#the path of death

[loredrinker]

When Solas says “I walk the din’anshiral” in Trespasser, it sounds like a vow. A commitment to a path that promises death, sorrow, and solitude. The language he uses is formal, signaling not just despair, but alignment with something ancient and sacred.

There’s no official codex entry that explains the din’anshiral beyond its literal meaning, but the way Solas invokes it feels ritualistic - like a remnant of a cultural tradition from ancient Elvhenan. It evokes the idea of a ceremonial journey, an exile undertaken by those who once chose destruction or isolation in service of something greater than themselves. I wonder, was this an ancient ceremony chosen by those who walked it or as a forced sentence? Did the kin of those walking the din’anshiral gather to weep for their brethren making this journey or was it truly meant to isolate and separate a being committed to a path of death?

This isn’t a poetic flourish Solas comes up with in the moment. How he says it, when he says it, and what it will cost him, makes it feel like an invocation. The vow binds him emotionally and existentially. It isn’t despair for despair’s sake, it’s his belief that he must walk this path alone, no matter the outcome.

(Veilguard confirms the seriousness of this vow as he remains unmoved in every ending but one: the atonement ending.)

By the time we meet him again in Trespasser, it’s clear Solas has already chosen this path. Dialogue only revealed through the romance path is declaration that marks a total foreclosure of personal desire, connection, or redemption. He has sealed himself away. He will not be swayed. He will use what he must, sacrifice who he must, and walk alone because that is what the path of the din’anshiral demands.

The din’anshiral symbolizes Solas’s surrender to a path he believes is necessary, even if it leads to his death. He does not expect to be saved. He does not expect to survive. And the Solas we see in Veilguard is the man who has walked that path for many years, and probably for much longer.

[annaccident]

early path of radiance be like

[tennessoui]

thinking this fine morning (afternoon) about a rebellion au where anakin never joins the Jedi Order and remains a slave & is sold off of Tatooine before his mother is freed by Cliegg. Sometime during the Clone Wars when he's like 22, a Jedi frees him and the handful of fellow slaves in the area by killing their master during a fire fight with Separatist forces - after the fight, the Jedi tosses Anakin the chip controller he'd found amongst the master's belongings while looking for information on Separatist movements. He says something, witty and kind, Anakin thinks, but Anakin can't remember it - couldn't hear it over the pounding of his heart at the prospect of his own freedom

so a year later, when the Jedi Order falls and the Empire rises up, Anakin just cannot believe that the Jedi were evil. He's not and never will be a Jedi fanatic or anything, but he remembers his Jedi, the one who freed him. He remembers his smile, his kindness, the swoop of hair falling over his sweaty forehead. The way he'd winked at Anakin as he left--the way he'd cut through the master's money safe with his lightsaber to reveal hoards of physical credits, up for the taking and enough for each slave to start a new life. no, his Jedi isn't evil and so Anakin is pretty sure that the Jedi Order was never evil either.

he's only had his freedom for a year or so. it's not been much of life up until then, and it feels like an easy decision to join the Rebellion. he wants something to fight for. he wants to do something meaningful with his life now that it's finally his.

fast forward ten years and he's fairly far up in the ranks of the Rebellion, considering how good of a pilot and mechanic he is. he's got a brain for strategy and he's got a massive amount of luck on his side. It's no wonder that when the Rebel leaders decide that they need the legendary General Obi-Wan Kenobi on their side and back in the game, they tap Anakin to go retrieve him.

Anakin goes. he's never met a Jedi before, apart from his Jedi, and even though this Kenobi guy sounds like a worn-out, retired, old-man Jedi, Anakin thinks it'll be a cool experience. also, orders are orders.

imagine his surprise when the coordinates he's given to find Obi-Wan Kenobi lead him to his home planet. imagine his surprise when he knocks on Obi-Wan Kenobi's door and the very familiar face of his Jedi opens it.

[technically-human]

Oh, Ivo. You are no Maria.

