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What Veilguard Could Have Been

Very saddened to hear the news about Bioware. As much as I was disappointed with Dragon Age The Veilguard, it was a fun game and I did not wish for the series to end. That being said, for those of you who haven't seen the artbook, I want to share the initial ideas and concepts of the team behind the game. Here's what Veilguard could have and should have been.

Characters from Previous Games

Morrigan, Dorian and Isabela were supposed to be our advisors. They also had better outfits.

Sten, Cole and Shale were some other characters featured in the artbook. An early idea for Cole was to act as a compassionate voice to Solas.

The Divine was supposed to make an appearance, sending out ships to hunt Solas in the hopes that his capture will restore peace to Thedas.

We were supposed to receive assignments from the Inquisitor.

Another idea was for us to return to the Fade and rescue whoever was left behind in Inquisition.

Solas as a True Leader

Elves from all over Thedas were supposed to answer Solas' call, as presented in the ending screens of Inquisition.

Solas' appearance was supposed to be more of a surprise.

Solas was supposed to return like a regal figure out of the distant past.

Game Mechanics

The game was focused more on espionage and sneaking around. We were supposed to go on cool missions, like infiltrating the Archon's throne room.

Another idea was for us to ride adult griffons, hunting dragons.

Or to go on secret missions in Tevinter, accurately depicted here with slaves and slavers.

Story and Setting

The dwarves were supposed to be fleeing the underground by the thousands. Cause is left unknown.

We were supposed to go to Par Vollen, the home of the Qunari.

Companions had the option to betray us.

We were supposed to go in disguise to a ball in the Necropolis.

Another idea was for Solas to interrupt our mission, wiping half of our team off the board and forcing us to make an unlikely alliance.

Solas was supposed to summon a Titan in the final battle.

We were supposed to get a happy ending with our love interests.

Headquarters

And last but not least, our base was first supposed to be a ship, sailing to all the places we would visit.

We would have a war table room, similar to Inquisition.

The ship could get stolen and we would have to get it back.

However, thematically, boats don't line up with the spy theme. They're too easy to spot and attack. So the ship was transformed into a submarine.

The submarine was already named The Dumat, after an Archdemon.

These are just the parts I found most interesting from the artbook, which has more than 200 pages. I wonder who saw all these ideas and went nah, let's scrap them. I guess we'll never know.

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Can you rectify this? I’d die happy if I saw him in your style 🥺🥺❤️🙏

Alistair was part of my Veilguard series but I didn't really like how it turned out, but here he is! <3 He's my favorite from Origins too.

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Distance

Pairing: F!ShepardxKaidan

Author’s Note: This is just a little one-shot I’m throwing to the void because I’ve sat on it for a while; sharing writing makes me nervous for some reason. T u T

If you’re like me and wished Shepard was still a little angry about Horizon, here ya go. It’s still Shenko I promise, I just like angst.

+++

He wouldn’t lie that he wasn’t happy to see her. To see at all. His brain still felt bruised, his skull itched, and his face felt like it had been crunched. But, he was lucky to just be alive.

In between the monotony of the neutral walls and poking and prodding, Shepard would appear. One day, he asked her if they were okay. She said “For now.” Quick, and sharp, like the pang in his busted brain. He left it there.

She came again another day. She had a “peace offering”, she said, complete with bottle of medicinal whiskey. But it all felt wrong. Every visit felt wrong.

She was so close, finally, after all this time, and yet the chasm was deep, unbearable.

Her warm eyes that usually held so much compassion looked forced, strained to even look at him. Even her little smile, that calm reassuring smile he loved, felt like it was being wrenched out from her. Hunched over in the chair, wringing her hands, her words as they chatted were laced with concern despite the frigidity that rushed from her aura.

She wouldn’t look at him.

Please look at me.

She just kept a liar’s smile going.


Please forgive me.

She hated him. Oh God, she hated him.

“Will we make it past horizon…?”

He snapped out of his thoughts, and those deep eyes are cutting into him. Her voice was steady, but her eyes told a different story.

There’s a hurt there. And he caused it.

“I still care.”

The words tumble out of him before he could stop. He still cared. He still cared so much.

He watched her blink, her face contorting in some unknowable emotion as she turned her head down. A clash of a shaking smile, wetting eyes.

“Do you now…?”

“L-Look…I…you and I may never happen,” he fumbled. “I just wanted you to know that. I just like having you in my life…”

He wasn’t sure if that made it worse or not. The silence was as crushing.

Without warning, she stood up. She stated she had to get going—clipped and stoic—and to get better. And just like that, she’s gone.

Once again, she’s gone.

—-

Shepard doesn’t come again for a little while.

The next time he sees her, he’s out of bed. He almost jumped at the sound of her voice, the Spectre becoming a specter herself. Her alliance uniform freshly pressed, she strolled in like a woman on business.

“I was offered Spectre status.”

He expected a laugh or a half-hearted smile. But instead, she does smile, wholly: one of cordial pride. She grabbed his hand and shook it.

“I would expect no one else.”

“…the second human Spectre….” he chuckled. “It’s humbling.”

The first was right in front of him. And had his heart still, even when she wanted nothing to do with it.

She smiled and bid him farewell, and he watched her go away. “Until next time”.

He told Udina “Yes” the next time he saw him. The council raised him to Spectre without a moment’s hesitation.

There was no ceremony.

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I watched pacific rim for the second time in years and now I desperately want a mass effect x pacific rim au.

Seriously, imagine Shepard and Kaidan being drift compatible, in this essay I will—

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'The ballroom too loud for you?' 'Yes. Hard to go back now that you're here, Knight Commander.' 'Well, let me give you another reason to stay, then.'

