#stellar nonbinary

[your-bigender-big-brother]

I redesigned the stellarian flag for fun and because I think I might use this term for myself, but I'm unsure. I made two versions. - 💙💚

[stormy-talks]

Unrelated to my previous post, I'm about to get really salty here. I hate that comments aren't allowed on the pages for the LGBTQIA Wiki. SO MANY of their definitions are just... wrong. People are just making shit up.

Stellarian, going off of its original intended definition, refers to an unaligned nonbinary person or someone who rejects such alignment. Stellarians are also called stellar nonbinary people. That's really nice! I like it a lot! The fucking wiki page here for that term threw in "however they still feel gendered and on a similar 'plane' as male and female." WHERE is the source?? The original coining post isn't even included on that page and there are no sources for any components of stellarian's definition on the page. The sources at the bottom are literally just flags.

[vivacious-vexation]

DAVID7 of Stellar Firma. I both love and hate that he is canonically gooey. He’s so silly and exasperated, and honestly I just hope he gets to ever meet Bathin.

credits to: @mellon-soup for the pose, Rusty Quill (but not any of the ones with tumblr accounts that I’m aware of) for the character, and @ colehairlesscat on insta for the procreate brushes used, which are also available on csp.

[supnerdsimbi]

Im a she like a ship is a she, a he like a roomba is a he, and that’s the best way I can describe my gender lol

[agentravensong]

angel hare is peak btw. after yesterday’s episode (disc 5) i fear that, depending on how things develop in the next one, i may have a new blorbo

[crystalkiseki]

happy ace day to shiraishi an specifically

[theswedisharchivist]

Check out my Etsy at https://theswedisharchivist.etsy.com

Currently selling pins and stickers, but more is on the way

[dhddmods]

Popularize non-binary specific terms!

Popularize contraic (NB primarily/exclusively attracted to dissimilar/"opposite" genders.)

Popularize symmaic (NB primarily/exclusively attracted to similar genders.)

Popularize feminamoric (NB primarily/exclusively attracted to women)!

Popularize viramoric! (NB primarily/exclusively attracted to men)!

Popularize ceteramoric/teramoric! (NB primarily/exclusively attracted to other NB)!

Popularize trixic (NBLW, used the same way as sapphic & achillean)!

Popularize toric (NBLM)!

Popularize enbian (NBLNB)!

And, additionally, popularize terms for attraction to NBs! It's not fetishizing to acknowledge binary people can sometimes be primarily or exclusively attracted to enben. (Think, is it fetishizing to acknowledge when binary genders are primarily attracted to each other? No.)

Popularize maedic (WLNB)!

Popularize adonic (MLNB)!

Popularize binitian (binary-loving-NB - an umbrella term for maedic & adonic.)

Popularize tria- (triasexual/triaromantic/etc), which describes anyone (binary or NB) who is primarily/exclusively attracted to enben! Ceteramoric falls under this umbrella too.

Popularize tria- subsets!

Popularize lunaric (primary attraction to feminine non-binary genders)!

Popularize solaric (primary attraction to masculine non-binary genders)!

Popularize saturnic (primary attraction to androgynous non-binary genders)!

Popularize neustellic (primary attraction to neutral non-binary genders)!

Popularize spaciallic (primary attraction to xenine non-binary genders)!

Popularize oustellic (primary attraction to outherine non-binary genders)!

Popularize apstellic/stellaric (primary attraction to aporine non-binary genders)!

Popularize multiellic (primary attraction to multigender people)! Popularize all of its subtypes, for people with specific multigender identities (bigender, trigender, quadgender, quintgender, hexagender, septagender, octagender, enneagender, decagender, pangender, genderfluid or genderflux, etc)!

Popularize biellic, triellic, quadellic, quintellic, hexallic, septallic, octallic, enneallic, decallic, panellic, and fluidellic!

Everyone will talk the big talk about why enben are okay with binary gendered terms, but no one will critically deduce the reasons for why that is such a common thing in the NB community. Because when you are not binary aligned, those terms don't really capture your gender, explain who you are to other people and don't make space for people like us. But they are convenient, everyone knows those terms, and they "work well enough" if you ignore the fact that they are erasing you. They always cause discomfort, discourse, exclusion. So why are they so commonly used by non-binary people even though they do not accurately describe or include us?

(hint: it's binary supremacism)

[ashesofdivinity-if]

ASHES OF DIVINITY • DEMO TBA

genre: fantasy / post apocalyptic / horror

synopsis:

The year is 2055, Earth has been the same as we all knew and love when suddenly the world we know was gone. The clouds darkened and the sky brought creatures that are tainted with demon blood. Instead of the human population, demon swarled the Earth and attempted to take control. To keep the worlds safe, Gods and Goddesses from the Afterlife (also known as the Celestial Court) was soon emerging to keep a shallow sense of peace. The Earth was then divided into 3 domains. The Celestial Court took over one part, calling it the Golden Zones. An another part of the earth was corrupted by the Demon Ling Zion, who called his domain Infernal Wastes.

The poorer parts, the parts where the Humanity was fighting for freedom is called Free Zones.

To this day, no one knows why the catastrophe happened, it remains a mystery.

