crypticcanidae

[crypticcanidae]

half of thedas when Divine Victoria dissolved the circle of magi:

[crypticcanidae]

[crypticcanidae]

as a fan of both a Dragon Age and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, man I gotta say the past 5 years have been Rough in terms of news about their respective sequels

[crypticcanidae]

love that lyrium causes paranoia if you take too much of it. lets put a lot of paranoid guys with swords and authority in a tower where they can constantly doubt the "was that a demon" "is that blood magic" "was someone being controlled recently" surely this will go well

[crypticcanidae]

Picture it. You spend a year getting ready to confront the Big Bad so you can then get everyone to focus on the whole End of the World thing. The Big Bad has a Second Guy who tells Big Bad they should hire an assassin. Second Guy then hires an Assassin with Big Bad's money to go and kill you. The Assassin fails and is at your mercy. You end up sparing his life. Now he's your friend. You finally confront the Big Bad. You duel. The Big Bad loses and you end up sparing his life. Guess what. Now he's your friend. And then a few months later some guy is in a jail cell because he wanted to assassinate you. Turns out he's Second Guy's son and he wanted to kill you because you killed his dad and he's really upset about it. You end up sparing his life. Now he's your friend. This happened to my good friend, the Warden.

[crypticcanidae]

But really, the Veilguard endings only provide closure to the Inquisitor's storyline in one specific instance: an Inquisitor who chose to save Solas. And even then, only if Rook chooses the Atonement ending. Imagine, if you will, an Inquisitor who considers Solas a good friend, who spent a decade hoping to chsnge his mind and...at the end, somebody else decides to stab him and lock him up forever. Without you ever even having the chance to even speak to him again. How is that a satisfying end to the story? How is that closure? Consider, as well, an Inquisitor who swore to stop Solas at any cost, who was personally affected by his betrayal. And you spend 10 years chasing him, set upon killing him, only for someone else to get there first. You never even lay eyes on Solas again. No looking him in the eye as you seal him away, you aren't even involved. How is that closure? How is that satisfying as a conclusion to the story?

[crypticcanidae]

thinking about how cool the warrior hawke warplate is. unless you're playing a femhawke. in which case you get the most awkward fucking proportions in existence because bioware could not physically help themselves but give her a snatched waist in full steel armor.

[crypticcanidae]

again this is very nitpicky but i dont like that even tho veilguard is very handwavy when it comes to rook's backstory, you cant really roleplay someone who's Older TM.

What i mean is. here i am playing with my grey warden rook, who in my head is a 35 year old senior warden bc she's been a warden for over a decade. and then i meet the first warden and he says 'you're a junior member' and im like what.

and then i was thinking of making my qunari warden to be like. 45 or smthg. but then i remembered shattann, in the one time you have a qunari dialogue option, says rook is 'qunari youth'.

and like granted, in dao and da2, the hof and hawke are both supposed to be young. but in dao, since you get to actualy play the origin, your age range is established pretty early so i dont get confused later on. and with hawke, since the game has time skips, it also makes sense for them to be younger and again, that gets established pretty early on. and dai i dont think they ever talk about age or anything, so its whatever, but with dav it did bother me to be sprung up like oh yeah and btw you're 20 when i've been roleplaying as a bitch in her 30s or 40s.

[crypticcanidae]

im gonna be nitpicky and critical about veilguard for a moment here if you'll excuse me

So I've been thinking about the factions and how they're tied back to rook's "backstory" and the one scene where rook decorates their room and talks about their life and lets hope i can ramble in a way that makes sense.

I dont like that Rook's backstory is tied to their faction, nor do I think rook's backstory was handled in a good way.

Like ok, i think factions should have somehow been tied to race and class, much like how origins did it. The reason for that is that from previous games, we know how important who you are and what you do are in society and also, i think it would make for tighter backstories that better account for who rook is.