Sigh. (affectionately)

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happy birthday to THE bitch of all time

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Honestly, I expected Blackwall's return to Skyhold to be more dramatic for the romance. Sure, the Inquisitor can be stern with him during the judgement, despite taking him back. But maybe they didn't have to embrace and kiss immediately in front of the whole courtroom, you know. And then it's pretty much back to normal and to repeatable smooching button. I would appreciate at least one serious, tense, and awkward dialogue cutscene about what happened afterwards where we could choose the Inquisitor's attitude and see the couple try and figure out how to even communicate with each other after everything. Maybe this time, the Inquisitor should be chopping wood while talking instead. But that is not the case. Besides being able to scoff at Blackwall mentioning that, on the bright side, at least he's not actually affected by Corypheus' fake Calling, which I believe isn't romance specific. But that dialogue option I'm not a fan of. She can't even send the bastard (affectionate) to sleep on the couch to make a point, because he doesn't have any, and hers is right next to her bed. Besides, he normally sleeps in the stables anyway. Come on, let her be mad for 10 minutes, BioWare. As a treat.

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Blackwall seems to me the kind of person to fall for someone’s soul.

Like yes, I know Solas has the “You have a rare and marvelous spirit” line, but the way Blackwall will follow an Inquisitor, romanced or not, to the ends of the earth if they just show that they’re a good person and he deeply respects them, I feel like it’s not too far of a stretch to think that while he thinks a romanced Inquisitor is beautiful, he’s hellbent on thinking she is more than he deserves because how can someone as “terrible” as him love someone this beautiful, inside and out. And that’s when he knows he’s doomed.

Arrrrgh this romance is making me a little insane lol I already know his whole deal but I’ve never experienced the reveal of his crimes from a romance angle, and I need to see it. Because while my Inky Rosalind always felt like he wasn’t telling the whole truth, she still loves him because she does genuinely see him as a good man. I’m ready for the heartbreak.

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This might just be the closest I have got to what I would like the finished Chant to sound like. (although at times my mic had trouble handling my belting lmao, sorry about that)

Lyrics:

O Maker, hear my cry, guide me through the blackest nights, steel my heart against temptation, make me to rest in the warmest places.

O Creator, see me kneel, for I walk only where You would bid me, stand only in places You have blessed, sing only the words You place in my throat.

My Maker, know my heart, take from me a life of sorrow, lift me from a world of pain, judge me worthy of Your endless pride.

My Creator, judge me whole, (My Creator...) find me well within your grace, (...find me...) touch me with fire that I be cleansed, (...touch me...) tell me I have sung to Your approval. (...tell me I have Your approval.)

O Maker, hear my cry, (O Maker...) (Maker, hear my cry...) seat my by Your side in death, (...seat me by Your side...) (...seat me by Your side...) make me one within Your glory, (...make me one...) (...make me one...) and let the world once more see Your favor. (...let the world see Your favor.) (...and let the world see Your favor.)

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blackwall and cullen, the men that you are. the man who gave orders and the man who followed them. the man who's Joining might kill him, and the man who's leaving might kill him. a man with specific crimes at his feet and a man with systemic crimes at his feet. a man bloodied by a civil war and a man bloodied by a holy war. a man who plays pretender and a man who cant pretend. a man who found purpose in a lie and a man who found a lie in his purpose. a man who shut his eyes and turned away from a dog and the man who shut his eyes and turned towards a god.

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Is it just me or is there way less fanart being made for this game than the previous ones? Kind of makes me sad, I remember with dai I could check the tags every few hours and find something new weeks after launch, now I only can get away with only looking a few times and week and miss nothing.

I don't think that's Veilguard exclusive.

Things I and my mutuals draw now are getting less notes/reblogs than they did even one year ago, regardless of the fandom. Fanfiction is getting less comments and kudos on ao3 too (not that they were getting many comments in the first place) Less gifs are being made because gif makers weren't getting reblogs. Hell, most of the post I make have a huge discrepancy between likes and reblogs and add polls into that? A thousand people voted on something and only a dozen people reblog it. It's a hollowing feeling when you realise you're calling out to an empty void, I don't blame people for creating less art because of that.

I don't see a vast majority of the people who follow me in my notes because I have likes disabled. Multiple times someone has sent me an ask apologizing for spamming me with likes and I don't understand it? That is not a bad thing And unless you reblogged anything along the way, I didn't even realise you were doing it in the first place. And the people whose notes I do see are not annoying in the slightest, I love the tags you add and I'm sure the original poster does even more so

I'm not trying to shame anyone Into interacting with the fandom spaces they're in but the whole point of Tumblr and what makes it a blogging platform and not social media is that this is a show and tell website. You're supposed to look at something you think is cool and then wave it around for your followers to see and then they pick it up and do the same regardless of how old it is

When you reblog an ask game from someone it used to be common courtesy to send that person one of the asks from it. Folks used to leave comments analysing paragraphs from stories people wrote and theorising about what would happen next on every chapter. We used to send each other asks just asking about our ocs unprompted

If there's no interaction or community when you create something, then what's the point of creating it? It sucks that fandom is morphing into something to be consumed and thrown away the second it's more than a week old unless you're one of a handful of blogs that got lucky and picked up traction at just the right moment

I'm sorry for the rant but I get emotional when I think about the decay of fandom spaces for too long. And this goes without saying, but you guys can reblog anything on my dash if the button isn't disabled on it

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Michael Gamble: "Yep, it’s been a long time. But, many of us who were leaders on the Shepard trilogy are leading this game. Mass effect runs in our blood." [source]

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EXODUS - new gameplay trailer: 'The Traveler's Creed'

[source]

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I wish da4 had darker skin options tbh, Patlani has the darkest warm skin tone iirc and its not that dark.

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