YOU play as an amnesiac, waking up alone on the Free Zone without any memory of who you are or where you come from when you’re saved by a group of people who dedicates themselves to figuring out what the Celestial Court want with the humans while fighting against the anomalies that threaten danger to humankind.

Can you figure out the secret between the bridge of all three worlds?

Do you even know who you are?

FEATURES:

play as a male, female or nonbinary

romance one of the four romantic options available and befriend all of the non - romancable allies in your group

explore the post- apocalptic world, visit different domains and learn about the celestial court and the demon world’s plans.

meet, befriend or fight against gods! with a chance to matchmake between two gods

chose how you feel about the collapse, do you choose to trust the people you come across? Or do you suspect sinister going on?

try to figure out your newfound random chaos powers, where did they come from? Humans can’t cast magic.

Figure out who you really are.

ROMANCE OPTIONS

ELLIE ROBINSON - 25- F- HUMAN- RESIDENT SNIPER

Appearance: 5’6, long auburn hair in a ponytail, striking grey eyes, notable dark and comfy clothing.

She’s a nonbeliever of the gods and demons after one of the gods killed all of her family, she’s very skilled with guns and is considered the muscle of the team. She’s tough and sarcastic but fiercely loyal if you somehow manage her to trust you.

trope: soulmates, annoyances to lovers

JACE SOSA - 23 — M - HUMAN - ENGINEER

Appearance: 5’7, hispanic male, short brown hair and hazel eyes, glasses, always sporting an easy going smile.

Jace is the heart of the group. He handles the group’s tech and communications and is just as lovely as the other’s describe him. He’s very smart and kind with a tendency to doubt himself.

Trope: best friends to lovers, unconditional love.

NEREIS - AGELESS - F- GODDESS OF WATER

Appearance: 5’10, pale skin, very long flowing white hair and stellar blue eyes.

She’s famously known as ruling her own calm domain in the Golden Zones with a secret suspicions about the Celestial Court , the place she deemed her home and family. She’s a serene young goddess who’s very protective of the ones she deems worthy.

Tropes: forbidden love, emotional healing.

KAELEN - UNKNOWN - M - HUMAN - LEADER

Appearance: 6’3, pale skin, short spiky black hair with red highlights, scarlet eyes, could freeze you into silence with one look.

Nothing is set in stone for Kaelen. He has been leading the group for years with his cunning wits and strong sense of justice. Despite the strong personality, he seems to be hiding something. Is he really what he says he is?

Tropes: redemption, slow burn

NON ROMANCEABLE CHARACTERS

DR ALAN MAREK - M - SCIENTIST

A calm, logical man who used to dedicate his whole life to science, he now dedicates his life to survive.

NOA PALMER - F - TEENAGER

An anxious teenager with no living parents. She’s very dependent on the people she trusts.

CASTIEL - M - VETERAN

An old man who claims he used to be a soldier in the Goddess of War Virea’s reign. Much more agile than he looks.

[literalite]

marlo velasco for @rainymoodlet's rock of love!

hii formally introducing marlo after showing them in cas first lmao i'll stick all their info and some bonus pics under the cut :3

they're filipino, nonbinary (using they/them pronouns), and androsexual- for simplicity's sake they sometimes just say they're gay

traits: erratic, hot-headed, creative likes: alternative and metal music, competency, a good discussion, wellness, getting everything just right, being praised(.......), a good visual contrast, travelling, friendly competition, hard workers, vintage artwork, and of course tattoos fhgjhkjkl dislikes: modern decor, elitism, people who lack drive or who follow tradition, being told what to do, stupid questions, green eyes, makeup, phones or cameras or honestly most modern technology, softening their tone in any way, uncomfortable shoes

quick well that was a fucking lie bio:

only child to two very conservative parents, had a very testy relationship with them both throughout their teens and young adulthood. currently no contact with them both

learnt how to tattoo in their teens and joined a tattoo and piercing shop as an apprentice at 21. they met both their ex husband and their current best friend, risa there

married their ex at 25, was truly in love with him despite being deeply unhappy in other aspects of life

came out and began transitioning at 29, which strained their marriage as he tried and failed to accept their true self as opposed to the "woman" he had signed up for

he convinced them to try for having a kid in order to save their relationship shocker, that did not work so mickey was born

after three years they divorced- admittedly marlo was not a stellar parent and left mickey mostly in her father's care while they moved on from working at the original tattoo shop, eventually seeing their kid for only a weekend per month

at 35 opened their new shop Purgatory Tattoos with their best friend risa as co-owner

two years ago, they got a call in the middle of the night, from their ex who immediately started shouting down the line at them for "corrupting" their 11 year old into thinking that she's a girl. they immediately drove the few hours to go pick mickey up and filed for custody the morning after

marlo's relationship with mickey was initially understandably pretty rocky, with marlo being really awkward around their own daughter and mickey obviously being distrustful of them. in years since, they've grown a lot closer, with marlo now really appreciating the work it takes to raise a kid. they're still very anxious about being a "good" parent though, having totally lacked for any role models

has sort of dated around since breaking up with their husband, but hasn't been able to commit to anything serious what with their focus on keeping their business running and the residual sting of a long and painful loss both emotionally and financially from their ex

signed up for this at risa's insistence and also thinking that it'd be nice for mickey to grow up with a more stable and loving environment than they did

fun facts:

they're pretty much tone deaf but nevertheless enthusiastic about karaoke much to their neighbours' detriment

for their employees and apprentices, they're known as kind of a hardass, especially in comparison to risa, but being under their guidance improves skills x10

lactose intolerant but im not wasting a trait slot on that LMAO

used to have piercings, but took their facial ones out years ago because they'd all been done by their ex- all the holes have since closed up

has pretty much no social media presence aside from their shop's instagram account, on which they've got no photos of themselves, not even a candid in the background of a shot. doesnt know wtf a tiktok is even though mick keeps begging them to do dances with her?

