#Dwarven lore

[lilac-sweet]

Varric might still be alive and here’s why:

So this is going to sound like massive amounts of copium, but hear me out:

Why does the veil not collapse immediately after Elgar’nan’s death?

It is made out of and tied to the life force of the Evanuris, so with all of them dead it should fall, right? But it doesn’t - it holds long enough for Solas and Rook to have a heart-to-heart. So what gives? Are there some leftover life force from the other Evanuris ? Are they not as dead as we are led to believe? Falon’Din’s owl statues are certainly hinted at being somehow important since we can happen upon multiple of them and see they are tied to some sort of weird magic.

Or has the dagger preserved a fragment of those it has killed (just like it did with Mythal), and that is what’s keeping the veil up? Since all it takes to be tied to the veil is a cut (apparently), it begs the question: can a mortal be tied to the veil?

Lyrium is such an interesting aspect of Dragon Age lore, and it seems to work as a vessel for spirits: it is what the ancient elves used to bind themselves to the physical world; it is what held Mythal’s spirit fragment inside the dagger; it might be what the dwarves are actually referring to when they say they “return to the stone”; it might also be why lyrium sings, and “Isatunol” would be the accumulation of dwarven spirits flowing through the rivers of lyrium within the Titans.

In that way, Varric might actually have been the first dwarf in a long time to “return to the Stone” - and what happens to Harding when she touches the dagger? She becomes something very much like a titan! Her magic might literally be Varric’s spirit coursing through her body - her body does become lyrium-infused as you see in her romance.

So is it possible a piece of Varric lives on in Harding? Absolutely. It would also be another explanation on what the Varric who visits Rook in the prison of regret actually is. If he is tied to the veil he might have had access to the prison somehow. Solas’ blood magic should have ceased by now, since any further use would be unnecessary and cruel (which would be out of character for Solas), and the only other explanation for him being there, that I can think of, would be as a guide that Rook has conjured up subconsciously and is part of the magic of the regret prison just like whichever companions you chose to sacrifice.

Helping to hold up the veil while Rook deals with Solas just sounds like something Varric would totally do (and I can’t help becoming a bit misty-eyed thinking he might be there with us in the final hour) - of course it might be Ghilan’nain’s fragment doing the heavy lifting here, but it’s not nearly as poetic.

In the ending scene we see a picture of Varric in the skies: it might be a way to honor the end of his story arc, or it might be a way to imply him watching over us still (maybe both).

It is going to be interesting to see which direction the next Dragon Age game will take: the Executors and Those Across The Sea seem to have a connection to not only Qunari and the Elven Gods, but to death as well. We hear how everything turns cold around the executors and hear the same whenever we meet a lich or Vorgoth in the Necropolis. We are also told the Watchers guard many secrets, so who knows, maybe the next game will explore more about what happens after death to the inhabitants of Thedas, and in that (lyrium) vein maybe if we’re really lucky we’ll get to dive more into dwarven lore as well.

[fantasyinallforms]

howdy :) I'm not really active in the fandom but I enjoy The Hobbit movie, and I'm trying to nail down some lore. Canonically, how much do we know about Thorin and his family's activities during their time in the Blue Mountains?

I would be more than happy to help with that!

Unfortunately, it's not as much as you might have hoped. The years between Smaug's coming to Erebor and the retaking of Erebor are known as the years of exile. In that time, we are told of the deeds of the exiles of Erebor as well as the fates of several members of the line of Durin. During this time, the Battle of Azanulbizar was fought, and Azog was slain by Dain. This had the additional side effect of killing so many orcs that Eriador was nearly completely free of orcs all the way up until Frodo carried the ring. Unfortunately, a LOT of dwarves died as well.

Most of what we do know about Thorin setting his people up in the Blue Mountains can be found at the end of the Return Of The King in Appendix A, in section III: DURIN'S FOLK. The little we do know of that time can be easily accessed in the below. Tolkien Gateway is a very good source of information. Most of it has little to do with Thorin and more with Thrain. The Blue Mountains were the dwarven capital up until Thorin's death. Dain dissolved the capital, moved it to Erebor, and renamed the settlement Thorin's Halls.

[friendly-wizard-bibliothecary]

Hello Hello!

We're back with another Dragon Age Video, this time on Dwarves!

We learned a lot about Dwarves in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, so I went back to the codex entries written by good ol' Brother Genitivi to get his take on the culture.

