#tevinter sufferings

[muwitch]

Tevinter is truly loving his social stratification, eh?

You can't just be a mage, there are altus, laetans and someone called praeteri, and they all kinda hate each other but also those who are magicless;

You can't just be a soporati, there's strata there depending on where you stand professionally and politically but equally fucked by your mage counterparts;

You can't just be a slave, there are also liberati, which is not a slave but not a citizen, and servus publicum, which is worse than normal slave, and it also depends on what you do and you won't be treated equally shitty;

You just can't fucking win I love it

[muwitch]

thoughts on Ventus

aka yes hello, tevinter agenda again.

and today's menu is: the heck is going on with Ventus? Do you mean to tell me qunari still occupy the big chunk of Eastern Imperium and weren't pushed back in 7+ years? If anything, it's mentioned that they've taken Ventus, Carastes and Neromenian.

I'm having a brain boil right now from processing this thought because Veilguard has so many contradicting mentions of all sorts of cities like…Ventus is talked about like it's there and Mercar's father COMMANDS (present) the legions at Ventus and Tarquin's family is from there but if most of the population was slaughtered or taken as slaves to be re-educated into Qun back in 9:45 (and it was mentioned profusely in Tevinter nights, also how kamek was used on the most of Ventus circle mages), no one gives a fuck?

I refreshed Deception, the city was simply scorched at 9:45. Few citizens survived, except for the magisters who escaped in time, as rumors about the qunari attack started spreading in advance. Almost if not all soldiers/guards were slaughtered (hi Tarquin, soldier from Ventus) Let me remind you that Pavus' family are from Quarinus/Ventus, and Dorian himself was at the capture of the city, for those who need to consider it canon.

And yet never addressed or mentioned in Veilguard in SD dialogues?

Digging into the artbook I saw that it was originally planned that Antaam would occupy Tevinter (including Minrathous, but that's a stupid contradiction to the lore and it's okay), not Antiva. Accordingly that's probably where the contradiction comes from.

If we look into Shadow Dragon codices, for example Maevaris' letter to Dorian, it seems that the city was taken back and Antaam was removed from the coast, although the game says stalemate, respectively. Even if the letter is not dated, Neve's notes about Viper state that he saved slaves from the caravan going to Ventus, and this is after the disband of Lucerni also not far from but still after 9:45.

So we can assume that in 9:47-48ish, (or later, depends) the city was cleared and partially restored, well, let's hc it this way.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[muwitch]

In trying to think what the main Shadow Dragon base (yes, personal hc that there are many bases established over the course of 8ish years, but the main one must be in a secure location and I liked the concept of underground section of Minrathous too much to scrap it) looks like in Undercity, I'm trying to find some clues with minimal architectural knowledge: what's available on the web for the Veilguard artbook basically shows a viaduct/bridge system in an “ant” style of building, where this part of the city most likely serves as a “support” for everything on the surface.

But if we take as true that Minratos is built on the ruins of elven civilization and quite a few concepts where the city was literally grown from huge elven columns are enough evidence for that, is it worth looking at a more compact view for the base?

Bridges or strong multi-floor setting looks not very practical for a base of operations, although the same Pawnshop has 3 floors.

Then came the thought, and whether not to build the base in the former building of the temple of the ancient gods, and even better, that this case was originally an elven temple / sanctuary.

More at 6 despite the shadow banning.

[muwitch]

magisterium this dorian pavus that

but what does publicanium actually think of slavery in ye olde Imperium?

mages aren't only people in possession of slaves, slave markets and everything is legislatively regulated

you know?

[muwitch]

not me trying to have a take of verses of the Chant to follow my bestie @tiafrye hc that Black Divine shaves his head as symbolic remembrance of Maferath's betrayal and atonement for his sins...because that's how the Betrayer is usually depicted in the Chantry-

[muwitch]

thought of the days is how does Tevinter still support himself with slaves in general, if in fact supplying them in huge numbers is simply impossible by 9:31. I mean, in the Roman Empire it worked as a permanent conquest. The only outgoing war happening in Tevinter is with the Qun, with mixed success. No open confrontation with other nations. Yes, slaves are a caste. There are hereditary slaves, especially elves. Yes, there are servus publicum, when people and citizens sells themselves into slavery to pay off debts, or as a form of punishment. But still, on such a cosmic scale, as it is described, I can hardly believe that it works, because magisters generally treat slaves understandably expendable, venatori and blood magic rituals and whatnot aside. Yes, there is an “underground” market where slave traders smuggle refugees and other unfortunate from the territories of other states, but I'm not sure that is happening on an industrial scale to support a whole imperium.

how do you even work-

[muwitch]

the fact that Minrathous most likely has what the eastern block calls "kommunalka" or communal apartment aside from semi-normal rent is so bizarre to me

[muwitch]

people doing lord's work writing their blorbos smonch while I am like "yes, yes, definitely communal apartment network in Tevinter poorer neighborhoods" and "sure, tf is this architectural mashup" and "is the natural light a privilege of the richer citizens bc those windows are very distinct but fumcking small-"