can't imagine moving away from tomarang even though they love travelling overseas. a big goal is getting enough money together to take mickey on a big holiday abroad

here are some pics of them and their daughter, mickey! she's 13, trans, she/her pronouns. due to their long estrangement, mickey calls them "lo" instead of any other term

[your-bigender-big-brother]

Asteresque: A gender that is not male, female, or anything in between and is entirely unaligned and neutral at its core. It is not ambiguous nor is it genderless. Its neutral quality can often "soften" or "neutralize" other genders, acting as a balancing element in one's gender experience (particularly for multigender people, where one gender might feel more aligned or more strongly felt.) It falls under the nonbinary, aporagender, and ningender umbrellas and is not necessarily xenine, but may be viewed that way by some people who use the label.

This term comes from aster as in a star and the suffix -esque to mean that it has a star-like quality - this is a reference to stellarian, which describes an unaligned nonbinary person (a Stellar Nonbinary person.) Thus, this word means a "stellar-like" gender. It is used as an adjective so you would say "I am asteresque" or "My gender is asteresque."

This term was created as a similar gender to neutrois, but without any ties to genderlessness or ambiguity. It differs from epicene in this way as well, because epicene is typically a lack of gender distinction (ambiguity.) It also doesn't use the -gender suffix that many other terms use such as neugender, aporagender, or ningender.

I borrowed colors from my stellarian redesign (the green one of course) to make this flag and even kept the star symbol for it. I used greens and yellow to represent neutrality but took out the gray, which to me felt like it represented ambiguity. I even made a red variant similar to one of the stellarian redesigns above:

- 💙💚

[inquisitionthoughts]

Dragon Age the Veilguard: My Thoughts

I have played through all of the latest Dragon Age installation (except for two side quests in Rivain, and one blighted dragon that I was locked out of for the entire game due to what I believe was a bug) and I have things to say. 

After finishing it I had so many conflicting thoughts and feelings, and those internal conflicts have only grown after letting the experience marinate. 

I want to start with saying that I am writing what I'm going to say as a nonbinary, queer, bi, pan, poly, “leftist” progressive feminist vegetarian working at an NGO LGBTQI-organization, so you can safely assume that I am not coming from a grifter or alt-right point of view. 

To give you an idea of where I am coming from:

I grew up reading folktales, mythologies and fantasy literature by Pratchett, Tolkien and Eddings; playing the Swedish version of Dungeons & Dragons, making role-playing games, and programming text based fantasy adventures in DOS as a kid. That's how I ended up in this whole fandom in the first place. 

I am an original Dragon Age fan. I've followed and absolutely loved the series since before the release of Origins. As I watched my friends play Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, but never had a good enough computer at home to play those games myself at that time, I was elated when I got to hear talk of a game universe that was the “spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate”, and I followed all info on the development and marketing, until the game was released. And boy did they deliver, Dragon Age: Origins converted me into a gamer and cemented my love for cRPGs as well as my love for BioWare. 

I did many playthroughs of Origins; every origin, good runs, evil runs, canon runs. All the DLC. Several runs of Awakening. When the demo for DAII was released I was apprehensive due to the really weird look so it took me a while to play it, but when I eventually did it was amazing. The companions and the story were stellar, and it didn't really matter that they reused the dungeons, I just wish they had updated the maps so it wasn't as obvious. Several playthroughs later with both siblings, all romances and different allied endings I was ready for the next installation. 

I pre-ordered Dragon Age Inquisition as soon as it was possible, the collector's edition, so I ended up learning tarot to use the deck that came with it. I bought all the art books for all the games. I kind of wanted to stop playing Inquisition at the 1337 hour mark but now I have over 2000 hours in the game, with all the DLC completed, and I've played every race and class, explored all the different ways the character can be portrayed as devout Andrastian, carefree selfish asshole, elven supremacist or goodie-two shoes hero, and I’ve even written a guide to how to get the best DAI experience here on tumblr (tldr; get out of the Hinterlands, talk to companions, skip the shards 😅). 

And then I waited for ten years. Played Mass Effect 1-4, Fallout 3-4, Skyrim, Witcher 3, Baldur's Gate 1-3, Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, Elder Scrolls Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Divinity: Original Sin 2, The Outer Worlds, Cyberpunk 2077 and Starfield to bide my time. Followed Ghil Dirthalen's YouTube channel religiously. Read most of the Dragon Age Wiki, even contributed to it. Made my own mad person mind maps over the lore and timeline of the universe; the Maker, the titans, the spirits, the elves, the veil, humans, Tevinter, qunari, the blight, Andraste and the Chantry. 