[uinferno]

While I do have some issues with Stormlight (only some—I don't nearly find its blemishes as glaring as most; WaT is a solid 7/10 for me), the unifying philosophy of "Life before death" has irreversibly influenced how I view the worth of human life. My entire world view is built on the fundamental belief that people both as a whole and as individuals are better off alive than dead. That self-sacrifice and martyrdom isn't the most profound thing any given person can do. That death isn't some ultimate punishment but an act of convenience. That getting back up and trying again is better than giving up and rot where you fall. You, as a person, are worth far more alive and breathing, trying to do good than running yourself down, chasing some vague aspirations, be it notoriety, altruism, or penance. You don't owe anyone for your existence, superfluous deaths are a great tragedy, and even the most abhorrent acts aren't so far gone that you can't come back, and that the prospect it is only serves to keep people locked down that path than grace of walking back.

You, as a person, can do far and away more good alive than dead, be it to achieve some higher calling, justifying your place in the world, or absolving yourself of past transgressions. Only living people can do good.

It's easy to die for a cause. Living for one is where the weight is at.

[akkivee]

they've been potentially changing a lot with the shadow manga, but since maria's final words to shadow were how she loves him and amy's conversation with shadow in the joypolis collab was about how he is loved, i like to think sonic team is still hinting at amy's ability to touch his heart lol

[ooooo-mcyt]

Scott Smajor (cc) is such a good story teller actually and the common themes he uses in his storylines captivate me. I think we should talk about how good he is at Themes more often. If I wasn't so tired I'd write essays.

[googoogojob]

[kyuhudraws]

Strong bird prince!

[moldypoff]

No cuz wouldn’t it be so funny if 049 was handed a ‘sick’ patient and finds that they have no trace of the pestilence in them but researchers keep insisting that the patient is sick.

Eventually he gets pissed and that’s when they tell him that the patient has depression.

He tells them that ailments to the mind aren’t his specialty but they keep pushing him to whip up some sort of cure.

So, he requests a bunch of things, dried lavender flowers, water, oils, pots and a portable stove, sugar, etc. and he goes into full TLC mode.

First day goes by and people are like, “okay, basic mental remedies, at some point he’ll rip them open and fix the unbalanced humors in patient, right?” WRONG.

He spends time reading and talking to patient for the next few days and slowly they come out of their shell, picking up old/new hobbies that 049 introduced to them to. It’d be even cooler if patient gets better in record time than if they’d just gone to a weekly therapy session.

Anywho, patient gets taken away by foundation to do a psyche evaluation and turns out their depression is cured. (THE ONE THING 049 HAS ACTUALLY CURED)

Afterward, even if patient was formerly a researcher or a d-class, I think it wouldn’t matter in the end because they’d still be amnesticized.

Anyways, 049 has all this crap in his cell and it looks like he actually lives there now but it’s missing the person that made his prison feel like a home.

[laddertek]

@countthelions (tumblr ate this when I tried to save my answer as a draft, so we improvise 🙃)

This one? :D

This whole stream was delightful. What a way to return 🤗

Tango was so happy energetic.

And from Tango calling Etho's storage system cute and Etho in gamechat going "CUTE?!" (00:41:07). To the razzing (and laughing) over shops (00:49:00 and 01:03:49). Etho taking Tango's head twice, and it all being so playful (00:58:11). Etho using Tango's catchphrases 🥹🥹🥹 It gets me every time! "porkchop power" "flee with extra flee!" And the way he said it was the cutest, and Tango's giggle about it too (01:00:59). Etho offering to give the tour Tango wanted. More mail talk and laughing guilt and planning and razzing and teaching Etho to do the stamps. Tango complimenting the path (and that Etho showed it to him when he first came back when Etho came to say hi) (01:15:41). They still plan on doing their sand-collection-off (01:35:06).

And of course the whole TNTificating with Etho's new "boom boom tech" (01:39:43--02:15:17) was just…the most fun. They are having the most fun together...it's an absolute joy. (And it's also them collaborating on how to figure out a redstone thing together which is just so satisfying.) Just...TOO MANY (!!!) (so many) fun moments in that whole TNT section that I can't even start on highlighting them all 😭 I'd need another mammoth paragraph...

Honestly??? Still smiling. Great great great stream 🥹

Timestamps are for YouTube not Twitch because Tango was so fast on getting the VOD up lmao

[mebis-rain-world-corner]

On The Prince's awakening, and enlightenment through echoes

While the throne has probably existed for eons, and something was starting to coalesce at its peak, it is pretty openly stated that it is watcher's precense in the throne what acted as catalyst for the birth of the prince's selfhood

Ahh! To move! To breathe free!

