niby-skaje

[niby-skaje]

Petition to replace the skull on emmrich's staff with johanna's skull, so she can be included while still being contained. And also so she can have fun blasting people whenever you bring emmrich along in the party

[niby-skaje]

I look at it this way: more Emmrich for me!

Genuinely surprised that Emmrich is the least romanced companion. I live in an Emmrook echo chamber apparently. Also, I suspect we are a very vocal people, even if there aren’t many of us.

I dunno. Seems fake. You’re all fuckin’ Necrodaddy and I know it.

[niby-skaje]

Okay but why is he laughing SO HARD at this. Also why do these two have the best banter with most insight into his life?

Cassandra mention! And Emmrich laughing!! 🥹

[niby-skaje]

---

---

neve and davrin about setting up a shop together after everything is done

[niby-skaje]

Bliss. Pure bliss.

[niby-skaje]

I think the thing that Gets Me about Veilguard is just how much of an impossible task it had heaped on it from EA from the start of its inception.

It’s arguably supposed to be a soft reboot for the series while ALSO being a follow up to Inquisition. These are two fundamentally incompatible goals in my opinion. This game had to walk the most insane line of any video game in recent memory. I guess EA wanted to have their cake and eat it too.

And the more I think about it the sadder I become for the original team who worked on Joplin. From what I’ve seen of the art book, Joplin was going to be about as firm a sequel to DAI as you could get - with references to rescuing whoever was left in the Fade, having Calpernia and Imshael as companions, having to fight Solas’ agents, etc.

Then EA makes them scrap it for live service. Fine. But wait - now we’re scrapping it again. Back to single person RPG but you also kind of need to distance yourself from the previous games as much as possible while still somehow being a follow up to the previous game.

New setting, few returning companions, and new Big Bads in the form of Elgarnan and Ghilanain to get a clean slate. Any mention of what’s happening in the South (where we spent 3 whole games!) needs to be relegated to letters and codex. ** I dont have the art book yet, so I dont know if these two were supposed to appear in Joplin beside Solas - or if Solas was supposed to be the sole antagonist in that iteration of the game.

But.. I hope you see what I mean when I say this game had a monumentally, borderline impossible task ahead of it. And when I think of it that way, I think it did as good a job as it possibly could. Especially since the actual development time was closer to 3ish yrs to get what we know of as datv today even though it’s been 10 whole years since DAI.

I hope it’s successful enough to get DA5, but who know’s what’ll happen.

I wish everyone except the EA execs who meddled with this game’s development and are seemingly trying to kill dragon age a pleasant day. I have a cynical detective I need to romance 😔

[niby-skaje]

Companions mugs/cups and what they drink, non alcoholic edition.

A little fun exercise!

Lucanis: an elegant, though slightly aged, antivan coffee cup with a slightly worn golden handle. He found it in Caterina's cupboard. Basically what we saw in the game already. He drinks black coffee ofc.

Taash: a large, sturdy stone cup, big but somewhat shapeless, because it has to serve its purpose and stone doesn't melt. A little chipped. Drinks plain water or hot water with some ginger and honey to soothe that throat.

Neve: a simple cup that used to be white, but now has the grey-yellowish colour of something that has been in constant use and perhaps not as well scrubbed as it should be. It is also permanently yellowish-brown on the inside and bottom. Drinks coffee, whatever blend she can get her hands on, and if Lucanis doesn't make it, it's a really bad coffee. Sometimes she will drink black tea for a change. No sugar, nothing.

Emmrich: An antique delicate porcelain liac cup with gold decoration and a handle in the shape of a bone. It's old but in perfect condition, always thoroughly cleaned and kept on a special shelf. Comes with a small plate and skeletal spoon. Likes to try new tea blends, both traditional and herbal, but his favourite is white tea with rose and mint.

Bellara: Elven green cup with some Dalish paintings on it. Chipped and discoloured in places from lack of care. Also has some scribbled notes on a piece of paper taped to it. Drinks elven herbal infusions, her favourite being cinnamon, nutmeg and juniper with a little wild honey for sweetness.

Davrin: Simple and practical wooden cup he made himself, with a small carving of a griffon's feather on the handle, just for practice. Rough in shape, as it was one of the first he ever made. The wood has become a little dark in places over time, but he is careful not to damage or stain it. Will drink anything, but his favourite is strong black tea with lots of sugar. Classic and delicious, and the sugar is indulgent for a Warden.

Harding: Simple metal cup that is sturdy and can be packed for convenience and will not break. Used to be shiny, but has dulled over time. Has a red name "Lace" written on the bottom. Likes anything warm, but since her gift she often drinks lavender, honey and lemon balm infusion or hot milk with honey to help her sleep.

I may or may not draw the cups/mugs, but I'm not sure of my skills at this point. If anyone wants to, feel free!

[niby-skaje]

you know what. i actually love that trying to talk to solas was the last thing varric did and it ended in complete failure. especially if you put it in the context of his feelings about anders. varric was so bitter every time he mentioned him because he could not stop him. he didn't even realize that anders was up to something and when it was too late he started to think of him as of someone who destroyed that fragile peace in kirkwall that actually never existed.

it adds layers to the way he felt about solas. he believed that time he could stop a friend who simply lost his way. because varric tethras can talk anyone out of anything, can't he? anders was just too dodgy and self-centred and cut everyone off just like solas did but this time varric is completely prepared. surely. absolutely.

he could have never talked anders out of it even if he had known what was coming. he could have never talked solas out of it either. anders was a desperate person standing against (as varric himself put it) forces he couldn't possibly defeat. solas was a god standing against a couple of mortals and his own conscience buried under his guilt and regrets. being a good friend would not stop meredith's oppression. being a good friend would not stop someone who fears so much that all of the atrocities he committed were for nothing and would mean nothing at the end. varric died because he didn't realize it. he died and left his second in command with an immense guilt because they believed he knew solas enough to pull that off and there's something tragic about it

[niby-skaje]

Okay, so this is canon. Emmrich and Rook will have a big garden together.