I love the darkness and depth of the Dragon Age universe. How it consciously turns fantasy tropes on their head in its own way. I have memories of the writers of Origins explaining that when they created the setting they wanted to contemplate how the existence of magic, elves and dwarves actually would play out in a gritty realistic world filled with bigoted and narrow minded people, and then followed through with those conclusions. How the plight of the elves had clear connotations to the holocaust and the Jewish gettos of Europe. It was a curious series not afraid to follow their own trains of thought, making you nauseated, flabbergasted and upset on the way. 

I followed the twists and turns of the development at BioWare. Through development being halted due to teams being moved to Andromeda and Anthem, the pivot to and from multi-player live service, mass leavings and layoffs, teaser trailers, Kotaku articles and whatnot. It was a roller-coaster pendulum swing between being afraid and hopeful, oftentimes at the same time. I refused to completely give up hope, I never did, and I was immensely excited for the release of Dragon Age Dreadwolf. 

Eventually it came! Name changed to Veilguard. A quite weird League of Legends-esque companions trailer. A spoiler filled gameplay video. Marketing team spoiling endgame scenes with official trailers. Rumors of amazing character creation and a shocking reveal that only three choices would carry over from the past three games. We already knew the Keep wouldn't be used, but only three? Nevertheless I pre-ordered and then it came. 

And I played it. 

I loved it so much, but at the same time I had so many deep grievances that threatened to take over the whole playthrough unless I somehow managed them. I had to create a document that stayed open at all times on my second screen just so I could write down things that I just could not let go otherwise, that made me able to keep focusing on the game and not the hard to swallow moments I was getting stuck on. I have never experienced anything like this before, but on the other hand I have never loved and been invested in any game fantasy universe like this. 

This was the result of all my reactions to Dragon Age the Veilguard:

THE LOVE

Things I really loved

the lighthouse <3

the look and graphics of every place, the game is absolutely stunning, and the visual people have outdone themselves, the level designs, the environmental storytelling is amazing and beyond

the cities, the markets, I LOVE LOVE LOVE them, and they give so much cyberpunk 2077 vibes in a good way 

dock town gives awesome low town vibes from da2 ❤️

the main story

the new lore drops, omg the lore, yum yum

buskers playing the old tavern songs, just love it

the blight, visually, oh god I loved it, it was really a throwback to the fleshyness of the Deep Roads in Origins

the new look of the demons, I actually loved it eventually as I was first sceptical, even though the pride demons were abit too much floaty neon

so many new iterations of enemies, in such fun ways

the faction systems and factions stores 

the companion gear systems

the gear system, upgrade systems

the short letters ❤️

the leveling up systems, really funny, great to be able to refund at any time

the world maps and fast travel systems

the cards where you chose your companions, stunning

the scene in front of the lighthouse eluvian, awestriking

the companion conversation system where you could see on the map of the lighthouse if they had anything new, or a quest or where they were if you wanted to eavesdrop - it was very refreshing after talking to everyone in camp in bg3 every night to see if there is any new reaction to something you did, now I could just talk to them if they had something and not compulsively all the time

the quest formats of walking along with your companions in areas you otherwise can end up in battle in, loved that so much, a calm way to experience these absolutely stunning environments

the combat system on explorer mode, when at highest level the animations that played out were mad cool XD that was fun!

that you can walk into and climb ladders at the same time as companions and that they teleport to you or enemies in battle, lovely

squeezing through narrow passages, sliding down, walking on thin planks

the no fall damage jumping

opening doors like in dark souls games

that lucanis had a contract on a bronto once XD

elgar’nan has an amaaazing voice actor giving weight to his menace

loved the format of the ending in the style of mass effect 2, so well executed! one of the best endings of all times

the varric twist OMG!! I cried ❤️

I have cried and have had goosebumps so many time during this game ❤️ I love so much of it so much ❤️

the hype for what the "devouring storm", "the adversary" and "it's eye" is, and a potential next game

the joining chalice T_T

THE MEH

Things that were meh

that the romance was super PG13 T_T I guess I am spoiled after bg3 but to get a peck and then a lying hug on a couch and an "I love you" was of course wonderful, but NOT ENOUGH XD I absolutely loved the Lucanis romance otherwise, very spicy in it's way, but I really wanted the scenes of origins, da2 or dai - we honestly didn't get that here

wasn't a fan of the cartoony vibes for the characters but I still grew into almost immediately, I really wish that they had done something to not make all important characters look so extremely young, some people who should be in at least their 30s look like teenagers.. they should have used more rugged face textures

that there was no real way to make your inquisitor look like your original inquisitor like in they did with hawke in Inquisition, kinda broke immersion and emotional connection

the controls (ok remappable so it was fine in the end)

the lol dota fortnite overwatch type of ui vibe

whats up with all this drowning all the time XD

that you have to destroy stuff to loot it - very dark souls (they have clearly been elden ring inspired in this game) - very unimmersive as you trash the markets in all major cities…😅 but in the end it was fun, but still insane XD

repetetive puzzles in especially arlathan forest, wish they made more meaningful quests there instead to slow the pace

wish I never watched the game trailers they released, they spoiled too much of the

would have loved to be able to zoom in a bit more

too many cats XD 😉

the music was more like starfield or a scifi game than dragon age - there was a lot of modern music instead of the classical brass orchestra or choirs, I missed that