Who do I have to smooch to get the next DA game to be about taking back the Deep Roads for the Dwarven Empire?

[exhausted-archivist]

I hope your recovery is a smooth one!

Since you've mentioned that you're working on a dwarven lore masterpost, what is your favorite part of dwarven lore so far? And what is the thing you most hope gets explored in Veilguard for them?

Thank you!

Favorite dwarven lore is also by far the most frustrating for me. It is from the tabletop, but from what we can tell with the descent dlce it is carried through there. It is the depth of the Deep Roads and the fact that they are so cold you'll freeze and is why they use lava to heat and light the roads and thaigs.

It is my favorite because it is fascinating, frustrating because it is breaking some rules without really explaining why/how it works. So it is definitely something I hope is explored a little more.

Generally speaking, the deeper you go into the earth the more stable the temperature. There are a ton of factors that dictate the temperature of the cave/are you're in but generally from my research it is warm. And we know that Thedas does have geothermal activity, they built the older thaigs in magma chambers after all and there is a ton of volcanic areas in Thedas. So, I'm curious as to why its cold.

This folds into something that is more specific to dwarves themselves and not just their enviroment. One of my favorite things, that you only see in written lore and not in-game is the dwarven resistance to lyrium. Due to their proximity to it and constantly being around it while underground, they have a resistance. It is why they can safely mine it, yes? But they lose that resistance the longer they are on the surface. The game doesn't reflect this too much as you don't have non-dwarves dropping sick when too close to raw lyrium and mages aren't just getting sick when at a certain distance of processed lyrium and straight up dying when near the raw stuff (cause that isn't fun, casual game play.)

But we also see surface dwarves mining lyrium, both the red and blue stuff all willy nilly. Not all carta dwarves are underground dwarves. And we know there are lyrium mines in Tevinter, the Anderfels, and other areas away from Orzammar. Which implies that surface dwarves are doing the mining and transporting. Now, this can easily be explained that they're recently surfaced or they were miners/casteless that went to the surface and immediately joined the carta elsewhere. But, I really hope that this is explored/explained more in the future because if dwarves can regain the lyrium resistance that fades within their lifetime on the surface, that is huge and opens up the question of: What is the Stonesense, since if it connected to the Titans, why isn't it recoverable like lyrium resistance which is literally of the Titans. It is their blood. What is the difference, there has been suggestion that the Stone and Titans are two different entities, with Titans being the children of the Stone themselves and dwarves the children of Titans.

Big implications and big fun stories abound.

[treias-world]

Treias Lineages: Dwarves

Dwarves are almost completely magically inert. While there are few exceptions (esp wrt multiracial ppl), they largely evolved in a planetary magical dead zone. No full blooded dwarf is born with natural magic ability.

(Above example farthest right is half elemental and has power over fire.)

HOWEVER, this doesn't mean they can't use ANY magic.

Dwarves can use enchanted items and even harness natural energies of the world with their technology. A dwarven mage is very different from an elven mage, as they really a lot more on science, physics, and engineering for just about everything in their societies.

Through all history, dwarves were at the forefront of engineering and trade, learning to use the resources of their lands and strength of their hands to create large scale trade empires, exchanging their labor and expertise for enchantments and other foreign goods.

They aren't at all insular peoples and make up a very large portion of all big time world traders and business leaders.

Trade Common, the most universally used language in-world, relies heavily on Dwarvish Trade, with some human and elvish trade language mixed in.

Dwarvish technology is the most advanced non-magical tech known across the entire planet. While magictech is abundant on Treias, dwarven tech is regarded as very high end and impressive due to its LACK of magic use. Dwarves have made great strides in providing for those who are magically inert, and enjoy pushing the envelope as far as possible to match or exceed the possibilities of magictech.

They're very open to information and hardware trade, though some traditionalists get overly proud and stubborn if one tries to "improve" their work with magic.

They originate from mountainous and ore rich lands and are known as the people of the stone, or stone speakers. Gems, ores, metals, minerals of most any kind are ever present in their history, society, and iconography through all of recorded history. Dwarves are typically great at discovering resource heavy mining areas all over the world and are heavily relied on for gathering and shipping construction materials in just about every society.

They are typically short and extremely hardy, normally growing lots of facial and body hair no matter their gender. Treatment of said hair and what it says about a dwarf differs among different societies, but typically a great beard is well appreciated.

