shared mission? We agree, and he nods. Then let’s finish this horde and talk. And, just like that, Davrin joins the party.
Now the fight is much more even, and Davrin strikes the darkspawn with the unrelenting force that we may expect from the tank he is. After a while, we hear shrieking in the distance. A moment later, a group of shrieks joins the fight, and we see that Davrin visibly enjoys fighting darkspawn, which only bolsters our own spirits.
Finally, after what at first seemed like an endless wave, the darkspawn lie dead before our feet, and we take a well-earned breather.
We introduce ourselves as Rook and Harding, while Davrin finally gives his name, calling himself a Warden of Weisshaupt. As a Dalish elf, we take a closer look at him, and recognise his vallaslin. They are Ghilan’nain’s. So yeah, we are never actually told what Davrin’s vallaslin are. We know that Bellara’s are Dirthamen’s, which fits her rather well, but Davrin was never specified. The general consensus seems to be that they are Andruil’s, since he’s a monster hunter, and that’s a great fit! However, I would like to propose Ghilan’nain’s vallaslin for this rewrite. I have two big reasons for this. Firstly, Davrin was stated to have tended to the halla with Eldrin when he was young, singing songs as he did so. He would have received his vallaslin at that time, not when he became a Warden. As such, I find Ghilan’nain’s vallaslin rather fitting, especially since after getting them, he has been following a path more closely linked to Andruil’s. Secondly, it makes for such narrative juice to have a former Dalish with Ghilan’nain’s vallaslin be forced to go up against the Mother of the Halla later. But we’ll get there when we get there.
Davrin confirms our astute observation and asks us where we’re from. When we tell him we’re from Arlathan Forest, he gets excited and wonders if we know his uncle, Eldrin, which we do! He’s doing very well at D’Meta’s Crossing. Are we then perhaps from Clan Morlyn, Davrin asks. Yes, we are. Davrin smiles. While he does not remember us from his childhood, it’s good to know that his former home is doing well.
Let us now talk business. We are pursuing a group of Qunari further into the Varanin Thaig, and Charter, Antoine, and Evka seemed to believe Warden back-up was needed. Davrin affirms this. There have been strange reports of increasing darkspawn activity in this thaig, and he was sent to investigate and to meet up with the Inquisition, which he assumes us to be. He didn’t think we’d be around anymore. Well, we are and aren’t. It’s a shadow organisation at the moment, and we are searching for a great foe which threatens the entirety of the world. Davrin will gladly hear of this foe once we are done here. He can sense more darkspawn in the caves. Before we go, Rook is slightly confused. Davrin is the only back-up we’re going to get? Davrin smiles and states that he’s not alone. His partner is just investigating a different area right now. But he’ll come when he’s needed.
We then proceed to leave the now-vacant darkspawn nest, entering some good old-fashioned ruined dwarven halls of stone once more. Davrin states that it’s quite troubling that the darkspawn are amassing here, of all places. The First Warden emphasised how crucial it is that there are no darkspawn here. Usually, the Varanin Thaig would be guarded by a permanent Warden outpost, but the numbers are thinning and all Wardens are currently needed at Weisshaupt Fortress. That’s how easy the Qunari were able to get in here. There was simply nothing holding them back. And whatever they want here, it can’t be good. Harding states that the Wardens were called back to Weisshaupt a decade ago. She remembers how Stroud went there to report on Corypheus’ doings in the South. Yes, Davrin sighs, he remembers that. Unfortunately, the situation has only changed for the worse.
As we enter another hall, Davrin stops and tells us to gear up. Darkspawn are approaching. We hear footsteps that make the earth shake, and a moment later, not one, but several ogres break through the walls. Davrin calls out in alarmed surprise. Several ogres at once? What is going on here?
We tell him that now would be a very good time for his partner to join us. Davrin agrees, then picks up a whistle and strongly blows into it. A strange sound echoes through the thaig, and the ogres keep approaching. “Come on,” Davrin mutters. “Come on, you lazy beast.”
The ogres are almost upon us, ready to strike. And then, we hear a loud screech somewhere above us, and a large creature descends upon the ogres, instantly knocking down one of them. Rook and Harding stare at it with open eyes. Is that...a griffon?!
Assan
Davrin quickly introduces us to his partner. His name is Assan. Then the ogres attack, and we ready ourselves.
The fight is quite tough, but whenever hope seems lost, Assan swoops in and deals huge amounts of damage, clawing the ogres where he can. But he doesn’t bite them, as that would mean Blight.