I missed the chantry, and the chant of light

personal quests starts like in the shadow of mordor games, interesting, a bit weird 😛

THE 😬

Things that I did not like

that I could not recreate a body that is similar to mine (and I have a completely normal female body that is just kinda curvaceous) because they put an unrealistic cap on boob and butt size, it makes me really sad because it feels like there is something wrong with existing like me, especially since women like me are the only ones not allowed to be included and represented in a game that otherwise prides itself at inclusion and representation

the stressed opening throwing us into the main action of the game far too quickly with far too little buildup as to who your character is, how they were drafted by Varric, what they have been doing, why they have been split up, what their relationships are like and why you should care about your own character

the gold exploding everywhere when looting or opening chests, it is really immersion breaking and unnecessary, I really hope someone can mod that out

the new look of the darkspawn: I like that there are so many different types and the amazing idea that the blight has changed, but they obviously went for comedic effect instead of horror here which makes me so sad, it feels like it ties in with other choices that make the game more juvenile that are hard to reckon with, especially since the game is marketed as “mature”

the new combat system on anything other than explorer, a huge nope for me, unfortunately, but I can only congratulate all those that seem to love it

that we, true to american culture and despite healing magic existing in this world, get death scenes of people just sitting and watching someone die crying for dramatic effect instead of trying to help them… it irks me every time it happens in any media

that you cannot sort your inventory by any values or show only light or medium armor or anything, a missed opportunity

THE 😭

These last grievances are the hardest ones to put into words and the things that have stayed with me since I played the game. They have given rise to so many questions as to why these choices were made, because these things are so obviously choices that it becomes really hard to understand why they would chose to go this route.

But here they are, the three major grievances I have with this game:

1) the lore breaking or retconning

2) the writing regarding companions, NPCs and its ideas of "teambuilding" and preaching

3) that there is so little real choice 

The lore breaking or retconning

That there is much lore that is missing, and many choices or things from the previous games that are not referenced, felt a lot more okay than the instances where actual lore and world building was retconned in a way that was not explained in any capacity, but where you were just supposed to live with the fact that this is the new reality of the world. 

I am not fully sure why this happened, and it felt really disrespectful to the game itself, its previous creators and all those who love this universe. It feels like they did it for two main reasons: one was that they wanted to remove things that could be somehow perceived as “uncomfortable” or “problematic” to the player, and the other was in instances where I think that the writers did not have enough knowledge or interest in the world lore, or experience with playing the previous games, and thus missed important pieces of lore where they had taken part of just some of previous codex entries and just kind of gotten it wrong. I really don’t know. 

They seem to have retconned and thrown out the window all previous elf lore regarding dalish and city elves, that dalish elves are very hateful towards shemlen, and that humans are generally racist against elves, and that city elves are oppressed, and that they are often andrastian, and that not all elves even speak elvish… 

Playing an elf mage warden was a rollercoaster of people talking about "my people" when I most likely grew up in a mage circle and was drafted to the wardens and should most likely not speak old elven? All elves just talked about "our people" and "our culture" like if that was a thing constantly, but it is so much more complex in this universe. And it seemed all elves just suddenly knew elvish, which was not a thing in the older games, that was like a cryptic language people didn't know much about.

The weirdest scene in the whole game that had me rubbing my eyes to make sure I was seeing and hearing correctly was the one where you meet the Veil Jumpers for the first time and the two leaders of the faction for some unknown reasons had knowledge of Solas being Fen'harel and most importantly that the old elven gods were power hungry evil mages. Like, that should not at all be any kind of common knowledge, that just felt absolutely insane. No explanation given as to how they could have pertained that bit of info.

And there was something really off with Arlathan, where the whereabouts of the ancient elven capital was like the biggest mystery of the previous games; no one knew where it had vanished, it had just been buried according to legend, and suddenly there is just a large crater in the middle of Arlathan forest and loads of city parts kind of left? Just, really strange. 

And all this talk about the Tevinter blood magic destroying the elves while walking in that forest - where we literally just learned in the last game that it was not Tevinter that destroyed the elves, but the elves themselves and that when Tevinter came they were long gone, which makes those throwaway conversations just like this huge retcon of the last games. Kind of like someone reading the early lore and being like, aha, this is what happened, without also taking part of the events that showed that as being a false belief… 

And it feels like this was done because it fits in with this whole new idea of “elves good” and “man bad” vibe of the story, where elves had been turned into some kind of indigenous population that were fighting the evil colonialist Tevinter? Which is not at all the original lore; in the original lore pretty much everyone’s an asshole in different ways (even if Tevinter are more assholes than most).

They have also removed a lot of the difference between surface dwarves and thaigh dwarves with their quite oppressive cast systems and racism towards the surface dwarves and peoples.

And they made the chantry into the catholic church in Antiva, is that really lore friendly? The chantry run or other mage circles aren’t really referenced anymore, even with several new organisations around that forming after Inquisition no matter what choices you made, and mages aren’t really treated any special, and people don’t seem to be afraid of them or revere them as they would in the rest of the world or Tevinter, and magic has been turned into some kind of scifi magical tech instead of what it used to be. 