Common belief about dwarvish people is that they aren't very fashionable and stick much more to practical clothing over anything else, which is wildly untrue. Dwarven fashion is taken very seriously and typically tries to merge durability and practicality with a sort of art deco beauty. Maybe a hint of brutalism. And when access to pure unrefined minerals of all kind, there's no shortage of sparkly stones for expertly crafted jewelry. Like the people themselves, everything they produce is sturdy and long lasting.

Spiritually, not many dwarves pray to gods. Maternal ancestry is the strongest bond in most dwarven cultures. The mothers, grandmothers, eldest sisters, etc. of dwarven families are often seen as the matriarchs, strong and unyielding, kind and caring. Passing traits and lessons through one's maternal line is very important to dwarves. It's more lax in modern times with the understanding that not everyone has a mother or other matronly family in their life.

Dwarves, on average, live to around 500-600 years. They can have rather large families with siblings born MANY years apart, and most planned families do space their children some 10, 20, even 40 years or more apart. They're in no rush. They also have no legally established marriage system, and just one family can have several mothers that guide them.

Notes:

Initially inspired by the dwarves of Dragon Age, I wanted at least one society or lineage that could thrive without magic. I love highly magical worlds but having peoples that are non reliant on that magic is also extremely interesting to me! However, I also wanted my version of dwarves to also be much more sociable and important to the world at large instead of being confined to caves and mines and not knowing much about the world outside.

[mohntilyet]

waiting impatiently for more info on the lords of fortune + drawing a tarot for my rook in the meantime :)

[felassan]

Another of the comments in the chat for the gameplay premiere!

The children yearn for the mines (it's me, I'm the children)

hello! ◕‿◕ thanku for sending this my way.

text reads - "Dragon Age on YouTube: It wouldn't be a Dragon Age without a visit to the Deep Roads!" Deep Roads adventures... confirmed hh. [source] [context: they are currently there dropping comments and info snippets]

[wardenss]

shes so cute sdnthjesjesjes

[possumteeths]

One thing about veilguard that bums me out is that this is the very first bioware game that I dont feel any desire to play again. All of the decisions made in the game either dont matter or are made for you so there’s no wondering like “what wouldve happened if I did this instead of that?” There’s so many moments in the game where it felt as if I should really debate what option to pick, only to realize through playing more that decisions really don’t matter. So all decisions made in later stages of the game just kinda feel meaningless.

Everything is set up so one dimensionally that the replay value is unfortunately very low. Theres very few ways to play things differently. I was incredibly disappointed that you do not have the option to kill Lucanis’s shitty cousin. You dont even get any option at ALL over what to do with him. It doesnt matter what you do with the bald warden dude, it doesnt matter whether or not you chose to kill that rando mayor… and the list goes on.

I used replay bioware games just to get different DIALOGUE! This game had very little in terms of meaningful dialogue! Much of the dialogue between characters feels so flat or unrelated to the plot. Character conflict is extremely forced so replaying the game wouldn’t necessarily give you anything new to chew on. Its frustrating that Rook is designated as the group’s therapist, but is often completely sidelined by everyone and everything going on! I romanced Lucanis and he still was hella flirting with Neve which made the romance route feel like a complete afterthought.

Approval ratings dont matter at all, theres genuinely nothing that changes besides your own insight to the different characters worldviews. If someone disliked something, you dont get different dialogue or attitude or nuffin! What does hardening even do in DAV? Neve or Lucanis being hardened has no impact on anything at all besides some rando skill buffs. I thought maybe Harding or Davrin’s endgame sacrifice wouldve meant something more if you had some way of hardening them.

It felt just kind of random to kill off one of your companions in the endgame. Especially when you’ve played through the entire game making choices that were ultimately meaningless. The choice of who dies in the endgame feels just as meaningless as everything else because you the player have spent the entire game realizing that approval ratings dont matter, plot choices dont matter, characterization choices dont matter etc. So if they want to do something as heavy hitting as killing off a main character, wouldnt it have made more sense to build it up in a way that there would be SOME emotional impact? If you were able to harden Davrin or Harding, then killing them wouldve hit harder dang it! Killing off characters feels just cheap when youre overly aware that nothing matters.

No matter your choices in this game, its still going to play the exact same every time with very little deviation. Its almost like playing a telltale game or something. The plot is pathed out for you, your choices are superfluous, your romance options are as noteworthy as skyrim’s “put on a necklace, okie doke now you’re married.”

