Been thinking a lot about how the casteless are described in DAO as "the dirty secret staining Orzammar's perfect society"
And I've been thinking about how it probably means that Surfacers aren't really... aware that the casteless exist? Like, if you've never been to Orzammar, what reason would you have to know about this entire underclass of people so socially disadvantaged that they're not allowed to even hold jobs, who are only seen outside of Dust Town as some rich dwarf's weird paramour?
Idk, I've been thinking about the casteless a lot lately as I write more Brosca and Cadash content
Hero of Ferelden and The Inquisitor: I have been dealt a cruel hand. Fate has me twisted into an Order to fight ancient Evil that threatens the whole of humanity.
Rook and Hawke: So, it's started with a dwarf hiring me to do a job....
Do an animatic, I thought. It would be fun, I thought...Dammit, yes it was fun, but if I'm ever gonna do shit like this again, I'm sticking to lineart only. Too many months I messed around with this...
I love it, though. Makes my insides all fluttery seeing my Inquisitor and Dorian recreating that scene in Trespasser.
because all dragon age games are just my own personal fantasy dating sim (with a dramatic world saving side plot) it's v important to take the time to consider alll my romantic options
"After his millenia long slumber, Fen'Harel awoke in a world that felt foreign to him: the world of old, the veiled world. In trying to stop the Gods he had doomed the world to an existence devoid of magic. Alone and weakened, he couldn't act alone. That is when he met the lone Halla. It was born of this new foreign land that the wolf despised so, but it possessed unique wisdom and patience.
It listened intently to what the wolf told him of worlds gone and forgotten and in turn the halla taught the rebel god about this world and the wolf listened. What the wolf couldn't forsee was to grow fond of the halla. In such a desolate and strange world, it was a beacon of hope and open-mindness.
It had taught the God patience and understanding for the wretched world he had created. But Fen'Harel couldn't be driven off his path of duty, every new day that passed was a painful reminder of it. His journey was a dangerous, one that he should take alone. And so, one night he tore off his own heart, leaving a hole in its place, and ran without looking back.
The halla wouldn't be deterred, ever so patient and understanding. It trailed him and found the rebel god again, so the wolf in despair chewed off one of its leg and fled where it couldn't follow, hoping it wouldn't. For years he walked the world in search of the wisdom he needed to free all magic but when he thought he did, the slumbering Gods imprisoned him as he had done millenia past.
With the wolf locked into the very prison he had made for his ennemies, all hope of freedom had been lost for the People. But true to itself as ever, a three-legged halla persevered. In all the years the lone wolf took stalking the earth in search of wisdom, the halla trailed close behind in search of the god, in search of knowledge to help him.
When Fen'Harel was finally freed from his prison, and once he freed all magic and felled his foes, the halla stood there, watching. When the wolf finally approached it, it dropped something at his feet without a word. His heart. All those years it had persevered to give back what the god had torn from himself. And he placed back his heart in the hole its absence had created.
And that is the story of the Halla that chased the Wolf in the Veiled world and how it appeased the regret and guilt of a god. Da'len, if you ever see a statue of Fen'Harel somewhere, look close. For you might see a lone halla grazing near it.
- Keeper Shirallas of the restored Elvhenan, Lathbora viran - 14:23 Sea.
the most tragic thing about the dragon age games are that none of the protagonists ever wanted to be a hero. they're just normal people who got forced into being the one person the world always relies on.