And apparently dragons have treasures now, but they never used to have that, so that's another thing where it feels like the writers did not write for the Thedas but for like generic fantasy. 

And the Crows of Antiva are only a friendly family instead of an unscrupulous child buying assassin’s league (I hear that has kind of been explained in some written media by a war between the different crow factions, but they could have somehow then explained that...), and the pirates lead by Isabela - one of the worst perpetrator of cultural theft known from Dragon Age 2 where she stole the Tome of Koslun, with so little care as to return it to the point that a war with the Qunari broke out in Kirkwall - are not pirates but culturally sensitive treasure hunters, but of course without explanation as to how this could come to pass. 

I have seen many people complain about things and references that are missing but that actually ARE in the game, and that is why I am not as upset about the missing lore because I know that there are probably a lot of that lying around in codexes and scenes and little NPC conversations and such that I have missed, just as many others have missed a lot of things. But those things that ARE there, that break the earlier lore without any given plausible explanation, that is what hurts. 

The writing regarding companions, NPCs, "teambuilding" and preaching tone

Generally people are just too happy and cheery almost all the time.

I've heard "you've got this" WAY too many times - the disconnect between the dark lore and world and the NPCs who are so unphased almost all of the time, except for when emotion is needed for a scene, is too large. There is way much more cynicism needed here to reflect the evil in the world and the actual goings on around. This constant cheeriness was present in both companion dialogue and NPC interaction.

This game is obviously themed around building "a team" - that's the main premise, but the idea the writers have about how you do that doesn't feel based in reality. It feels like the power fantasy of nerdy queer computer developers on how they want people to feel or operate. Rook is made out to be a good leader because the question "are you ok" is used in any and all (not always reasonable) situations. Romantic questions are blunt in a way that not everyone would be comfortable with, but all companions are still happy with that in-the-real-world not very successful flirting style, and it feels like that is a power fantasy of writers who just wish the world would function like this. 

You as Rook feels like your companion's mom and therapist, and their struggles are so juvenile and safe that they are about that they cannot sleep, forget to eat, that their mom told them to do something, that grandma might not approve of them, or that they do not like vegetables… And you tell them how to live their lives; they should eat, and sleep, and lots of other cliches, but the game also tells you as the player through companion dialogue that it is also good to do breathing exercises, drink less coffee, eat more flax-seed because it's good for your stomach, and how often you should shower. I as Rook even gave the mega ancient goddess Mythal modern style RELATIONSHIP advice, I wanted to sink through the floor… 

This game feels preachy in a way that I have never ever felt in a game, it is like there are some writers there who just discovered that mindfulness, flax-seed and personal hygiene are good for you and now have to tell that to the WORLD. If kind of feels like they were envisioning us players some young vulnerable gamers that they needed to save with their hard earned life wisdom. I feel like the writers behind a lot of the companion interactions were not suited to write the kind of deep meaningful content that you expect from this kind of game.

The amount of times I have heard "Thank you" and "I am sorry" in this game is insane. The characters thank each others and apologize constantly like there is no tomorrow, and they resolve their differences within two sentences like - "I hate your whole way of life" - "Oh, I'm sorry I wish you said something sooner" - "Oh, no, I am sorry, I should never have called you assbag." It's just… so much bad writing, I don't know what to call it, it's shallow and flat and I just wish it was so different.

A whole lot of the preaching style could have been remedied if there had been more “show, don’t tell” in this game. It feels like the writers have forgotten that when you want to convey a moral, cultural, artistic or political message through a piece of art, like games are, you need to do it through the power of allegory and not just by having characters outright saying what is right or wrong.

For example, if the message that you want to get across is that cultural piracy is bad, you should not have a character posture for an organisation just telling you how good they are for returning treasure to cultures they come from; you should write a quest where you dig up a piece of treasure that gives you some kind of power, but where you later find out this is an important cultural relic of some lost tribe that really wants it back, and where you as the player have to grapple with the weight of that moral choice. Even players who would then choose to keep the relic for selfish and power-grabbing reasons would still feel kind of morally bad, and they would still get the message you are trying to convey. This kind of mechanic in storytelling is something that is missing throughout the whole game when it comes to different moral, social or cultural messages. 

Also, in the character Bellara the retcon or writing for a different universe and strange companion writing converges. She namely talks about herself as autodidact - that she has learnt not by studying but by poking around and figuring out what goes boom - but at the same time she has many discussions with professor Emmerich about academic stuff and she uses all the fancy words, words that are also out of lore-words, about frequencies and things that come rather from Elder Scrolls and sci-fi universes, whereas in Dragon Age magical power relates to blood (titan blood, human blood, blighted blood and so on) or the fade and spirits. A person who is self taught by only learning and doing would not at all talk like that "you need to huperflux the enchantment-condesator", they would say "you know that feeling you get when it's about to go boom, that's when you do like this show and hold your breath" or something.

That there is so little real choice, you have only one personality and morality

You get very little choice in this game, so little that it almost no longer really feels like an RPG. Especially around who your Rook is and how they act, oftentimes they will just continue talking and say things about their life and background that you had no idea about and had never chosen. You are getting to know your character at the same speed as the NPCs of the game.

