#Tevinter objects

[lairofdragonagelore]

The Claws of Dumat and the Tevinter Bird/Dragon

The Claw of Dumat was introduced to us for the first time, visually, in DA2, and it was not until DAI that we got information about it via a note. However, it was not alone; a second artefact that lacks of any information appeared beside it: a metallic sculpture of a bird or a dragon that I called along this blog the Tevinter bird.

[This post belongs to the series “Analysis and speculation of Statues”]

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]

The Claws of Dumat

Where does this artefact appear? We have seen it four times already: In the Valdasine Thaig in DA2, in different places within the Fade of DAI, in Fairel's tomb in the Hissing Wastes of DAI, and in the DLC The Descent, inside a chamber of the Heidrun Thaig.

In DA2 game

The claws of Dumat appear for the first time in DA2, in the Primeval Thaig's entrance, at the sides of the main corridor that will lead us to the Thaig filled with Red Lyrium. This implies that this Thaig, which has no typical Dwarven decoration of Paragons and the writing on its walls was not traditional Dwarvish, was deeply related to Tevinter. The Thaig was located below the Deep Roads and was built before the First Blight [exact same characteristics than the Heidrun Thaig] .

We learn later that the Dwarves than inhabit this Thaig had strong trade relationships with Tevinter [they gave them lyrium, according to the codex Valdasine], and it is not clear if they were involved in the construction of Emerius [former name of Kirkwall]. The configuration of the Thaig makes us suspect that Tevinter made experiments here. There is a constant pattern along these rooms: blue lyrium, Claws of Dumat, and red lyrium, that makes us speculate that these three elements are related one another: immense source of lyrium that must have been used to feed the Claws of Dumat until the magisters used slave blood, which in the end, corrupted the lyrium and turned it into red one.

As we continue exploring the Thaig we find an interesting and mysterious codex: The profane. We interpreted it in details in the post Primeval Thaig and Red Lyrium : we assumed that these profane may have been dwarven or humans who were abandoned in this Thaig when it was closed, and hungry, started to eat lyrium, the "blood of the gods", becoming through the aeons into the "profane" creatures, that only endure hunger. Hence, they brought the attention of Hunger demons in a place where the Veil was already thin due to the experiments performed with Claws of Dumat. These profane creatures don't look similar to the abominations of the Red Templars, so we could assume that they only consumed blue lyrium and the corruption of it into red lyrium happened later.

As we continue exploring the Thaig, Varric recognises the last chamber as a Dwarven “Vault”, filled with many Claws of Dumat from which the red lyrium grows.  Here, we find a staff called Valdasine, which codex says that before the First Blight,  the Dwarven House called Valdasine provided lyrium to all the Empire. However, one day, they closed the doors of their Thaig and blocked communication with everyone. When the doors opened after a time, it was empty, no bodies were found, and there were no clues of what happened. From a design point of view, clearly the profane and this event must be connected: This thaig is the Valdasine’s Thaig, and the profane are all those families that were trapped here and forced to eat Lyrium. The age seems to coincide roughly: both events happened before the darkspawn existed. It's also worth noting that the presence of a staff implies that this Thaig had mages, since dwarven were unable to use magic. This reinforces the idea that Tevinter had a deep relationship with this Thaig in particular, and Tevinter mages were present here with some purpose [most likely, an experiment that required big amounts of Lyrium]. We have to remember that dwarves and Tevinter mages had shown another similar situation where Tevinter Mages experimented within dwarven Thaigs in Golems of Amgarrak. In it, a Tevinter mage was trying to recreate a fleshy alternative to Caridin's golems, crafting the mysterious Harvester.

In DAI game: The Fade

The second time we see the Claws are in the Fade of DAI. They appear at different times and contexts: In The Raw Fade - Part 1 among statues of the Free Marches eagle, implying a strong relationship of this artefact with Kirkwall. This may reinforce the idea we explored in DA2 in Kirkwall history and design and in particular with the Enigma of Kirkwall : It is likely that Kirkwall was where the breach to the Fade was done centuries ago, through blood sacrifice. This is also reinforced by the codex Claw of Dumat, where we learn that Corypheus trusted that this artefact would allow him to bring back Tevinter to its former glory.

In the section of the Fade that I called "The Tevinter Path" in The Raw Fade - Part 2 we find more Claws, implying that they were used in the process of reaching the gods that had gone silent. This event can be interpreted as the Magisters breaking into the Black City in the Fade physically.

In Flemeth’s Fade – Part 1 , we find another Claw in an intersection, where a statue of the Free Marches is shown in front of some Avvar Keepers of Fear. Again, this seems to represent the tumultuous history of the region of Kirkwall: Tevinter invaded natives of this place to build Emerius with a hidden purpose beyond the mere extraction of stones for the construction of the Imperial Highway [more details in Kirkwall history and design]

In DAI game: Fairel’s tomb

In the Hissing Wastes: Fairel tomb we find a Claw in one of the tombs, implying that the whole story of Fairel may have been related to Tevinter and its magisters as well. This makes sense if we remember that the Fairel were a clan specialised on Runecraft, and this art was used in the construction of Kirkwall. There is also a mention of runes/sigils that can only be seen from the Fade in the Heidrun Thaig in The Descent – The Sacrificial Gates of Segrummar.

The tomb where the claw appears displays a specific fragment of the story of Fairel:

Fairel, Paragon, fled from the strife his brilliance created, the strife that destroyed thaigs, sundered houses, from weapons that clan used against clan. His own clan and his two sons followed Fairel to the pitiless surface, the surface where they would hide from the war that took their home.

As we see, it is related to the exodus of Fairel and its causes: a weapon he developed, which provoked strife and destroyed clans. During this quest in DAI, we learn that this secret weapon is a kind of rune, but the game doesn't give it more importance later [it feels more because the rush of ending the game, than something lore-related]. This is the main reason why I think Fairel’s house, as runecrafters, may have helped magisters to develop Emerius [which is built following glyphs and runes patterns, for more details check Kirkwall history and design]. As a clan alone on the surface, during a time when most dwarves were underground, they may have relied on Tevinter or accepted any deal in order to survive.

There is clearly a link between the Fairel ruins and Corypheus: Corypheus knew about these forgotten ruins when nobody knew they were there, thus he commanded the Venatori to dig them and look for Fairel's particular weapon: a rune.

Also, the presence of Tevinter elements in this tomb must have been brought in the past, during the times of Corypheus when he was a human magister, since these ruins where not known by anyone until now: it was Corypheus who informed the Venatori about them. The Shaperate, the only other institution that may have had this knowledge, never knew about them since they “recorded Fairel as dead” as soon as he left the underground. So I think it’s reasonable to keep supporting the idea that this clan and these ruins were involved with the ancient Tevinters quite deeply.