Like, for example, if you play a qunari de riva, the game just. kinda never. really adresses the gigantic elephant in the room - that rook is a qunari and a crow while qunari are invading treviso. beyond jacobus being a little racist, i dont think there's that much reactivity about it, which is just kinda frustrating/dissapointing. The game just kinda feels like rook's class/faction/race are these three separate things. Idk if this is making sense but in dai and dao, i always felt that my character's race and class were pieces of the puzzle that made up my hof/inquisitor. Playing a human warrior was different than playing a human mage in aspects beyond gameplay. In DAI, i played with a mage trevelyan, mage lavellan and mage adaar and even tho they were all mages, they felt different bc of their race. Even if they fit the role of mage, who they were changed that, so race and class walked hand in hand.

But with Rook, it feels different. It feels like each part of them is disconnected from the other and i think the biggest show of that is in the scene where rook is decorating their room. If Rook is a mage, regardless of race or faction, they have this magic project that they can talk about. And the issue is that, depending on rook's race or faction, it just makes 0 sense for them to have that. How does an ex galley slave lord of fortune rook had time to have a proper magical education in a circle? how did qunari rook even get allowed in a circle?

and the issue is that the faction and the race and the class are not tied together, they're weirdly separate. Why does my qunari rook de riva, when talking about the antaam warlord pin, is not given an option to like. fucking comment on that.

and my issue on the faction thing is that like. You're not fully given rook's whole backstory on the character creation. In fact, that lil paragraph is basically worthless bc all factions do the same thing - you saved some people, superiors got mad, so now you have to disspaear for a time and joined varric. boom thats it. but you're not told where you're from, what you've done, how you joined the faction.

DAI, for example, while also not telling you who you are on the CC, gives us a codex entry which does go into more detail over who the inquisitor was - AND even tho your backstory is mostly determined by your race, your class DOES change stuff - a mage lavellan is the first to the keeper, a warrior trevelyan was raised as a templar i think, a mage adaar gets mentioned how their parents went to other tal vashoth to help with magic.

and while i DO have issues with how backstories are set up in DAI, i still think they're slithgly more succesful than dav, solely bc they let me, as the player, take full control. My inquisitor can't just decide random things about their backstory, its always my choice. Meanwhile, Rook will randomly spill details of the backstroy the player was not privy to out of nowhere, and you have no chance to input or decide anything.

also to get back on that scene. this is VERY nitpicky on my part, but that scene feels so. weird and forced? I think its because the idea of rook just talking out loud about their backstory feels weird bc i know they're doing it to tell me the player. Like ok, obviously, i dont think there's any way to just easily give the player the character's backstory without looking a little weird bc yeah no one irl just starts talking about their life out of the blue but i think the other games were more succesful.

DAO gives you a brief narration from Duncan, which is short enough to tell you the basics of what you need to know. It kinda fits because the whole beggining of the game (the story of the magisters and the blight) IS told via Duncan's narration, so him continuing that makes sense, and which how its written, it doesnt feel off from the rest of the game.

In DA2, we also get told the initial tidbits of Hawke's story via narration, but much like da2, the "varric is narrating everything" IS the plot of da2, so it makes sense. And then in both of those games, other bits of character backstory are either told to you by the NPCs in your character's life (the cousland's family relationship with the howes or the fact that malcolm's dead). it feels natural.

Now like i said, im not a huge fan of how dai deals with character backstory (aka give me a prologue) but i do think that having Josephine bring up the herald's backstory feels more natural than what rook does, because then the inquisitor is talking about their life (and the player's getting a chance to define things about their character) BC another character asked, so it makes sense.

And i know. The reason Rook is talking and doing decoration is explained in game. but my issue is just that. it comes off as a moment to the player and not smthg that would just naturally happen, and it does break my immersion.

i think this came off as very rambly and i dont have a point beyond wanting to bitch about smthg that was bothering me

[crypticcanidae]

hi so very random but I've just been mulling over how for me Veilguard kind of encapsulates a lot of the failings of modern liberalism in a fascinating way.