When the ogres finally lie dead before us, Davrin calls Assan to his side, and the griffon reluctantly stops playing with one of the ogres’ corpses. Davrin compliments him on the fight but states that his form still needs discipline and precision.
Meanwhile, Rook and Harding just look at Assan in utter bewilderment and amazement. Because, yeah, we are looking at a creature that is believed to have been extinct for a very long time. And now we have just fought with a griffon, like in tales of old!
As both Rook and Harding stutter to express their emotions, Davrin states that, yes, Assan is a real griffon. One of several. But that is a secret of the Wardens. A clutch of eggs was discovered years ago, and eventually, all of them hatched. Assan here is the youngest and smallest of the flock. Bear in mind, this version of Assan is bigger and older than the one we see in Veilguard. He’s as big as a moderately sized horse, definitely large enough to ride.
Now, why did I make Assan older and bigger? Well, he’s from the clutch of eggs Valya and her companions discovered during the events of Last Flight. And that was ten years ago. Even if Assan was the last one to hatch, there is no way he’d still be such a baby by the time of Veilguard. So, instead, we’re getting a more teenage version of Assan. He’s still cute and adorable, but aged accurately.
Assan slowly approaches us and begins circling and sniffing Rook and Harding. Harding lets out a few nervous laughs. Davrin tells us to remain calm. Assan is simply taking in our scents. Eventually, Assan gives Harding a head bump, which results in a squeal from her side. He then does the same with Rook, who reacts in much the same way. Davrin sighs. Yeah, that’s how it usually goes when he meets new people. He asks us to keep the secret to ourselves, which we agree to do.
Davrin tells Assan to fly back up and stay out of trouble. And to come faster when he calls him. Assan lets out a shriek and flies back up into the dark. Harding turns back to Rook and asks if we really just saw a griffon.
Through the Varanin Thaig
What follows next is a sequence of Rook, Harding, and Davrin exploring the depths of the Varanin Thaig. Our goal is to find Rasaan and whatever it is she’s looking for.
As we traverse through the darkness, Davrin notes how strange it is to see so many ogres in one place. Usually, that happens only during a Blight, and currently, there is no Blight ravaging the world, neither above nor below.
Assan becomes a summonable skill, quite similar to the actual game, but more of a lengthier action. Whenever we fight something and feel like we require aid, Davrin can blow his whistle and summon the griffon for a certain period of time to fight by our side. Assan does a lot of damage, but when the time limit is up or his health bar is drained, he retreats, and we need to wait for the skill to recharge before being able to use him again.
While traversing through the Varanin Thaig, we experience the following encounters:
We are constantly attacked by swarms of deepstalkers and various smaller darkspawn hordes. This is a much more action-oriented level. Darkspawn don’t require as much subtlety and careful treading as more conscious enemies do.
We find an abandoned Qunari campsite with several dead Antaam warriors. They have evidently been gored by darkspawn. As we explore it, we can deduce that this was Ashasala’s camp. But Ashasala herself is nowhere not be found. No body, no remains, nothing. Has she escaped, perhaps? It is a possibility, Davrin says, but he is beginning to have a much darker suspicion.
At some point, we hear sounds from ahead and, across a vast chasm, spot the rest of our party fighting darkspawn. When Varric sees us, he’s relieved that we’re alive. We quickly introduce Davrin as our Warden back-up. Assan is currently nowhere to be seen. Varric informs us how they’ve been tracking Rasaan, but then a huge darkspawn horde tore right into their midst, and all trails were lost. Now everyone just needs to press on. We’ll see that we’ll meet somewhere further down.
There is a completely optional hidden path amidst the rocks that we can just ignore if we want to. But if we decide to follow it, we enter a round chamber filled with shallow, cold water. It is there that we are attacked by a large rock wraith, marking their return from DA2. It is a tough mini-boss battle, which fits right into Davrin’s monster hunter job. Several times, the rock wraith urges us to leave this place, and in all fairness, we can always run away. But if we stay until the end, the rock wraith eventually shatters and opens up another pathway for us to follow. Passing through, we discover a mural, an ancient mural. While it is certainly dwarven, as a Veil Jumper, we recognise elvhen influence as well. It depicts a mighty dwarf lord, very similar to the statues we saw earlier, presumably the Varanin ancestor, along with several other dwarves, chaining and binding a great dragon in a deep, dark pit. Floating high above them, shrouded in golden light, we see a figure that very much reminds us of Ghilan’nain, especially when we study the headwear. Another connection to the Evanuris. But what does it show us?