In DAI game: DLC, the Descent

In The Descent – The Deep Roads we start the exploration of this region with a big Claw in the main room. It is flanked by two elven rounded trees in the dwarven style. This is already telling us that this Thaig, which predates the Blights, had Tevinter presence not only for trade: their blood ritual instruments had been incorporated to the decoration of the chambers of the Thaig Heidrun, built on a lyrium mine and then destroyed by and earthquake caused by unknown reasons [the stir of a woken-up Titan by an unknown event].  .

In front of the claw, there is a table with a game and a Dwarven stone-paintings that belongs to these strange paintings we found in Hissing Wastes: Fairel tomb, where we speculated that maybe represented Kirkwall, or another city Kirkwall-like.

Later, we find more Claws in another room where they are exposed in a way that implies worship. Since it's in here where the Tevinter bird appears, i will talk about this room later, in the Tevinter Bird section down below.

What do we know about the Claws of Dumat?

In the DAI Fade [ The Raw Fade - Part 1] we find an extremely juicy codex explaining about this artefact. The codex is written by Corpyheus’ slave who was sacrificed later. What we learn here is:

It implies that Corypheus has been developing different altars to “bring Tevinter to Glory” [Would that mean that the Tevinter bird is a prototype?].

We are informed that the Old Gods have been silent for a while and that has caused the loss of followers. This has been a source of fear in Corypheus. [This info is confirmed by Corypheus as well during Orlais: Shrine of Dumat]

This slave knows that Corypheus has been meeting with other “priests” to try to find a solution to the decline of the cult to the Old Gods. 

Corypheus took his name around the time the Tevinter Magisters entered the Golden City. So we can assume this is a narration very close to the time in which the Sidereal Magisters stepped into the Fade physically.

Corypheus knew that the old elves were tied to the Fade, and the mortal elves have something of that power in their blood, hence he wanted to use their blood for the ritual of entering the Fade.

The Claw of Dumat supports the victim on its top, with shackles, and seems to drip blood along the statue to a pool with runes. [Could these runes be a creation of Fairel?]

It is implied that Corypheus used little blood magic before the silence of the Old Gods. The loss of god's voice made him fall in despair.

These words were written and reflected/preserved in the Fade at the base of one of these Claws of Dumat we find just after we pass by some Free Marches eagles. Again, the presence of the Free Marches eagles around the Claws of Dumat may be a representation of Kirkwall, but it could also represent another thing, maybe related to the Tevinter bird.

The Tevinter Bird/Dragon

It is a metal statue of something that looks like a bird or a dragon. It could be the “Tevinter” style of the usual Kirkwall eagle, or something else that escapes me completely. If one is careless, these draconic-bird-like statues can be mistakes for Claws of Dumat, but they are not. They share the same style than the Claws: they are Tevinter, made of dark metal, in an angular and pointy shape.

When we compare it with the statue of Mythal dragon shape, we can see some similitude, as if it were the same one but in the pointy “Tevinter” style. Of course, if this were the case, this metallic representation of Mythal lacks of its iconic spike. 

In DA2 game

The first time we see this statue is in DA2, in the Primeval Thaig [read Primeval Thaig and Red Lyrium ], in a Chamber that Varric refers to as a Dwarven Vault but its key claims it to be a crypt. There are veins of red lyrium around these statues and around the Claws of Dumat.

In DAI game: Crestwood Caves

The next appearance is in Crestwood: Flooded Caves, at the entrance of a chamber of a Dwarven ruin.

This place seemed to be important, since it is decorated in this fashion. This entrance even has an illustration in the Book of Inquisition [image above], showing that these statues are placed at the side of the entrance completely on purpose. The position seems to be similar to Mythal statues we find in the elvhenan ruins or Temples.

In that illustration, however, we also see a big mask-face over them, reminding us those faces we saw in dwarven Thaigs in DAO, or in the Avril of Void. These faces always gave me the impression of being unconcious representations of the Titans within the dwarven culture.

Later on, I found a plaque close to this place, in a locked room, that seemed to imply this whole dwarven ruin was a route that connected Aeducan Thaig with Gundaar Thaig [another famous Thaig, and one of the first in falling under the darkspawn threat]. It’s interesting that the name Gundaar appears here, since it’s one of the three Thaigs that the lore considered lost and have been hiding curious developments [the other two are Kal-Sharok and Hormak, for more details read Orzammar, Witch Hunt, and The Horror of Hormak ].

In DAI game: Heidrun Thaig

The last appearance of the Tevinter bird was in DLC: The Descent – The Deep Roads where, despite the lack of information in a codex, we find a curious chamber in the Heidrun Thaig that may provide some insight.

The chamber in question seems to honour four statues: two Claws of Dumat and two Tevinter birds. This could have been a chamber of summoning or enhancing magic, since we know the Claws of Dumat were used with blood sacrifices to empower magic. So even though we don’t know what the Tevinter bird’s function could have been, the presence of the claws makes us infer that it may have been related to blood sacrifices and the process of breaching the Fade.

Another detail that supports this hypothesis is that, in this Thaig, blood magic has been performed long time ago: we meet an Arcane Horror in The Uncharted Abbys, Bastion of the Pure, who still performs blood magic with animal bodies [we find some dead animals that are still warm]. The curious detail is that this chamber has a lot of elvhenan objects: several inukshuk, an eluvian with the same frame that Merril's, and a statue of Humanoid Mythal. In the same chamber we also find one of the Tevinter sacrificial altars, which makes us suspect that Tevinter and Elvhenan knowledge have been fused in this place. That these elements appear in this part of the underground may be related to the fact that the Bastion of the Pure it's where we find the densest amount of lyrium [important component to cast powerful magic].

However, I'm not sure if we can assume this Arcane Horror is an ancient magister of that time. I’m more inclined to think that it is the father of the builder of The Sacrificial Gates of Segrummar, who needed to be in the Fade in order to see the sigil that is present in all this Thaig, apparently. 

Speculations about the Tevinter bird/dragon

The information we have collected in here is rather scarce. We can have a good understanding of the Claws of Dumat, but it's hard to extrapolate all that to the Tevinter bird. So, I developed several hypothesis:

It's a prototype of a Claw of Dumat

According to the codex of the Claws of Dumat, Corypheus had been working on different prototypes, so we can assume this Tevinter bird may have been one of those: a mere prototype. However, if it was so, why would it be present in Valdasine's Thaig? You don't use failed prototypes. Unless its presence, in combination with the Claws, is what makes the claws work.

It's something related to Emerius

Kirkwall always had an iconic metallic statue of an eagle [1, 2]. We can even say that the geometrical symbol of Kirkwall [7] looks like an eagle extending its wings [7] even though the origin of that symbol has a strong resemblance with the original symbol of Emerius: a raising dragon [7].