The game itself isnt bad, but it reminds me of a mass market paperback book. The kinds that come out monthly. You know exactly what the plot is gonna be, you know there’s gonna be a cast of characters, you know theres gonna be bad guys and good guys.., and then you finish the book thinking “Yup that was ok!” Then you shelve it and never look at it again because its one amongst 17492820102 others in the genre. To use another metaphor, this game is buttered toast, it feels like something youve had before, its familiar, it tastes good… but thats it. Its just bread and butter, and theres no sense dressing it up or toasting the bread more or less because at the end of the day… its still toast.

[sunlight-shunlight]

i had this idea for an au of inquisition, bc when i played it i had a mage lavellan, and i was a bit like "damn, is everyone really ok with yet another apostate being found at the scene of a giant explosion that kills the chantry leadership? anders 2.0, except the apostate is a dalish heathen this time, and doesn't even have any rich friends or 7 years of running a free clinic in their favour? is one vague female silhouette in the rift REALLY enough to make any meaningful number of people think that it's andraste there?"

and it was very convenient that the fade memory broadcast says things that make your character seem more innocent of the explosion, people actually believe it despite usually distrusting the fade, and corypheus speaks understandably rather than in ancient tevene, haha.

so, imagine if the inquisition was actually the antagonist. like the game starts, you get aggressively frogmarched down to the breach at sword point, the mood in haven is either "angry terrified mob" or "take this dangerous criminal to orlais for imprisonment and interrogation". and then there's no clear evidence found at the breach to make you less likely as a suspect.

so after partially sealing the breach and blacking out: rather than waking in a nice room with a starstruck servant, you wake up in a cell.

outside your cell, the mood is now like 90% angry mob, and 10% "but, what if that lady in the rift was andraste...? 🤔" which is still not enough to save you from execution. so, it's a prison break where solas, varric, leliana, and maybe cassandra get you out of jail! you are now pursued by chantry forces who have launched an inquisition. they see you as a dangerous criminal, and any sympathizers as heretics.

you flee down the frostback mountains, and what do you know. that's where rainesfere is. which is where bann teagan (the one and only) lives. he's the type of conscientious guy who'll be out fighting demons to protect the town, while also having an affair with his brother's wife (don't worry about it). so he's impressed when you swoop in and close the rifts for him, and offers to quietly shelter you from the chantry if you continue doing that.

rainesfere becomes the haven equivalent of your pre-skyhold base. teagan replaces cullen as your military advisor. you run around the map trying to still secure allies to support your cause of permanently sealing the breach, and more and more people start whispering about you being blessed by andraste. bc you are the one closing the rifts, when the chantry is not. which develops an interesting schism in the chantry faithful, and the chantry becomes even more desperate to regain legitimacy.

and! there could be a whole side plot where cassandra or cullen are antagonists for the first third of the game. they would be likely to reluctantly follow orders if told to arrest you, and cullen already has enough beef about explosions killing chantry leaders on his watch. after a few encounters, you win them over through the Marketplace Of Ideas/doing something cool enough that they buy into the andraste thing, and they can abandon the chantry and join you instead.

also, instead of being called the Herald at first (bc it's not a popular theory that you are one) you can be called the Anchorite.

[doekimakura]

Initially I was gonna put a wholeass Sigma for an SMP, but since I think it's gonnabe too meta, I just made a new OC who is just genderbent Sigma HUAHAHAHA

This is Marchen. Her alias is Sigmario MarioAHAHAHAHAHAH GOD DAMN WHAT AM I THINKING!!!

[lilac-sweet]

Varric might still be alive and here’s why:

So this is going to sound like massive amounts of copium, but hear me out:

Why does the veil not collapse immediately after Elgar’nan’s death?

It is made out of and tied to the life force of the Evanuris, so with all of them dead it should fall, right? But it doesn’t - it holds long enough for Solas and Rook to have a heart-to-heart. So what gives? Are there some leftover life force from the other Evanuris ? Are they not as dead as we are led to believe? Falon’Din’s owl statues are certainly hinted at being somehow important since we can happen upon multiple of them and see they are tied to some sort of weird magic.

Or has the dagger preserved a fragment of those it has killed (just like it did with Mythal), and that is what’s keeping the veil up? Since all it takes to be tied to the veil is a cut (apparently), it begs the question: can a mortal be tied to the veil?

The veilguard do touch upon the subject when discussing what to tie the veil to: they come to the conclusion that it is safest to try to bind it to an elven god, since they are what it was made from in the first place. But could a mortal have worked? We don’t know. And could part of a mortal be preserved in the dagger just like the elven gods? We don’t know enough lore about what people ;(and particularly dwarves) are compared to spirits to answer that question.