After encountering all these interesting details, we are suddenly attacked by two more ogres. Once they are dealt with, Davrin states that he senses something powerful and blighted up ahead. We should tread extremely carefully from now on. He’s beginning to guess exactly what it is we’re about to face, and if you have been paying attention to the clues laid out in the Varanin Thaig, so will you. If you played DAO, what happens next will very much tingle your memories in the most terrifying way possible.
We enter quite a fleshy corridor, absolutely disgusting. Here and there, we see dead Qunari, who have been absolutely gored. Suddenly, we hear a howl from up ahead, a deep, painful moan. It must have belonged to a woman once, but now it’s just distorted and unnatural. And the closer we get, the louder it becomes.
At one point, we pass a side corridor, from which we hear scratching, grunting, and desperate fighting. We enter another fleshy room and see Rasaan, right as she’s being dragged away into the darkness by another two ogres. Davrin knows exactly what they intend to do to her, and so do we if we remember the old lore. The darkspawn most probably intends to turn Rasaan into a broodmother.
Now we get a choice:
Do we save Rasaan and try to make her an ally?
Or do we leave her to her fate and remove a powerful enemy from the board?
So, no matter how much of an enemy someone is, nobody deserves such a monstrous fate. We probably wouldn’t even allow Zara Renata to be taken like this. This is just horrible. So, after giving Davrin and Harding a sign, we move in for the attack.
What follows is a tough but doable ogre fight, which ends with the darkspawn dead and Rasaan lying on the ground, heavily breathing and very visibly shaken. Even the legendary resolve of the Qunari couldn’t withstand this horror.
Rather awkwardly, we help Rasaan to her feet, and she immediately stumbles against a nearby fleshy wall, from which she immediately recoils. Trying to regain her composure, she asks us why we saved her. Davrin proceeds to explain exactly what the darkspawn would have done to her had they not saved her in time. They would have fed her blighted flesh over the course of many days, and eventually, her body would have transformed into a broodmother. Since Rasaan is a Qunari, she would have become a broodmother for ogres, which is the worst kind of all. And, given the number of ogres we met and the pained howls we hear in the distance, we deduce that this fate already befell Ashasala.
For the first time, we see genuine horror and regret come over Rasaan’s face, and she immediately wishes to slay the broodmother ahead. Hesitantly, we allow her to join us for this.
When Rasaan notices Assan, she finds herself momentarily fascinated and wonders just how many more secrets the Wardens have kept from the world. Davrin tells her that it’s absolutely none of her business, and that we should focus on the broodmother.
With Rasaan temporarily joining us, we proceed further ahead, towards the horrifying sounds.
The Broodmother
In a very similar way to DAO, we enter a larger chamber, somewhere deep beneath the Varanin Thaig, and see, before us, a gigantic, monstrous creature. Now, I would like to remind you that the broodmother we saw in DAO was once a dwarf, and therefore one that produced genlocks. And the Mother in Awakening was obviously a human broodmother, albeit made very self-aware by the Architect.
What we now see before us is a Kossith broodmother, that which is left of Ashasala. She is gigantic and grey, and shows many spikes and two great horns. Her tentacles are covered in hard, grey scales.
Upon seeing this, both Rook and Harding react with absolute disgust and horror, while Davrin readies his weapons and whistles for Assan to come. Rasaan, meanwhile, has a moment of shock before being overcome with rage. No member of the Qun shall be imprisoned in such a grotesque manner. Ashasala will be freed. And so begins a very tough and very disgusting boss battle.
The broodmother, or Ashasala if we want to keep calling her that, constantly lunges her tentacles at us, and beating them takes significant skill. We constantly keep spamming Assan to give us an edge, and Rasaan’s presence is certainly welcome right now.
Occasionally, the broodmother shields herself and unleashes two ogres upon us. It should be noted, at this point, that all of the ogres we faced in the Varanin Thaig are smaller and weaker versions when compared to the proper ones from the previous games, since they have just been born. Therefore, their HP is significantly less than what we might expect from older ogres later down the line.
At one point, the broodmother lashes out with all her tentacles, grabbing all of us individually. At this point, the rest of the party appears on an upper area and begins firing salves, spells, and daggers at the broodmother, which causes her to release Rook. Similar to the battle with Ghilan’nain in the actual game, we must now race across the battlefield and free Harding, Davrin, and Rasaan from Ashasala’s grasp. We can occasionally activate a salve from the rest of the party above as a summonable action to help us along.