Never again... STARVING, pressing, grinding, SQUEEZING

against... us? But now... I? A... SELF And... an OTHER.

Oh the joy! The incomparable JOY!

Ahhh hah... familiar.

There was... such discomfort... and hunger. Endless hunger! And then... a presence!

A light! A scent! A tunnel! To freedom! How beautiful, FREEDOM!

A scent. Familiar. So familiar.

The watcher is probably the first living thing to be to the throne proper in an eternity

But I think there's more to this

4 karma "murals", 4 karma upgrades

4 visits, 4 warp points

Watcher's visits brought enlightenment like visiting echoes would do for a slugcat

"The highest enlightenment, achieved by the hardest path. A feat even guardians must respect" This achievement requires the player to raise their maximum karma to the highest level without visiting Five Pebbles. To do this, the player must find 4 out of the 6 Echoes, each of which raise the player's maximum karma by a small amount. All 4 Echoes must be found before visiting Five Pebbles. The achievement is earned as soon as the last Echo raises the player's karma level to the maximum of 10.

And is not as simple as just visiting 4 times either: for this awakening to properly progress you must make it to the top, eat the karma flower, then make it to a previously sealed chamber to open a warp point there

almost as if you're opening new pathways in its brain (tree)

A light! A scent! A tunnel! To freedom! How beautiful, FREEDOM!

These paths you weave. Through them I have expanded my kingdom. I have tasted and I have become. It is my true purpose I believe. Perhaps the only purpose!

Enlightenment is gaining knowledge, understanding, insight

Perhaps Echoes don't just give you more karma merely by merit of being extraplanar beings with influence over karma itself, or by the insight behind their anecdotes

Perhaps Echoes give you a glimpse into what lies beyond, a window to the fractal layers of reality

Perhaps what is happening here is something similar, the watcher showing the throne other worlds through the paths

the karma flowers though, thats harder to understand

perhaps the one at the very top represents the little death that is sleep ("like sleep like death")

Echoes always send you back to sleep after all

[mythalism]

hmmm. thinking about how veilguard seems to subscribe more to the more traditional "video game as personal power fulfillment fantasy of heroism" than any other dragon age game, except perhaps origins, though origins does it more artfully.

[shkika]

thoughts on watcher if you've had time to play it?

im so happy you're here we welcome you!- rough wip

rambling in the tags about the dlc!

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

Felassan does not betray solas, Solas betrays Felassan.

Not just by killing him, but by becoming a person who is so distanced from the cause Felassan joined that simply wanting to help free the elven people from oppression (the thing Felassan signed up for, all those thousands of years ago) would require refusing Solas’ orders and result in his execution

The betrayal of Felassan isn’t just murdering him mid sentence with his back turned, it’s also a betrayal of the cause their friendship was founded upon.

[adastra121]

Bad End: The Fall

Summary: It's my Hound!MC Alon's birthday, so I made some sketches of them and Mhin based on the scene from Transformers One! For context, the idea is that Vere has gotten himself free and went on a rampage in the Senobium, slaughtering students and clerics alike, and destroying the labs and archives, along with all hope of finding cures for Mhin and Alon's respective curses. In the midst of the massacre, Vere finally made Mhin lose control of the monster within them and they have transformed into a crow monster hybrid. There is a brutal and bloody fight between them but Mhin has finally defeated Vere and is about to kill him, when Alon, their partner, stops them.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s over. He lost.”

“So did we! We lost everything because of him — I have to do this!”

“No, you don’t. Look at him, he's down. He's no longer a threat.”

“He needs to die! Can’t you see that?”

“This won’t cure either of us! Don't do this, Mhin. Don’t be the monster he says you are.”

…

“…You need to move out of my way. Before I move you myself.”

“Mhin—”

“MOVE!”

“Stop—!”

!!!

...

“No…”

“No, no, no, you idiot! Why did you do that? Why?”

Your blood is on my hands now.

You’ve made it my fault.

You’ve made me into the monster…

All to save him.

“Partner…no…”

…

…

…

“I'm done saving you.”

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