Lyrium is such an interesting aspect of Dragon Age lore, and it seems to work as a vessel for spirits: it is what the ancient elves used to bind themselves to the physical world; it is what held Mythal’s spirit fragment inside the dagger; it might be what the dwarves are actually referring to when they say they “return to the stone”; it might also be why lyrium sings, and “Isatunol” would be the accumulation of dwarven spirits flowing through the rivers of lyrium within the Titans.

In that way, Varric might actually have been the first dwarf in a long time to “return to the Stone” - and what happens to Harding when she touches the dagger? She becomes something very much like a titan! Her magic might literally be Varric’s spirit coursing through her body - her body does become lyrium-infused as you see in her romance.

So is it possible a piece of Varric lives on in Harding? Absolutely. It would also be another explanation on what the Varric who visits Rook in the prison of regret actually is. If he is tied to the veil he might have had access to the prison somehow. Solas’ blood magic should have ceased by now, since any further use would be unnecessary and cruel (which would be out of character for Solas), and the only other explanation for him being there, that I can think of, would be as a guide that Rook has conjured up subconsciously and is part of the magic of the regret prison just like whichever companions you chose to sacrifice.

Helping to hold up the veil while Rook deals with Solas just sounds like something Varric would totally do (and I can’t help becoming a bit misty-eyed thinking he might be there with us in the final hour) - of course it might be Ghilan’nain’s fragment doing the heavy lifting here, but it’s not nearly as poetic.

In the ending scene we see a picture of Varric in the skies: it might be a way to honor the end of his story arc, or it might be a way to imply him watching over us still (maybe both).

It is going to be interesting to see which direction the next Dragon Age game will take: the executors and those across the sea seem to have a connection to not only Qunari and the Elven Gods, but to death as well. We hear how everything turns cold around the executors and hear the same whenever we meet a lich or Vorgoth in the Necropolis. We are also told the Watchers guard many secrets, so who knows, maybe the next game will explore more about what happens after death to the inhabitants of Thedas, and in that (lyrium) vein maybe if we’re really lucky we’ll get to dive more into dwarven lore as well.

[avernusreject]

So uh I officially have a rook for each faction. Now will I actually get around to finishing these campaigns..... yeah.... about that...

[jkateel]

me, randomly: hey, what were the profrane from Dragon Age 2 about?

me, reading codex entry:

We who are forgotten, remember,

We clawed at rock until our fingers bled,

We cried out for justice, but were unheard.

Our children wept in hunger,

And so we feasted upon the gods.

Here we wait, in aeons of silence.

We few, we profane.

—Found scrawled on a wall in the lost Revann Thaig by explorer Faruma Helmi, 5:10 Exalted. Unknown author.

Me: wtf

Also the Wiki says the following:

“Dwarven legends tell of dwarves so corrupt that even the Stone rejects them. Doomed to wander the Deep Roads in an undying half-life, these creatures are known as rock wraiths, and they are creatures of hunger, wrath and little more.”

Were their Dwarves who ate Titans after they were sundered?

[exhausted-archivist]

Sorry to bring a life thing up, I had surgery today and it went great! But I'm going to be stuck in bed for a bit and being a responsible, good patient and take it easy. (I dunno why but I feel suspiciously too good). Anyways, please feel free to send me asks, give me things to catelogue, or just something to do in between the long hours of bed rest.

[missriggie]

What Was Stolen - Post Veilguard Fanfiction

Rookanis | Lords of Fortune | Slow Burn | Hinted DreadRook | Pirate Adventure

A year or so after the final blight, Thedas is trudging through its tumultuous path to recovery. Syvillia 'Rook' Laidir has left the Lighthouse and returned to treasure hunting with the Lords of Fortune, flitting about Rivain with her good friend Taash and hoping to put the past behind her. Rook escapes the palace with the help of the Crows, and they make their way over to the Perfumed Spring, where the runaway boy is due to give her some answers. They learn of the Syphon Stones, pieces of a larger puzzle that Lord Cassidus has been hunting for as long as Rook has known him. Memories of her time as his precious little puppet resurfaces, but she chokes them down to prepare for their journey to Estwatch. Meanwhile, Ida and her fanatics meet up with their Tevinter benefactor after they recover an extra Syphon Stone. Tension is thick, but the magister proposes an opportunity rid them both of a common enemy.