Once all are freed, the broodmother lowers herself and begins fighting us with her own claws and horns, roaring and howling in pain and rage. Eventually, after a long and gruesome battle, we get an epic cutscene of Ashasala trying to wrap us with her tentacles again, only to be wounded by another salve from the party above. Following this, Rook fires a spell into her face, and Harding unleashes an arrow into her eye. Rasaan uses her grappling hook to propel herself upwards and impale the broodmother’s neck. The final blow comes from Davrin. He gives Assan a whistle, and the griffon carries him right to the broodmother’s head. He jumps and rams his sword right into her mouth. Whatever remains of Ashasala groans and moans and finally dies.
At this moment, we notice that the broodmother was positioned right above a massive chasm that leads further down into the depths beneath the Varanin Thaig. With a last death throe, Ashasala collapses into the darkness, and her massive tentacles cause the walls to crack and boulders to follow her. After a few loud moments, the chasm is sealed beneath layers of rock.
As an innocent Veil Jumper and Dalish elf who has never experienced this horror before, Rook steps aside and vomits onto the ground. Davrin comforts us and commends us on our skills in battle.
Rasaan, meanwhile, stares at the sealed chasm and grunts in barely acknowledged defeat. We use the opportunity to ask her what it is that she was looking for. What did she find in that library that led her here? What could be as important as the Dread Wolf?
Davrin frowns. The Dread Wolf? Is that who we’re hunting? The ancient elven god? Fen’Harel? We turn to face him and confirm this. Indeed, we are searching for the Dread Wolf, for he has returned and is seeking to end the world. Davrin stumbles back, visibly taken aback. Even though he’s a Warden, he’s also a Dalish elf. Fen’Harel is someone he would believe in, for he is a figure right out of his religion. But to hear that he’s actively walking around and planning something sinister is a lot to take in.
Rasaan admits that she has been searching for a way to defeat Fen’Harel ever since the Exalted Council ten years ago. She does not believe him to be an actual god, but definitely a mage of unimaginable powers. When she was in that library, trying to discover the Dread Wolf’s true name, she came upon another piece of information instead. Down here, in the Varanin Thaig, slumbers a power strong enough to defeat Fen’Harel, and aid the Qunari in the war against Tevinter. It would tip the scales immeasurably: The Issataash, the Master Dragon, or the master of the great ones.
Davrin finally puts everything together. The Archdemons. Rasaan is looking for an Archdemon? Now it all makes sense, why the First Warden wanted this place clear of all darkspawn. There is an Archdemon down there, deep below the Varanin Thaig. One of the remaining two! Indeed, and Rasaan wished to awaken it in its untainted form.
We look at Davrin in shock. The Wardens know where the remaining Archdemons are? Yes, but that doesn’t mean much when you can’t reach them. Their prisons are located in deeply unstable ground, and all who try to reach them perish. Did Rasaan know that?
Rasaan curses in Qunlat. Had they been more numerous, they would have reached the Issataash. At this point, the rest of the party joins up with us, and Varric has a nice little chat with Rasaan. It’s over. Her Qunari are gone. She is all that’s left. She should just admit defeat and return to the Arishok’s side. Or she could stubbornly get herself killed somewhere in the darkness.
Rasaan eyes each and every one of us, weighing her options carefully. Then, she grunts, sheathes her weapons, and leaves. She turns around one last time and declares that she will not pursue Rook, we did help her after all. But we should not hope to meet on opposing sides during the war. She turns around, and leaves, presumably to return to the Arishok.
The rest of the party is in visible awe at Assan. While Bellara freaks out over seeing a living griffon, Neve and Lucanis study him with great interest. Oh yes, this is a fine addition indeed. Varric suspected that the Wardens were keeping something hushed, but to see a living griffon in his lifetime? Well, now he truly has seen everything.
Davrin tells us that he has to report all of this to Weisshaupt. Well, we say, we can go together. After all, we did this together. And in the meantime, and perhaps even afterwards, would Davrin consider joining the crew? Davrin asks if it really is true that the Dread Wolf has returned from the Fade and is now seeking to end the world? Yes, we confirm, and we couldn’t believe it either when we first heard it. We have to find and stop him. And there is a high chance the darkspawn presence is linked to him somehow. Rasaan was looking for Fen’Harel’s true name, and instead came upon the location of an Archdemon’s prison.