In the Viscount's Keep, we see different other representations of the eagle [2, 3, 5, 6]. The origin of [3] seems to be [4] which is a symbol closer to the Emerius style than the current, geometrical one, so this design detail tells me that this symbol may have belonged to the time of Emerius. The fact that the claws of Dumat appear in the Fade close to the [1] eagle statues may represent something. Maybe the original rising dragon represented in the Emerius symbol was hidden later in a bird-like figure?

Since the dark metallic eagle represents Kirkwall [or Emerius if we are talking about old times], this draconic/bird statue may be the representation of another city with similar characteristics than Emerius, maybe less important during the time of the Tevinter Empire glory.

This idea is also suggested when we find a Claw of Dumat in the first chamber of DLC: The Descent – The Deep Roads , where we see one of those Dwarven stone-paintings, which is neither the usual painting we saw along DAO, nor the usual one representing Kirkwall in DA2.

There is also a weird "bird" statue that we only see in DA2, that I talked about it in Xenon and his Black Emporium, depicted as a humanoid bird with chains that holds a mask on it. I can't bring a decent, non-conspiracy relationship between them, but it's the only bird-like statue I can think of through all the games. This weird statue appears in many houses of Kirkwall in DA2 [specially noticeable in Danarius house].

It's a Forgotten One which, as a dragon, was taken by the Tevinter interpretation as Dumat [or any other Old God]

In the way it is presented in the Vault of DA2, and considering it has a draconic shape to it, we can even speculate that this statue is a small representation of Dumat himself.

Hence, this statue is attached to big chunks of metal and close to the Claws of Dumat in that Vault as a mere decoration.

I like to play with the thought that it may be Myhtal [as I did in the beginning of this Tevinter Bird section]: I already talked about the speculation of Mythal being of double nature [Evanuris and Forgotten One, that the unreliable oral tradition of the Dalish lore twisted to give it to Fen'Harel, details in Speculations about the Vinyl Art or Dragon Age Iconic Patterns: The Sun], and the Forgotten Ones being dragons that were worshipped by the Elvhenan until they claimed their divinity [read more in Attempt to rebuild Ancient Elvhenan History]. In that moment on, they may have erased the ancient gods turning them into the forgotten ones, who escaped to the Abyss [which is related to the underground, where we know many dragons hibernate]. Therefore, there is a possibility that these forgotten dragons were taken later by the newly arrived humans [the Neomerians] who developed the cult of the Dragons, aka The Old Gods, being completely oblivious of the relationship that these creatures had with the Elvhenan, a civilisation they hated and despised. So that, they took the image of Mythal and considered it Dumat, and for that reason, they used this statue as a decoration to place around the Claws of Dumat.

The con of this interpretation is that it's not clear what kind of Dragon was the real Dumat-Archdemon which desolated the lands during the First Blight: was it truly Mythal? Another fragment of her? or was another Dragon? We already made a lot of speculations about the true Mythal being trapped in the Black City in the post Speculations about the Vinyl Art that makes this current speculation to falter.

Considering this horrible counter-argument, we could assume that maybe this is another Forgotten One that we have no name at all, but again, why would you put it close to the Claws of "Dumat" then?

Conclusion

It's clear that all speculations are pretty weak and lack of consistency to be considered seriously. For the moment, we know this statue exists, and may have some relationship with Tevinter, the Dwarves, and Emerius, even though we can't detail how that relationship is. Let's hope that future games, if they are not meant to destroy the DA lore, may give us some enlightenment on this matter.

[felassan]

Fenris plush and pin now available from Sanshee [source, link]

Text version:

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[source]

[dalishious]

Beginner’s Lore Guide to Possession

Possession is when a spirit/demon from the Fade enters the waking world through inhabiting a host.

Why do spirits/demons want to possess people?

According to the Chantry, spirits/demons are jealous of mortals for being the favoured children of the Maker, and crave life’s experiences. This may be at least to some degree true, as Kitty, a desire demon in the Dragon Age: Origins DLC “The Stone Prisoner”, says she wants to experience the mortal realm through mortal eyes.

Can only mages be possessed?

It is true that mages are more vulnerable to becoming possessed—theorized that due to their innate connection to the Fade, they are a juicier target for demons. However, anyone and anything is capable of being possessed by a spirit/demon. It is only a common misconception among Thedas that mages are uniquely susceptible. Living people who become possessed are referred to as abominations.

Examples of non-mage people and possession:

In Dragon Age: Origins, Uldred will say he plans for any PC, mage or not-mage, to forcefully put a demon inside them, during the quest “The Broken Circle”

In Dragon Age II, Wilmod, a templar recruit, is possessed by a demon that was forcefully put inside him during the quest “Enemies Among Us”

In Dragon Age: Inquisition, the PC becomes briefly possessed by an Envy demon looking to study them during the quest “Champions of the Just”

Most cases above were through the use of blood magic, and all against the actual host’s will.

Animals and plants can become possessed by spirits/demons as well:

Kitty in the Dragon Age: Origins DLC “The Stone Prisoner” is actually a desire demon

Sylvans are the result of spirits/demons possessing trees

Lord Woolsley in Dragon Age: Inquisition’s quest “The Ballad of Lord Woolsley” is actually a rage demon

Even inanimate objects can become hosts to spirits/demons if drawn into them by a mage—this is what spellbinders do, then channel said objects for power.

Does becoming tranquil make you immune to possession?

The Rite of Tranquility severs one’s connection from the Fade, making possession less likely. It does not, however, make one completely immune. This is proven by Pharamond, a tranquil mage in Dragon Age: Asunder, becoming possessed.

Can only living creatures be possessed?

Walking corpses are the result of spirits possessing the body of a deceased person. This is purposely done in Nevarra as part of their culture; the Mortalitasi mages perform a ritual to draw a spirit into the deceased’s body as part of funerary rites. But it can also unintentionally happen, making it a practical choice in most cultures to cremate their dead.

In some cases, a spirit possessing a corpse can maintain some semblance of itself: for example, Justice in Dragon Age: Origins’s expansion “Awakening”. And in other cases, the spirit may take on the identity of the deceased: for example, Audric in the Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights story “Down Among the Dead Men”. But mostly, spirits who possess corpses are just confused, and can become aggressive.

Among walking corpses are uniquely classified “arcane horrors”, which are the result of pride demons (considered the most powerful demon) taking control of mage corpses. They maintain all the spellcasting abilities of a living mage.

Is possession always malicious?