For a while while playing this game I honestly thought I had lost my ability to read and understand the English language, and was making plans to try to regain my language skills, because I had never before experienced such a disconnect between what you choose as a player and what Rook actually says. I realized later that this disconnect was not only felt by me but by others as well, and that there is a large disconnect between the options and what is said. 

I don’t need to be “evil” like you could be in Origins or can be in the Baldur’s Gate games, but at least I thought you could be a kind of paragon or renegade version of Rook, or at least that you could form your personality like Hawke and be kind, funny or harsh - but not even that. Rook is more pre cooked than Geralt in the Witcher games, this is more of an interactive movie in many places, so many that I wish they were more honest about that and made those conversations more into quicktime events where you would just experience the scenes like in Detroit Become Human or games like those. The illusion that there are RPG choices where you have less choice in dialogue than you had in Fallout 4 is just hurting the experience, and especially hurting any immersion and connection you can have with your player character. 

You are only allowed to be heroic, and just one type of heroic; not the one that is ready to sacrifice things for the greater good or to get things done, but only the goodie two-shoes hero (that for sure oftentimes is what I play, but which feels meaningless unless there is an option to go another route). 

The most glaring example of this forced morality that pretty much breaks the fourth wall was when Rook goes by a scene in a blighted city where several people have been hung and says very dramatically that “this shouldn’t happen anywhere” and then proceeds to murder 20 Venatori agents with zero thought as to who their mothers, children or pets are. That comment did not feel like a legitimate comment that would be said by a Rook as created by genuine interest in the character or their connection to the world, but much more as a clear “social posturing” or “virtue signaling” for the player behind the computer screen that this is a good person, and that they are good according to the only specific moral view the hero is allowed to have (no chaotic good allowed). 

It was also very present in Rook's interactions with Solas' memories in the crossroads. When confronted with a memory of the blight being created and threatening to spread to the whole world and how Solas sacrificed ONE of his agents to guarantee that the blight would not spread to the world the only way to react to that was the Solas was a horrible callous and evil person for not saving this one person and possibly condemning the world. I think they somehow meant for Rook and Solas to be moral opposites, where Rook would always protect the little people against oppression and Solas would sacrifice the little people for his missions, but it really feels so off to not have any say in your RPG characters moral values, even within the tropes of heroes.

This kind of virtue signaling is also present in many other parts of the game, used not to deepen the characters but to position them as the "good guys", and my best example here is how they handle Emmerichs vegetarianism. It could have been a really interesting trait that could have resulted in interesting conversations about morality, mortality, spirits of animals and flesh - but instead this trait is mainly used to position the other companions as good because they have (wow, time to get impressed) remembered to cook vegetarian food for Emmerich, several times even (naaw, that is so nice and inclusive of them, uwu). This cheapens the whole thing and makes it instead feel preachy (which it is at this point) and it's such a wasted potential.

And when it comes to the choices in the main game there is only one big choice before the suicide mission ending that is major and creates some replayability, but it doesn’t have a particularly large emotional effect because you have not come to know the places enough to care about them properly. The choices you make in the companion quests are, with the exception of Emmerich’s quest, so shallow and just affect their gear instead of their stories in any meaningful way, that I just wish they didn’t have any choices at the end of the quest lines.

SUMMARY

In conclusion: a lot of people have tried to explain these choices of retconning the factions and the lore, and the strange “teambuilding” discourse, as stemming from an idea of Rook as a heroic hero and their team “The Veilguard” as some kind of Avengers. And that for this purpose everything they do has to be good, they have to have only one type of personality, with one type of morality, have only one type of interaction with the world and their companions, the companions have to lack any type of “problematic” (or god forbid interesting) or morally ambiguous character flaw, and all factions you collaborate with have to be morally unambiguously good and the bad guys have to be unequivocally evil preferably without grayscale.

This way of thinking, if this is true, makes these choices that they have made for the game kind of make sense, but it is still such a weird choice to make, to take a complex dark fantasy story that is Dragon Age - and a cRPG franchise known for morally difficult and emotional choices and complex morally grey factions and cultures - and turn it into this hero-fiction, with clear cut morals and cartoony vibe aimed at younger audiences. 

This could have been such an amazing game (which is in many parts still is), but something went really wrong in the direction for the writers and I ache so bad for all those developers that I am sure really tried their best and probably suffered under insane creative direction. I don’t know how else to explain this. 

It feels like, when playing through the game, like the teams that made the environments, the main story and the companions were three different teams where the first two got all the time and resources, and no micromanagement, whereas the last team didn't have any contact with the others and got the short end of the stick.

I am still waiting for the Kotaku article where they talk to 19 people who have worked on this keeping them anonymous and telling us the real story about the experience of making this game. 

Thank you for reading this far, I seriously hope you loved this game no matter its strange choices at time, and I would STILL say after all of this that it is worth playing for all Dragon Age fans out there.

Dareth shiral.

[lucybellwood]

A slew of goodies headed off to the Wayward Retreats team tomorrow morning! These items will be included in blind box rewards to say thank you to folks who support our Kickstarter (running until November 30th). The team is primarily raising funds to replenish the scholarship fund for creators of color, which has been amply utilized these last few years. (Hooray!)

I've been involved with Wayward as a retreater and returning facilitator since 2019 and I wanna see this community thrive!!! The whole experience feels like the perfect intersection of my interests and proclivities as an artist.