Harding and Emmrich discuss alternate life-paths...

(I see you asking about regrets when it comes to not getting married, Emm. Do YOU perhaps regret how lonely a Watcher's life is? Hmm? You know your future spouse is standing right here, right? 😏)

UPDATE: Our boy figured it out! ^^

[niby-skaje]

Hi Bioware, next patch, can you add jingle jangle sound effects for Emmrich when he walks around, thank you for your consideration

[niby-skaje]

I also think at any given time my Rook is not too far from starting to bite people. And not only in the smexy way.

One of my fave things about the DA games is the parallels of characterization between the protags.

The Warden and The Inquisitor both have a kind of dignity and honor about them. They're both like "I absolutely did not want to be in this position, but here I am and we'll get this done one way or another." They both force people to work together for a greater good and unite under their banner and both are reasonably competent at their jobs.

Hawke and Rook on the other hand... things are just going wrong constantly for them, they are both consistently on their 13th reason, and their main defense is a "the horrors persist but so do I" attitude. They also did not want to be in the position they're in but they're "DOING MY FUCKING BEST CUT ME SOME SLACK I DON'T SEE ANYONE ELSE STEPPING UP" and if one more thing goes wrong they're both going to just start biting people.

[niby-skaje]

He coulda done it

[niby-skaje]

This. It isn't to say there is absolutely no bad - or maybe more accurately, rushed - writing, there is some, but many "problems" aren't really problems, they just aren't at the center of the story, because they don't really concern our Rook and the team. We have to save the world for fck's sake, we really don't have the time to delve into every injustice there is.

We still get the missions and the dialogues and codex info that show it's all still there - for example I remember Lucanis talking about Caterina and his childhood. He specifically said that he forgave her why? Because his childhood wasn't happy. She was family and still he had it rough and doesn't talk specifics because he's clearly traumatised and would rather not bring it back.

Just the fact that we are in the North and the influence of Chantry isn't that strong for the factions that we surround ourselves with means that we naturally have to shift our focus from the traditional mage-templars conflict (and I'm for one thankful as after 3 games I was ready to leave it behind for a while). We're not in Kansas anymore.

This isn't just about Blight, just about surviving, just about the South. We have a very clear, very focused target as a team and as a player. We have a lot of work to do to get there. We don't have time to play hero for everyone everywhere because we are already doing that for the whole Thedas. We are already stretched thin. And just because we aren't personally freeing the slaves or seeing them in the poorest part of Minrathous doesn't mean they aren't there. People just have to pay more attention to dialogues (not even codex entries - dialogues!)

Listen.

I love y'all, but some of you need to understand: the writers are not being shitty. The writing is not bad. The lore is not being ignored.

You're upset because your headcanons are not being followed.

Something Tolkien fans are constantly encouraged to do is "go back to the source material." This sounds basic, but Lord of the Rings alone is a massive book - if someone broke into my apartment, I stand a more than reasonable chance of beating them down with either of my illustrated hardcover copies. By the time you get through reading it, it's easy to forget small details in the main body of the work, much less the introductions and the appendices, and that's BEFORE you try absorbing everything in Lost Tales, or The Silmarillion, etc, etc.

Now imagine you come to Veilguard, and maybe you've been playing Inquistion because it feeds directly into the game. Maybe you played Origins, 2 and Inquisition in a white heat. Great! But those games include a lot of choices, and SO MUCH CODEX material. It's almost impossible to retain all of that knowledge all at once in your head, especially in games where you can miss shades of meaning due to the dialogue choices you make - and I often see people who claim they tend to make the same choices every time.

The reason we Tolkien fans are told to go back to the source material is that it's so easy to slip into assumptions. A great example is: do you actually know what Rangers are? Or do you think of them in D&D terms?

Dragon Age is a story that mimics the unreliability of History, where one characters's perspective and story may not be the same as another's, and neither are necessarily wrong or right - they're simply parts of a whole. And it's wild to watch y'all bend over backwards to defend your headcanons instead of accepting that maybe a character was wrong, or misinformed, or unreliable, or has a limited perspective.

[niby-skaje]

I... I can't... I can't breathe...

Always look your best! 💜💚🖤

[niby-skaje]

Blight as a physical embodiment of the rage at the people who wronged you and the grief of what could have been if they’d hadn’t is making me feel ill

The way it poisons everything it touches. The way the people most hurt by it are the dwarves. The way the evanuris were able to use it for their own gain and the way solas was completely unaffected by it

Oof

[niby-skaje]

I laughed so much I snorted and spilled my tea. Thank you for your service!

DRAGON AGE: THE VEILGUARD (2024)

[niby-skaje]

My favourite thing about Emmrich is that he’s pretty fucked up and it wouldn’t be a stretch to suspect he uses his work with the Mourn Watch to deal with it. Many of the funeral professionals I’ve worked with (myself included) were drawn to the work in the first place by their own experiences with death or other traumatizing experiences: a profound loss, wanting to understand and not fear mortality, feeling like they owe this service to society etc. Things that go beyond a morbid fascination with death (though there’s that too.)

It’s taking your fear and grief and sadness and turning it into something useful so you can help people navigate the baffling variety of emotions that death drags along with it because you’re intimately familiar with them yourself.

Besides, you can’t let your own fears and traumas overwhelm and break you when you’re too busy taking care of people who are counting on you to take care of them. Unfortunately that means you’re also not actually ever confronting those fears and traumas either, but hey… it’s safe.