While the most common form of possession is from a demon seeking power in the waking world, it is not always the case. There at least three examples of spirits taking possession of a host for benevolent reasons:

In Dragon Age: Origins, Wynne reveals that she is hosting a spirit of faith that is keeping her alive after a deadly encounter during Uldred’s uprising

In Dragon Age II, Anders reveals that he is hosting a spirit of Justice that he befriended in the “Awakening” expansion of Dragon Age: Origins—a deal the two made to fight for mage freedoms*

In Dragon Age: Asunder, Wynne passes on her spirit of faith into Evangeline, to save Evangeline’s life as it once did hers

*It should be noted though, that Anders believes that because of his rage, the spirit of Justice transformed into a demon of Vengeance in the possession process. Still, the act itself was not one out of ill intent, and Wynne and Evangeline’s cases prove that this is not always the result.

Are abominations always monstrous looking?

Most abominations encountered appear monstrous and disfigured. They are described in one codex entry as “looking as if a demon were wearing a man like a twisted suit of skin”.

Dragon Age: The Calling describes Fiona becoming possessed as the following:

“The elf threw back her head and let out a horrible, keening wail. Her entire body tensed, her hands flying out at her sides. Her skin became a pale white, and then began to change. It bulged, and twisted. Her body grew, and took on a hideous form, her head becoming something gnarled and fanged even as she shrieked in torment. And then the transformation was done. A demonic abomination now stood where Fiona once had, a thing of rent flesh and claws, its gender no longer even apparent. The thing’s eyes glowed with menace.”

Additionally, Dragon Age: Asunder describes possessed Pharamond thus so:

“He looked misshapen, his flesh hideously twisted across his frame. His arms were too long and thin, his fingers ending in talons, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a disturbing grimace.”

This is not always the case, though:

Wynne maintains her human form, possessed by a spirit of faith

Connor maintains his human form, possessed by a desire demon

Anders maintains his human form, possessed by a spirit/demon of justice/vengeance

Wilmod maintains his human form, possessed by a demon

Evangeline maintains her human form, possessed by a spirit of faith

Mihris maintains her elf form, possessed by Imshael, an ancient desire demon (one of The Forbidden Ones)

What determines if this physical transformation takes place or not is unknown.

What happens to a spirit/demon if its host dies?

There is conflicting information about what happens to a spirit/demon after its host is killed. Marethari in Dragon Age II claims that killing her will kill the pride demon she took inside of her. The narrative certainly treats this as true, though it is possible she didn’t know what she was really talking about. Because according to Anders in the same game, killing him would set Justice free back into the Fade. This is the case in the Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights story “Hunger”, where the main characters think they have killed the hunger demon attacking them, but in truth have only banished it. Given the later scenario outnumbers the former, I think it’s safe to assume that the spirit/demon is released from the host after the host dies, until concretely proven otherwise.

Can possession be reversed?

Morrigan explains that the process to reverse possession is not an easy one, but entirely possible. There are known cases of it:

Fiona in Dragon Age: The Calling is possessed by a demon, while the others in the party are sucked into Fade dreams as well. After Maric breaks out of his dream sequence with the help of a friendly spirit, he and the rest of the party defeat the demon, freeing Fiona. (Although it was ultimately Fiona who defeated the demon and freed herself)

Connor in the Dragon Age: Origins quest “The Arl of Redcliffe” is possessed by a desire demon, and the PC may choose to save him by going into the Fade and defeating the demon there, freeing him. This can be done using lots of lyrium and a group of mages, or by one mage (Jowan) using blood magic

Pharamond in Dragon Age: Asunder is possessed by a pride demon. The party performs the same ritual used on Connor and frees him, which also cures him of tranquility

Dragon Age: Asunder clarifies that you need at least three mages to perform the Circle’s known ritual of de-possession.

This is all contrary to what is said by Vivienne and Cassandra in Dragon Age: Inquisition, who you would think know otherwise, though. But hey, so are so many things.

SOURCES

Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age II

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Dragon Age: Asunder

Dragon Age: The Masked Empire

Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas vol. 1

Codex entry: Demonic Possession (DA:O)

Codex entry: Abomination (DA:O)

Codex entry: Wild Sylvan (DA:O)

Codex entry: Arcane Horror (DA:O)

Codex entry: Corpse (DA:O)

Codex entry: Spellbinder (DA:I)

Dialogue with Wynne about her spirit of faith (DA:O)

Dialogue with Morrigan about possession (DA:O)

Dialogue with Kitty about wanting to possess Amalia (DA:O)

Dialogue with Anders about Justice (DA:2)

Dialogue with Marethari about Audacity (DA:2)

Dialogue with Solas about spirits/demons and possession (DA:I)

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[scurvgirl]

Y’all. Rezaren is not a “problematic fave” - he IS the problem. He is handsome and well spoken and likable. In modern day terms -he comes from a nice family (that isn’t so nice), he seems just so...nice and smart. Then one day he just...mentions the coastal “elite”. Another day he lets slip that he understands legal protests but these rioters have to be dealt with. And so it escalates. He. Is. The. Problem. I’ve lived my life around these people. He is NOT comparable to Anders and even Solas, who are working toward liberations of people and not working to obtain things for himself. Rezaren wants to POSSESS and OWN people - he only ever saw Miriam and Neb as objects to possess - they were HIS, why can’t Miriam understand that? He isn’t looking to improve Tevinter - he is looking to increase his power and possession. He is not problematic - he IS the problem. 

[visceralcoma]

Because OP blocked me. I decided to make my own post to debunk every single one of their points. source in case you wanted to see their foolishness directly.

Transcript:

"buh buh buh Dreadwolf not Baldur's Gate 3" You're right, Dreadwolf won't be Baldur's Gate 3. Dreadwolf won't be a game where the creators were so uninvested in a non-white woman's story that they refused to actually finish her storyline and then declared that her being condemned to slavery was the ending she "deserved". Dreadwolf won't be a game that's obsessed with victimizing and slaughtering members of an oppressed minority, all while portraying them as leeches and criminals preying on the people providing them with refuge. Dreadwolf won't be a game where an entire foreign culture is portrayed as irredeemably savage and evil, and where a character of that culture's "good" ending is to abandon her culture for that of western-/white-coded society. Dreadwolf won't be a game that constantly romanticizes emotionally manipulative and abusive white men, placing them at the forefront of stories while constantly portraying women in positions of power as evil and stupid bitches. Dreadwolf won't be a game that vilifies a matriarchal society, especially one of dark-skinned women, while at the same time treating them as sex objects even in the context of them abusing prisoners. Dreadwolf won't be a game where the amount of story content and dialogue a character receives is dictated entirely by their skin colour. Dreadwolf won't be a game where an evil character is heavily queer-coded, with a backstory filled to the brim with allusions to homophobic stereotypes about gay men being manipulative and predatory. Dreadwolf won't be a game that uses a female character to paint a male character as being totally awesome and totally smart, then writes that female character as not only a total bitch but short-sighted and stupid as well. Dreadwolf won't be a game where the roles of recurring characters and whether they return as playable characters or reduced to shallow villains isn't dictated by whether or not they're white. So yeah, Dreadwolf won't be like Baldur's Gate 3, because it is not made by and for shitty people.