Also I just wanna applaud them for picking the best photo for my facilitator bio.

"Eyy, you wanna buy a flowah crown?"

Anyway, if you're interested in participating in a future retreat, read on for info about Wayward:

Wayward is a creative retreat for artists of all marginalized genders set on Quadra Island, BC. Free from cell phones and internet, the artists at Wayward have the quiet time and space they need to dig deep into their art, experiment, explore, and hone their craft. We welcome nonbinary folks, transgender folks, and cisgender women from a range of artistic backgrounds with the aim of creating a safer space for connection with self, other artists, and the work. Our artists come back from Wayward revitalized, often with important inroads made into new, experimental avenues in their work. In this way, Wayward fulfills its mission of helping artists advance their art and process in service of a more harmonious world.

In addition to solo work time, Wayward creates space for collaboration and adventure. Retreaters create an interconnected group piece over the course of the retreat week. Optional workshops and excursions into the wild are offered for those who need a break from their work. Morning movement class helps retreaters wake to the day in a gentle way. Daily meals are prepared by the hosts and retreaters together, often with greens from the house’s garden, oysters from the nearby beach, or other local ingredients. 

Check out the retreat website here and keep an eye out for future applications! And thanks to @sawdustbear for their stellar work on this campaign.

[agentravensong]

the season 3 finale of angel hare premiered last night and it ruined my life. stellar job by the full team. i am heartbroken over this nonbinary self-sabatoging video game angel / cartoon rabbit.

(and after i doodled them, it felt wrong to not try drawing the other two as well <3)

[mogai-headcanons]

icon id: 20 icons in 10 pairs. in each pair, both icons have the listed flags in order in the background and the left icon has an image of the listed character with a white outline and a black shadow. end id.

banner id: a 1500x150 teal banner with the words ‘please read my dni before interacting’ in large white text in the center. end id.

Arven from Pokemon is a demiplatonic greyplatonic aroace autumnaesic trans guy who uses he/him pronouns!

Nemona is a questioning aspec adjectogender person who uses she/her and any neopronouns!

Penny is a latenightoceanic nonbinary lesbian who uses they/them, she/her, and star/stargazer pronouns!

Kieran is an alterhuman dragonlink arretaromantic omniromantic platoniromantic asexual transmasculine aceboy who uses he/him and they/them pronouns!

Carmine is a bisexual nullpronominal girl who is fine with she/her auxiliary pronouns!

Lacey is a panromantic asexual cutegender cutecollector demifeminine acegirl who uses she/her, star/starry, stel/stellar, ca/cak, and des/sert pronouns!

Crispin is an aplspec aromantic asexual androgyneutral enboygirl who experiences alterous attraction and uses he/him, they/them, and she/her pronouns!

Amarys is an afamspec arolovic nebularose transfeminine autigender person who uses she/her pronouns!

Drayton is a dragonkin aplspike bisexual transmasculine dragonex verdeboy who uses it/its, he/him, dra/gon, and fi/fire pronouns, but is fine with any pronouns besides they/them!

Perrin is a gay trans man who uses he/him pronouns!

dni link

[valentine-cafe]

Helloo, wishing you a lovely day🥰

Could i get a tiramisu with a non-binary reader? Imagine the reader being known as a mysterious person, who no one can quite read or affect. Only for Alessio to notice the little things; the reader's little smirks whenever Alessio says something witty, or the little laugh under their breath at his antics. Or even the way their eyes take him in appreciatively. Imagine Alessio confronting them, asking if they are interested in him, only for them to give him a half lidded gaze and a confident smirk, "Do you want me to be?"

˖⁺. ﹙ antihero merc with mouth bf x nonbinary reader. ﹚ .𖹭 ݁

. . . riddled speechless !! 🍒 :  antihero ˖ mercenary ˖ enigma character character﹙ verse 781 alessio. ﹚

alessio finds himself infatuated with the mystery of you, he did not expect the boldness from your mouth

Admittedly, you caught him off guard.

It is not often that many see the punkgoth with such a stellar mouth stunned. Ears burning, yet for his luck and fortune, they are covered. Unable to be seen by any and all.

Yet you suss it out quickly, and so you open your mouth to say more.

“Did I snatch the words out your mouth Arias? Cat got your tongue?” You chuckle, with a cock of your head to the side. While you trace mindless circles around the metallic surface of the locker next to you.

To think he had made his entire way over to you to ask if you were interested, only to lose his words completely the second you dish back his flirts.

Black, neatly kept nails join you pattern and curl into the metal alongside your head. There's that grin you know and love.

“Never thought you to be the bold type.”

The fair skin of his face swarms your vision, with dark tresses to frame. The grin that splits his lips spells trouble.

But you like trouble.

“New to you?” Your muse nurtures his chuckle. Dual silver studs catch in the afternoon shine of the hallways as he raises his brows.

“I'd go with rare. Certainly pleasant. Hard-to-get.”

Your teeth worry your lower lip. A small nip that has his fingers mirroring it into the metal of the locker. And as you lean in until his lips border the line between fantasy and reality — you click your tongue with a crooning tune to follow.

“Hard-to-get huh? Thought you liked games?”

And so let them begin.