What I mean is that advocating for things like the use of people's correct pronouns and diverse representation is of course very important. However, for an economically privileged liberal that kind of advocacy costs them nothing: they can advocate for all this without giving up any of their economic privilege or power. They don't have to consider whether the structure of their society as a whole is deeply unjust and should be radically changed; they don't have to consider whether the global world order is deeply unjust and should be radically changed. This kind of advocacy becomes a way of telling themselves that they are doing good things and making positive change, thus salving their conscience about their privilege without ever having to face the possibility of significant societal and economic changes that might make them less privileged.

And Veilguard feels so very much the essence of that. It refuses to so much as look at any politics that is about structural inequality or oppression; it puts all its politics into 'representation' in ways that don't challenge anything or demand change. Indeed, its narrative is built around an explicit and foundational opposition to change! In Tevinter we just need to put someone nice in power and solve all the problems within the existing system; no one is ever even allowed to contemplate any genuine systemic change. There is diversity but the diversity is largely aesthetic; the characters are of a variety of races but race (either in a real-world sense or in the human/dwarf/elf/qunari sense) is almost never dealt with explicitly in the plot. In just the same way as modern liberalism more generally, Veilguard really wants to claim that it is doing good things and making positive change by presenting a superficial kind of diversity while trying extremely hard to stay away from any suggestion that the world might need more radical change.

I love that it's queer; I enjoyed Taash's story, and the explicit pansexuality of the other characters. But its queerness ultimately feels quite hollow to me because genuine queer rights movements are radical; they are about demanding real transformative change, they are about overthrowing systems of oppression. Veilguard does not want to touch any of that, and instead focuses entirely on individual personal issues, in just the same way that modern liberalism has been trying to do for a long time. So it bothers me to see it being held up as a triumph of queer media, because it seems very much in the tradition of liberals using queer people as essentially political stage-dressing as a way of not having to confront the issues they don't want to face.

one of the best and most concise analyses of the game's politics i have ever seen wrapped up in a lovely bow and put in my inbox <3 thanks for sharing!

[crypticcanidae]

I'm actually so upset that all we see of nevarra is a sandy green tomb with urns and coffins scattered around a single graveyard. because I was under the impression that the grand necropolis was full of gold-encrusted furniture and a wide variety of mummies and elaborate tombs with ballrooms and bathhouses. I was under the impression that the grand necropolis was like. outside. gleaming in the sunlight with statuary and incredible feats of architecture and priests everywhere. not a pit of darkness and sand. why is there so much sand.

[crypticcanidae]

I do think one of the things that made me saddest about Veilguard was the sheer lack of continuity. And I'm not even talking about worldstates.

Where are the Varterral? Why is Arlathan forest guarded by magical robots instead?

Where are the merchant princes of Antiva? You know, the people who really run Antiva? Not the king, not the Crows?

Why does the Lighthouse exist? Wasn't it implied in the last game that Skyhold was Solas’s fortress? The place where the sky is held back?

Why was Emmrich never a member of a Circle? Why have we forgotten that Nevarra had Circles (although presumably those who managed to become Mortalitasi had much greater freedom than mages elsewhere, they would presumably also all be Harrowed mages from the Circles in Nevarra originally)? Why have we forgotten that Cumberland was home to the College of Enchanters?

Where is the Felicisima Armada? That Isabela was part of? Why does the timeline of Taash's storyline and their mother's work with the Lords clash completely with the Kirkwall timeline?

What do you mean, the Titans are done? Then what was going on with the Titan in the Descent? The one that woke up and started moving around and got soothed by reconnecting itself with Valta? It seems like that Titan was very much alive and well, where are the others? Given that lyrium is alive and the Titan's blood, I can only assume that anyplace where you have actively growing lyrium, you have a living Titan? Why can't the dwarves reconnect with them?

A lot of these are little things...but they all add up. This, combined with the fact that quite a lot of the characters don't seem particularly integrated into the world of Thedas either...