Lets go down the line of their "points"

Isabella, when she was given to the Qunari in DA2.

City Elves, insanely victimized and deemed criminals by in world humans. And they (and Dalish) are often slaughtered in the narrative by humans.

Qunari, Tevinter, you can't go five minutes without someone calling Tevinter evil or deeming any Qunari as a savage. And Iron Bull's entire arc is about him leaving the Qun as the "good" ending.

Cullen, Samson, Anders, Solas - their stories are pushed forward, despite the fact their narrative counterparts get the shit end of the stick. Vivienne, Calpurnia, Wynne, and Merrill

Rivain. and Isabella nuff said. In the comics she throws slaves overboard.

The black main character (Vivienne) in DAI has much less content in comparison to any of the white faves.

Samson is an evil character with a tranquil as his partner. As a templar he was part of the oppressor group and could be seen as grooming the mage turned tranquil. Especially when you remember that Templars often abused tranquil, and then what happens in DAI to tranquil.

Merrill vs Solas in terms of the Eluvians. Or, Morrigan vs Solas. Take your pick.

I present to you, Varric, Leliana, Cullen, Samson, as recurring again over multiple games. All white, or at the very least light complected. Then the ambiguously brown characters who only got cameos: Alistair and Zevran. And then the sole brown/black character cameo got shunted to multiplayer only, Isabella.

This person clearly never played dragon age and are pretending to in order to make this post for clout.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Is Solas a Villain?

Spoilers for Dragon Age Inquisition and Trespasser DLC. Maybe DAO and DA2 too.

So is he a villain?

Nope!

That's not me being a Solas apologist.

That's me being a pedantic AF writer/editor/word and literary nerd.

Solas, no matter how players feel about him, is an anti-hero.

Firstly, what is an anti-hero?

1. A character who is a hero to some, a villain to others.

Solas was a hero to the ancient enslaved elves, even if he did end up basically destroying the world. If he does what I suspect, he'll also end up a hero to the current generation of enslaved elves, too. He's mentioned he has spies, many, indicating that many people, even good people, serve him. Because they think of him as a hero.

2. A character whose existence offers a critique of social morals and reality.

Can you think of any other character in DA:I who calls attention to the problems of the status quo more than Solas? I mean, truly pointing out the uncomfortable truth?

This convo w/Dorian sort of illustrates that point.

Dorian: Solas, for what it's worth, I'm sorry.

Dorian: The elven city of Arlathan sounds like a magical place, and for my ancestors to have destroyed it...

Solas: Dorian... hush.

Solas: Empires rise and fall. Arlathan was no more "innocent" than your own Tevinter in its time.

Solas: Your nostalgia for the ancient elves, however romanticized, is pointless.

Solas: If you wish to make amends for past transgressions, free the slaves of all races who live in Tevinter today.

Dorian: I... don't know that I can do that.

Solas: Then how sorry are you?

3. A character who is the focal point of conflict in a story.

Rather a no-brainer on this one. I truly think the actual villain/s of DA:D won't end up being Solas. I think, as he was in DA:I, he's a massive distraction. A misdirection of attention.

4. A character who is particularly engaged in the conflict, typically on their own will, rather than for a specific call for the greater good. As such, the anti-hero focuses on their objective first, and everything else is secondary.

Solas, if Romanced, gives up his heart's desire, the Inquisitor, the only person that has ever drawn his attention from the fade, for his goal, even though you can see how much it destroys him to do it.

His heart, hers, his friends... NOTHING can get in the way of the goal. And it's a goal he's taken on of his own will. He's taking the responsibility of fixing his fuck up because he fucked it up. (He's foolish because if he'd just stop and think for a second, he'd realize he's really bad at fixing things.)

5. An Anti-hero is still operating for what they think is the greater good. Solas truly believes that fixing what he broke is for the greater good of Thedas. Not just his own people, (that's an enjoyable side benefit XD) but Thedas itself. Because it was never meant to have the veil in the first place. (We'll just brush that whole evil self-absorbed mage-gods being set free at the same time under the carpet? Because he has "plans". Solas, Solas, just stop and think for a minute!)

6. They tend to be flawed heroes in the sense that they do wrong things/screw up/cause harm.

Welp. That's pretty much a dictionary definition of Solas, isn't it?

So how is that actually different from a villain?

A villain is a malicious, often cruelly malicious character, who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime or hurting others for their own sake. One who contributes evil agency (motivation) to the plot.

The literary purpose of a villain is to stand opposite the hero to help the plot move forward.

In contrast with the hero (which is defined by ingenuity, bravery, pursuit of justice and the greater good), a villain is most often defined by their acts of selfishness, evilness, arrogance, and or cruelty. They are often cunning and display unilaterally agreed upon immorality that can pervert or oppose justice.

In short, an anti-hero is a character who does too much good to be truly bad, and too much bad to truly be considered good.

Solas, as a character, gives unflinchingly of himself to the Inquisition. He gave them his home, if you believe Skyhold is actually his.

He gives of his blood and flesh in battles.

He gives his knowledge.

If Romanced, he gives his heart to a mortal inquisitor.

And he's willing to give whatever is left of his heart, his soul, and very possibly his life to fix what he broke.

Sorry, Solas haters, he's just not the villain you want him to be.

And that's what makes him so bloody fascinating!

Humanity loves our anti-heroes.

Did you know the term anti-hero was used as early as 1714, but that the character archetype has been used by Homer (Theristes), in Ancient Greek drama (Medea), in Roman mythology (Hercules), and in a lot of Renaissance literature (Don Quixote)?

At some point, the existence of an anti-hero character eventually became an established form of social criticism. Which Solas is very good at.

Other examples of anti-heroes most folks will likely recognize

Wade Wilson/Deadpool

Huckleberry Finn

Lou Bloom/Nightcrawler

Bruce Wayne/Batman

Mad Max

Captain Jack Sparrow

Lisbeth Salander (Girl w/dragon tattoo)

Han Solo

Pinnochio

James Bond

Lestat de Lioncourt (Interview w/a Vampire)

Geralt of Rivia (Witcher)

Tyrion Lannister (Game of Thrones)

Dexter Morgan (Dexter)

Indiana Jones

John Rambo

T-800 (The Terminator)

John McClane (Die Hard)

The Beast (Beauty & the Beast)

Tyler Durden (Fight Club)

Magneto (X-Men)

Logan/Wolverine (X-Men)

Riddick

Shrek

Stitch (Lilo & Stitch)

Harley Quinn

Hellboy

John Constantine

Frank Castle (The Punisher)

V (V for Vendetta)

Tony Stark/Iron Man

Sherlock Holmes

Judge Dredd

John Wick

Maleficent

Venom

Angel & Spike (Buffy)

Dean & Sam Winchester (Supernatural)

Oliver Queen/Green Arrow

The Mandalorian/Din Djarin

Wednesday Addams

I'll stop there, because the list could probably go on for a looong time (as if it hasn't already? 😅)

My work of words is my only income. Please consider a tip or becoming a patron. :)

[quitefair]

Dragon Age Lore Breakdown: Gereon Alexius

Started working on my accursed DA fic again, and the research rabbit hole led me down the In Hushed Whispers path. And I found out a bunch of things about this dude that I realised I never knew before.