Davrin considers and then agrees. He will join us for the time being. This is an important battle to fight. And Assan will get a lot of good practice. Assan gives a happy screech at that. Well, Davrin, welcome aboard!
Back on the Dumat
With our mission accomplished, we find ourselves back on the Dumat, with Davrin and Assan now part of our crew. Davrin is utterly amazed by the ingenuity of the submarine, but equally surprised that we gave it the name of the first Archdemon.
Back in the Meeting Chamber, we discuss our recent progress. So, the Qunari were looking for one of the remaining Archdemons. Somehow, they got this information from an elvhen library in the Deep Roads. Rasaan called the Archdemon an Issataash, a Master Dragon. So even they are aware that the Old Gods are something way more than regular high dragons.
At this point, we may express a bit of frustration. We have done so much, have gone to so many places, and yet it always feels like the Dread Wolf is still beyond our grasp. We encountered some of his agents, sure, but what about the man himself? When can we finally find something solid? We haven’t even encountered Revas or Merrill again.
Varric calms us down. Despite not having gotten close to Solas yet, we have fought off several other dangers. Like right now: We stopped Rasaan from potentially awakening an Archdemon. We have also fought Venatori and done some good in the war between Tevinter and the Qunari. We may not have accomplished our main goal yet, but we aren’t doing nothing. And he’s confident that we’ll be getting something more juicy quite soon. We must not forget that the Inquisitor is still out there, using her resources, as well as Charter and her spy network.
Very well, we shall keep searching. For now, though, the meeting is adjourned.
The Arena
With Davrin now part of the team, another room on the Dumat becomes unlocked: the arena. It is a large, round chamber secured by enchanted rock, which serves as a room of training and fighting. Davrin and Assan spend most of their time here, practising and staying alert. Assan in particular needs to train his mind, for he is definitely not used to being underwater in an enclosed location.
Now, aside from conversing with Davrin and Assan, the arena obviously serves another function as well: fighting different kinds of monsters. So, whenever we encounter new creatures on our journeys, we can fight them here in a safe environment. We can study their movements and even gain damage or defence bonuses against them. Basically, this is adapting the Hall of Valour from Veilguard. To make it even more amusing, we can have Isabela as the battle commentator here, too.
We may not have found the Dread Wolf yet, but the Dumat has gained another very valuable addition.
The Other Rooks
As always, now it's time to explore what the other Rooks might have done on this mission and how their experiences could have differed.
Shadow Dragons
Rook has heard of Rasaan before, from his military lessons on the Qunari.
Rook has heard of the Varanin Thaig before. It used to be an important trading hub between Tevinter and the Dwarven Empire.
Rook is much more ready to face the Qunari in open battle.
Rook has a much harder time talking to Rasaan, given his Tevinter mage status.
Grey Wardens
Antoine and Evka are far more willing to work with the Inquisition, since Thorne is already part of it.
Rook has heard of the Varanin Thaig before from his studies at Weisshaupt. He remembers that there always used to be a Warden outpost stationed there, but he doesn't know why.
Rook immediately senses the darkspawn as the party enters the Deep Roads.
Rook has an easier time navigating the Deep Roads as his newly-found Stone Sense returns.
Rook and Davrin share a very heartfelt reunion, and the revelation of Assan allows Rook to properly roleplay a Warden's reaction to learning of that secret.
Rook can deduce on his own that they're about to face a broodmother.
Rook knows that the highest-ranking Wardens know of the Archdemon prisons.
Antivan Crows
Being a Qunari herself, Rook can actually masquerade as a Ben-Hassrath agent when approaching the outpost and walking through the encampment later.
Rook can express her desire to find someone who would give her a contract on Rasaan.
Mourn Watch
Rook can distract the spirit trapped within the rock wraith and perform a powerful attack against it.
Lords of Fortune
Rook can find a few bottles of qamek at the Qunari encampment.
Rook heard of Rasaan through Isabela's stories about her.
Rook can find an ancient dwarven treasure chest in the Varanin Thaig and greatly enrich themselves.
And there we have it! This is our rewritten version of Davrin's recruitment mission. Next time, we shall not proceed with another main quest but take a look at either Treviso or Weisshaupt. The two areas are rather optional at the moment, but they still contain regional and faction-related quests. The next two chapters will focus on the regional ones. Stay tuned for that!
Rewriting Veilguard Part 17 - Regional Quests in Act 1 Treviso
Find the Shadow Dragon version of this chapter on AO3