[crypticcanidae]

crazy how the treatment of the tranquil is blamed on the mages so often in dai. it's always their fault for being uncomfortable with them or not protecting them well enough but when we actually get into the fact that tranquility isn't always used as a last resort it's a necessary sacrifice. personally i'd also have very complicated feelings while taking care of lobotomised friends and family who also serve as reminders of what the people who kept/keep me locked in a tower would do to me if i stepped out of line.

[crypticcanidae]

fun behaviors to give dragons that aren't feline/canine based

cause as much as i love dragons purring and roaring i wish there was just more variety in how they would act

clacking their teeth together to show contentedness/happiness (budgies)

using tails as a defensive weapon in a whip like fashion (iguana)

twitching to express that they're not a threat to members of their species (hognose snake)

feeling calm when eyes are hooded/covered (birds of prey)

head bobbing as a threat display (anoles/bearded dragons)

flattening neck or sides to appear bigger (snakes/lizards)

mantling over food to protect it from hatchmates (birds of prey)

wiggling neck as a courting maneuver (budgies)

audibly grinding teeth as a warning (macaques)

maintained eye contact as a challenge (gorillas)

pounding wings against sides as a threat (gorillas)

slapping other dragons with their claws when their personal bubble is invaded (seals)

hoards used as a site to impress mates (birds of paradise)

snorting when undergoing heightened stress (horses)

making repeated loud noises with surroundings to establish territory (woodpeckers)

loud constant arguments with other dragons when roosting (bats)

building lairs that cause a domino effect of change in the land around them (beavers)

slapping their tails against the ground/water as a warning (beavers)

wiggling tail tip to attract prey (various animals)

wiggling tail tip as a warning (snakes)

plucking or scraping off scales as a sign of stress (parrots)

raising spines/frills as a response to danger and carrying on with their usual business as they believe they're protected (lionfish)

and im not saying canine and feline behaviors are wrong or bad to give a dragon (people wouldn't write dragons with those behaviors if they weren't fun in the first place!) but i feel for creatures that are mythological giant winged lizards that you can do more and get experimental with it. often the more unfamiliar behavior the more dragony the dragon feels

[crypticcanidae]

how many wardens do you think ferelden could have by like. inquisition? or even veilguard, if we assume the ferelden wardens stayed out of the mess at adamant?

before they got slaughtered at ostagar, the wardens had been in ferelden for 20 years. there were only a handful of them, mostly transferred from other nations, and fereldans largely still didn't care about or trust them. presumably their recruitment rate is like. zero.

after ostagar, the wardens are ferelden heroes, they've made allies across the country, and they've been granted an entire arling. it seems reasonable to assume they'd probably have far more people willing to try and join, right? at least for the first few years after the blight, while it's still fresh in people's minds?

in terms of numbers. we've been told the anderfels have over a thousand wardens, and other nations have 'a few dozen or hundreds'. the ferelden wardens were considered understaffed at 'a handful' (how many people is that?), so i guess they were the 'few dozen'? should i assume the order usually aims for like 100-odd wardens per nation at the very least?

i know the joining has abysmal survival rates, but i feel like. idk. 10 new recruits surviving every year seems reasonable? maybe even a little low, if most countries have hundreds of wardens? though i suppose a higher number of recruits would solve that?

anyway. theres about a decade between origins and inquisition, and two decades between origins and veilguard, so ferelden could end up with about 100 to 200 wardens, respectively? potentially even more, depending on how recruiting efforts go? given the recent blight that everyone else barely believes was real, ferelden's probably the most warden-friendly country in thedas, other than the anderfels. so i don't see a reason for them to struggle getting recruits. if anything they'd probably be struggling with quality control to make sure they don't waste archdemon blood. a few hundred ferelden wardens in the first decades after the fifth blight doesn't sound unfeasable i think?

[crypticcanidae]

[crypticcanidae]

i like how big of a jokester Loghain is when you conscript him. i guess it can be counted as a final stage of a mental breakdown but my man just talks in sarcasm. massive im a clown and my circus is sinking energy