Anyway, ramble under the cut.

Before he became a Magister, Gereon Alexius was first and foremost, a researcher of magic. One that was trying to push the boundaries of what magic could do, particularly in the field of ‘traveling through and controlling both time and physical space’.

His research partner (and eventual wife) was Livia Arida, a researcher who focused specifically on the Veil.

Gereon’s father, Magister Alexius, was your typical Tevinter upper class dude – focused on power and bloodlines and image. House Alexius wished Gereon focused less on the theoretical and more on magic with practical uses.

Gereon's father thus gave up his post as Magister to his nerdy ass son in the hopes that he would become more invested in politics like he himself was.

Instead, Magister Gereon used his position to ‘became a tireless champion of education, criticizing his peers for pouring the Imperium's funds into the war with the Qunari at the expense of the Circle and demanding better schooling and institutions of higher learning for the Soporati.'

His codex entry is more telling of his backstory and character than anything he's displayed in game lmao.

He continued his research in a diminished capacity, and subsequently married his long-time sweetheart and research partner Livia Arida. He also took a position as professor of thaumaturgy at the Minrathous Circle.

[They use the word ‘thamaturgy’ here very liberally, and I’ve not seen this anywhere else in my Dragon Age research. We all know the DND connotations, but I would like to take the meaning of the term as ‘boundary breaking magical research’, since that’s what Gereon is known for. Like idk the Thedosian equivalent of fringe science.]

[[This also assumes a scientific hierarchy within the study of magic within Imperium society, which I doubt they will explore in DA4, but gods that would be so fucking fascinating.]]

Anyway, Gereon and Livia had a son, Felix. Despite both his parents being mages, and particularly gifted ones at that, Felix was a very weak mage, one that could only cast very simple spells and with great effort.

Gereon’s father saw Felix as a weak link, described him as ‘just barely more than a Soporati’. Because of this, he tried to have Felix assassinated. Typical Magister behaviour.

Livia, being absolutely… livid (yeah I went there lmao), intercepted the assassin, and in turn, fucking had Gereon’s father assassinated instead. This ensured Felix's safety and secured Gereon as head of House Alexius.

Anyway, if it wasn’t clear how much Livia and Gereon loved Felix, you should know by now. Since he couldn't learn much magic, they brought in tutors from all fields – history, art, music, literature, etc, ensuring that anything the boy could study was offered to him on a silver platter.

And although Felix wasn’t a powerful mage, he seemed to have inherited his parents’ analytical minds, and therefore was a gifted mathematician. Recognising this, his parents sent him to study at the University of Orlais.

In the meantime, both Gereon and Livia continued their boundary breaking research. At this point, they decided to take on assistants and apprentices, since they could not involve their son in their research.

While Livia took on ‘half dozen of the most promising young students of the Fade and the Veil throughout the Imperium’, Gereon chose only one apprentice.

You know who it was.

So they continued their research – with Gereon and Dorian focusing on breaking the boundaries of magic itself, while Livia and her apprentices sought to determine the effects of such magic on the Veil. Kind of like an unstoppable force vs immovable object situation.

[There's also what I can only assume is an artist's rendition of their notes in The World of Thedas 2, which is... well.]

[The description included: Careful study is paid to the eyes of the nug. Based on the drawings and a limited deciphering of the text, the author seems all but obsessed with understanding what animals see and how this might differ from our own perception of reality.]

[[Edit: apparently the images above aren't from Gereon's notes, but from a book called Grim Anatomy. Dissecting this book is a whole nother post so we'll leave it at that.]]

They were apparently super close to a breakthrough. But we can’t have nice things in Thedas, can’t we?

In 9:38 Dragon, Gereon and Livia travelled to Orlais to visit Felix. As the family travelled back to Minrathous (or Hossberg - Dragon Age is never consistent with the lore), they were attacked by hurlocks. For some reason, Gereon wasn’t with his wife and son when this happened.

Livia is killed and Felix is tainted.

Gereon is obviously filled with survivors guilt, the grief of losing his wife, and the fear of now losing his son to the taint. He stopped caring for anything other than his son’s health, and this affected his relationship with his research, and by extension, Dorian.

This led to an argument over how distant and strange Gereon was becoming, and eventually Dorian parted ways with Gereon.

In the gap between this and the events of Inquisition, Gereon is now part of the Venatori. It can be assumed that the reason he joined was because of promises made that the Elder One can save Felix from death.

[We can probably extrapolate that Gereon somehow understands that Corypheus is a darkspawn, and so that adds to the weight of his belief that Corypheus can cure Felix.]

It is this time and space bending research that is the foundation of In Hushed Whispers.

Once Gereon is defeated, you can judge him in Skyhold. If you decide to take him in as an agent, he can continue his research for the Inquisition. (Though canonically all it yields is this amulet. Which isn't even unique, you can get it in random loot drops anywhere. Sad.)

[dragonagesb]

This is a lot of rambling

Trying not to cry or throw up thinking about how Iron Bull grows up under the Qun a place where you don’t have names and are addressed by titles Bull’s title literally being Liar but he describes finding his purpose as being a slab of marble having the last of the junk knocked off and finally seeing the final form of what you’re meant to be taking shape

He becomes one of if not The Best Ben-hassrath (secret police) agent ever, Gatt (a former Tevinter slave now Qunari agent Bull himself freed and gave the nickname Gatt short for gattlock the explosives) says Bull kept the streets of Seheron (a place that’s been in the crossfire of a seemingly endless war between the Qunari and the Tevinter Imperium full of constant death) clean longer than anyone before or after him to the point it almost kills him waking up one day and not being able to find a single reason to do his job anymore

He reaches his breaking point and turns himself into the re-educators people that literally torture you to try and ‘re-educate’ his obv ptsd but idk if that really works so instead they send him far away to Orlais to work undercover as a mercenary “tal-vashoth” (people who from his own experiences are ruthless bloodthirsty killers) (still battling with the being an object/person) he loses his eye and builds his own family of misfits, makes a name for himself (literally)(and makes a point of using an article to sound more like a ‘mindless and destructive thing’)

