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"And from the ashes of the old world our love shall grow"

Neve x Mercar, The Lovers

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Some Davrin and Assan for @datvcompanionweeks Davrin Week! Day one is Shepard/Hunter, Nurture/Nature. I know Davrin's known for his sword and board work, but I loved the idea of him taking Assan on hunting trips in Arlathan for a little griffon-y enrichment!

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Davrin Week, Day 4: Fatherhood/Childhood

I will fully admit I really just wanted to use this as an excuse to draw my Rook, Meantán, and the family she and Davrin would start together after Veilguard <3 They bring me so much joy to draw! @datvcompanionweeks

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rainy day doodle of anders 🌧️

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datv's rebrand of the crows is ridiculous either way but at least i can buy it a little bit better when treviso has been destroyed. "why are they organizing water supply for the people in treviso?" well who else is going to do it. also they're some of the people who live in treviso who want water. you can work it around to a "why are you going to save the world?"/"i'm one of the idiots who lives in it!" situation

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i like to imagine the act 1 kirkwall gang hanging out on those steps outside gamlen’s place for no reason. just sort of lounging and bickering

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i should have prepared more for davrin week but here's a very rough take on a combo of day 1 and 2 @datvcompanionweeks

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day 1 of @datvcompanionweeks #davrinweek2025 - shepherd

a baby davrin taking his halla herding duties very very seriously

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hello everyone i just found out that every other line in cailan’s greeting conversation with the warden where he talks about your identity is marked with a VO note abt how much of a politician he’s being and how much he does not actually gaf

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my thing with the south being destroyed is that before the game released, they were on and on about how we're not talking about the south in this game guys, we're in the north, don't think about the south, we're not even doing worldstate choices.

and i made my peace with that y'know? like ok it sucks that we won't get to see ferelden or kirkwall or orlais or whatever again, but yeah its the north i GUESS it makes sense.

and then i open the game and suddenly my inquisitor is teling me about how the south is being attacked. like my small moment of joy for hearing the word Denerim is completely killed by the following other terrible words. And like ok. the south is in trouble but they're gonna be fine, rigth?

and then every single letter afterwards goes on and on about how shit is absolutely terrible, how they're fighting a loosing war, how ferelden has been SO decimated that its ENTIRE POPULATION FITS IN SKYHOLD. That the Avvar and the Chasind are still hunting but there probably won't be anything left to hunt soon. That Kirkwall had to be evecuated.

and they do make a point of naming Every Location That Might Be Important To The Player. They mention Redcliffe and Denerim and Lake Calenhad and Kirkwall and Skyhold, all places you've gone too and protected in the past, that most players have an attachment too, and they proceed to tell us that this place that is important to you is fucking razed to the ground, and that the people are fucking dead. its hard for it not to feel like a goddamn spit in the face.

and from what i gathered, this was apparently something added during the Alpha? I have this memory of one of the devs saying that halfway through they were like oh shit we need to show how the blight is affecting the south too and how big and bad this blight is and i'm like you really dont need to, i can see how bad it hurts the north and just imagine that on the south. and the worst part is that it feels like ONLY the codexes talk about it bc even the inquisitor is just like "sigh yeah its tough down there but we're managing" and i'm like by your letters no the fuck you're not, why the fuck is harding going to redcliffe with emmrich when you just told me redcliffe is fucking gone

and people saying the south will rebuild and like i have SERIOUS DOUBTS about that because remember, the blight fucking destroys the land. and in inky's last letter, they explicitly say that the population of ferelden has been cut down to Skyhold's size and that they all might starve soon. Kirkwall is essentially fucking gone considering it was evacuated and is now overrun by blight.

like seriously who the fuck thought anyone would be happy to read that places they spent 3 fucking games protecting are now destroyed WHO

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coming home

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roughhousing 😏

(AKA the concept art for Lucanis's room but it's at the Villa... and after 6mo apart post Veilguard he gets a surprise visit!!)

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*sets blackwall loose in home depot* be free

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my fav part of origins is the fact that it's a love letter to "the end does not justify the means". the entire game, in almost every quest, this is the constant question that's thrown at us. everyone in the story tells us that they did what they did because it would achieve the best outcome. from uldred's uprising in the circle tower, to zathrian's cursing of the werewolves, to bhelen's coup. loghain himself uses this as justification for the retreat at ostagar - that it was the morally correct decision to abandon the field, because it guaranteed some of the army would survive and could regroup for a new assault on the darkspawn in ostagar. and it's so specific that loghain, as the primary antagonist, loghain is the one arguing that the ends justifies the means because he is either your parallel, or your mirror.

to be more specific, my favourite thing about origins is that you, as the player character, are faced with the exact same choice. you will always resolve the circle tower uprising. you will always resolve the issue between the dalish and the werewolves. you will always settle the secession crisis in orzammar. you will always fight the archdemon and win over it. but how? what are your means? will you murder a child to spare redcliffe? will you slaughter cornered circle mages trapped in a tower with no escape? will you kill innocent werewolves who had nothing to do with a tragedy that happened hundreds of years ago? will you support a king that has his own family's blood on his hands because he wants change or a king that's more committed to culture & tradition over justice?

does it matter? to you? to anyone? why does it matter, if you're going to get to the same place in the story at the end?

and the story tells you. again and again. it matters. it matters because the ends do not justify the means. to roughly quote ursula k le guin, it matters because there is no end - you start the awakening dlc as your own warden if you survived, or as an orlesian warden if not. so, all you have left is the means.

it's very clumsy in a lot of places, and there's obvious issues if you look at each case in closer detail (e.g. the ideas around social justice re: dalish elves & mages), but overall, this is the kind of story that makes origins so special to me tbh. it really holds up a mirror to this kind of cold, utilitarian morality that's so often rewarded in "dark" fantasy genres. like idk it's very good to me.

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mr. not allowed to die

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Comm for Vaelore on Bsky!! Sebastian Vael card, I had so much fun making it, all her ideas for the card were so good, ty to her for her gorgeous mind <33

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i drew the DA:O LIs as little kids once a long time ago and i wanted to do it again because sometimes the very thought of it makes me wanna cry