Eventually a demon spitting hole opens in the sky and a longdead archdemon-controlling darkspawn magister shows up claiming god is dead and he’s taking over, and now Bull finds himself working for this inquisitor some rando from no where that is the worlds only chance at beating this undead not-god and the inquisitor is also the guy who in one instant has the power to sacrifice Bull’s new family for an alliance with the Qunari or not and have Bull officially be considered Tal-Vashoth and be excommunicated from his home, friends, and family

All this to say I thought about what if in Demands of The Qun you tell the chargers to hold their position and then Iron Bull returns to Skyhold afterwards all alone…still technically apart of the Qun still technically an agent of the Ben-Hassrath, still another tool to be used by someone else….and he just has to keep going, keep lying

I’m going to start crying jfc just the thought of Bull quietly sitting in the back of the Herald’s Rest all by himself, there’s still the hustle and bustle of Skyhold, all kinds of people coming and going but none of the background noise will be his boys anymore (´༎ຶ^༎ຶ`)

[sxrensxngwrites]

The Inner Circle Crushing on Someone from a Different Background -- Part Two

this request comes from anon, who asks: 'Head canons for the main dragon age squard (if you feel up to it of course!!!!) About them crushing on someone from a different background (example: cullen and someone rich)'

I ended up splitting this up because I got carried away... my bad. If you want any of these to be revisited or you want me to go into more detail, feel free to shoot me another ask! The same can be said if you want DA characters from different games.

Part One (Blackwall, Cassandra, Cole) Part Two (Cullen, Dorian, The Iron Bull) Part Three (Josephine, Leliana, Sera)

CULLEN:

Cullen’s family had many mouths to feed, but they never tried to make their kids feel like they were missing out on anything. However, as Cullen got older he began to realize how difficult it was for his parents. This led him to joining the Templars; working in the order was a very consistently paying job that gave him places to sleep, so he could very easily send money back to his family. Even after he leaves the Templars and joins the Inquisition, he finds himself double checking his finances out of habit. The Inquisition is tighter on money and resources in the beginning, so suddenly he’s back to watching every coin that comes into his possession.

Enter the object of his affection: a person who never had to worry about money ever before. They’re likely related to some nobility, whether it be from Ferelden or otherwise. Money had been a given, so they’re very quick to buy drinks for the whole Inner Circle or give out money to the villagers of Haven. Cullen admires their generosity, but it hurts him greatly to watch them treat their money with such irreverence. He wishes it didn’t bother him as much as it does. As Cullen begins to catch feelings, the formalities aren’t what trips up their relationship. In fact, they have little to no meaning after a month or so of knowing each other. 

However, now that they’re a full member of the Inquisition and the strains of the job are becoming more apparent, money is becoming an issue. Their family isn’t exactly pleased that they’ve spent family money on the ragtag Inquisition–it being seen as sacrilege at that point. So, their family cuts them off, forcing them to learn how to spend their resources wisely. As sad as it is for them (and disappointing for the Inquisition to be losing such an important donor), Cullen is somewhat relieved. Now he doesn’t have to watch them throw away their money as if it has no value.

They come together over it actually, Cullen giving sound advice on rationing their money and picking up jobs to help around Haven. Although it frustrated him initially, he finds their eagerness to learn rather endearing. They spend regular time together, Cullen teaching what he’s picked up about finances and them telling stories of their upbringing. They begin to understand one another better, and Cullen is sure that he’s smitten. Eventually–when money and war isn’t the primary focus of either of their lives–they decide to stay together after the Breach has been dealt with and pool their remaining savings together. 

DORIAN:

Growing up as a son of a Tevinter Magister, Dorian had quite a lot of resources at his beck and call. However, he never let that deter his outlook on other people. There might be some disagreements here and there, but Dorian never let it dictate who he kept in his company–especially after he left Tevinter for Ferelden and Orlais.

Most everyone in Dorian’s early life was a mage, so it wasn’t unsurprising to him that he would be attracted to a mage when he ran away further south. However, his new romantic interest was unlike any Tevinter Mage. After the fall of many of the Ferelden circles, it was only natural that they’d be deemed an apostate. They had to travel light, but it wasn’t like they ever had much to their name to begin with. That had been taken away before they even made it to the Circle. 

Dorian, while he doesn’t hide his standing, also doesn’t wave it in his peers’ faces to make them feel less than. His companion, on the other hand, is still afraid of announcing their mage status in the post-circle world of Ferelden. Upon their meeting, however, the two connect over their different relationships with magic. They share anecdotes, stories, and theories, ultimately bonding over a shared academic interest. Dorian sees them as an equal from the beginning.

Everything goes swimmingly until it becomes apparent how much sway Dorian’s family has in Tevinter. Still afraid of being found by any remaining Templars, his crush is cautious of any sort of fame. Even if it includes being involved with the son of a Tevinter Magister. It likely separates the two for a while, but then they each remember what brought them together in the first place: the possibilities of what could be in the future. Abandoning fear, the two rejoin together, seeking new avenues for each of them to progress their spheres of influences.

THE IRON BULL:

The Iron Bull was raised inside the Qun, following it up until it came in the way of him and The Chargers. Even then, it greatly influences how he interacts with others. For Bull, romantic and intimate relationships are a need to be fulfilled rather than a connection between people. 

Most cultures outside of the Qun think the opposite of intimacy: that it’s a special connection between people rather than a need to be fulfilled. Bull has met many people who think this way, but even then most of them are willing for their relationship to be short-lived. However, Bull meets a special someone that he has no intent of romancing: they’re a diplomatic bard in the court of Orlais with a soft spot for the romantic. 

They initially meet when the Bull’s Chargers are stationed in Orlais. Bull’s interest in them is initially surface level–a few interactions that will eventually fizzle out as he moves on to someone else. Little does he know, they’re very incapable of something as mild as a fling. So a friendship begins, Bull being filled in on all the Orlesian gossip by his new friend. A physical relationship might even begin, but Bull’s new “friend” is ever the romantic, and is severely disappointed when it doesn’t turn into a love to last all ages. When the Chargers are called away on business, they part ways. 

They’re reunited once again when Leliana and Josephine call an old friend to the Inquisition–and Bull is met with a broken heart he left back in Orlais. Of course, they’re very aware that the misunderstanding is their fault, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less. Over time, they learn to forgive Bull and see him as a friend. After everything is said and done, I believe Bull reframes the way he’s the world–now having chosen his friends over the Ben-Hassrath. Once he’s had some time to reassess who he really is and who he wants, he might let the romantic have another try.

PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE

[herearedragons]

The Warden's New Clothes

As the glow of the healing spell subsides and Wynne removes her hands from the injury, Kyana dares to glance at her side once again. What was a miserable sight mere moments ago is now a perfectly healthy patch of skin, no trace of the burns left on her torso or left arm.

It’s not the first time she wishes Wynne had been there when they climbed the tower of Ishal.

There is, however, a problem remaining. Where skin can be fixed, fabric not so much; the remains of her sleeve are hanging in sorry tatters and the state of the left side of her robe is definitely indecent. Adding insult to injury, the enchantment has evaporated from the garment, the fabric hanging heavier and colder than usual.

“Blast it,” Kyana murmurs - and startles, suddenly remembering that Wynne is still there. Have her manners spoiled so much that she curses at a senior enchanter without a second thought?

To her relief and wonder, Wynne does not express any disapproval, simply nodding:

“We should get you changed. Boys - “ the enchanter steps out of the corner they had retired to so that she could heal Kyana with some privacy - “One of you should go back to the mages’ quarters, see if there are any clothes intact in the wardrobes. We need a new set of robes, as close to Kyana’s size as you can get.”

It’s a strange experience, hearing Wynne give out orders to… yes, to her team; Kyana has to admit to herself that she has come to view them as such. Even Zevran, new as he is to the group. He had sworn his loyalty to her, personally; surely that counts for something?

Speaking of the assassin - it’s his voice that she hears answering Wynne.

“What about this one? There’s barely any blood on it - “

“Maker, ew. Really?”

The second voice is Alistair. At that point, Kyana decides to see what the fuss is about and joins the rest, holding the left side of her robe together with her hand.

The scene which appears before her is self-explanatory. Zevran is pointing at a corpse on the ground. Wynne and Alistair are looking upon it disapprovingly.

The body belongs to the blood mage they just fought. Her clothes are… unusual, definitely not of the Circle, and yet familiar. It takes Kyana a moment to place the image, but then she remembers: the vault. There was definitely a robe of a similar design in there, hanging in a glass case. Was it the same one, or just a similar item? Either way, if she’s right, it’s old, it’s from Tevinter, and it probably bears a powerful enchantment.

Kyana reaches for her magic, just slightly, but enough to confirm one half of her theory: the dead woman’s robe is very enchanted.

She definitely wants it now.

“Zevran is right,” she says. “We don’t have time to search the rooms. This will do.”

With that, she begins to direct her magic further. The force of telekinesis lifts the body up from the ground; Kyana lets it rotate mid-air for a few moments, getting a feel for the object she’s about to manipulate. Then, the same telekinetic force begins undoing buttons, buckles and clips, pulling elements of clothing off of the corpse. 

Part of her is glad that Wynne is watching; she’s been honing her precision telekinesis for a while. Nobody in the camp, not even Morrigan, seemed to appreciate it much - but, surely, the senior enchanter understands the work that has gone into this.

Another part of her wonders whether she’s supposed to be more hesitant to undress a dead body, but it’s not a very useful thought, and she lets it go fairly quickly.

If Kyana had to guess, she would say that the whole process takes less than two minutes; definitely less time than it would require to search the living quarters again.  

The new robe fits tighter than the Circle one, mostly due to panels of some stiff material sewn into it in several places. It's definitely more restricting, though Kyana finds that she doesn't mind that much; it feels almost like wearing armor, or, at least, what she imagines wearing armor feels like.

It is strange, though. She somehow feels more dressed than she ever was before; the Circle robes were so familiar that they were almost a part of her, but this... this is alien, a tangible barrier between her and the rest of the world.

“Well… You know, it is quite pretty,” Alistair says. “It’d be even prettier if I could unsee you taking it off of a corpse.”

“Shall I remind you where your armor came from?” Kyana asks dryly.

“That’s different! The armor’s not touching my skin. Also, I cleaned it before putting it on.”

“I also cleaned it! Who do you think I am?”

Alistair raises an eyebrow.

“Cleaned how?”

“Magic.”

“Well, I hope those spells were effective, because otherwise - that’s pretty gross.”

“If I may, Warden,” Zevran pipes up, “Please do not take this the wrong way, but… may I have your old clothes?”

Alistair gives him a look.

“Is there a right way to take this?”

There seems to be some kind of lewd joke implied - she’s been getting better at noticing those kinds of things - but presently, Kyana doesn’t have time to unpack the exact meaning of it. If Zevran wants the rags, he can have them. 

She uses a small burst of telekinetic force to pick up the robes and toss them to the assassin.

“Many thanks,” he says.

The sound of tearing fabric follows immediately after. It takes her a moment to understand what he’s doing, but when Zevran tears a narrow strip of fabric from the robe and starts wrapping it around his right hand, Kyana finally notices:

“Your gloves are ruined.”

They’re in a similar state to her old robe; the top part is almost entirely burned away. Was he the one to finish off the Rage demon? Likely so, considering the singe marks on his arms and the rest of his armor.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Zevran says. “If you see nice leather gloves on someone here, do let me know.”

He finishes securing the remains of his right glove to his hand and prepares to tear off another strip of fabric.

“…Wait.”

Kyana opens one of the pouches on her belt. There, nestled alongside a few healing potions, is a rolled-up pair of leather gloves.

“Here.” She holds them out. “I bought these a while ago, but didn’t end up wearing them that much. They’re warm, but not that good for spellcasting.”

Zevran stops mid-tear.

“You’re… giving me gloves?”

“Well, I don’t use them. Do you not want them?”

“No, no - I did not mean to sound ungrateful. I’ll take them.”

As he approaches to collect the gloves, something about them seems to catch his attention; Zevran lingers for a moment before finally taking them from her hand.

“These are Dalish, are they not?” he asks.

“Yes. I bought them from a Dalish craftsman.”

Zevran turns the gloves in his hands, runs his thumb along one of the stitches - appreciating the craftsmanship, maybe?

“No one has simply… given me a gift before,” he says finally. “I shall treasure these. Thank you.”

It didn’t occur to her to think of it as a gift, but technically, he’s correct.

It’s just as well. If they’re of a better use to Zevran than to her, he should have them.

“It’s nothing,” Kyana says. “I hope they fit.”

[lairofdragonagelore]

Exalted Plains

The Exalted Plains, also known as Dirthavaren ("the promise") in elvish, is a grassland region of the Dales in Orlais. Centuries ago, the Dalish kingdom met its end here, the holdouts of the elven army making their last stand, refusing to surrender against the champions of Andraste: the templar, the sister, and the nobleman patron. The champions' cause was just, and their faith led them to victory. The plains were henceforth called "Exalted". After the elves' defeat and the dissolution of their kingdom, Ville Montevelan became the first human settlement in the Dales, presided over by Revered Mother Amity, Champion of the Exalted March.

Currently, the region is a contested battlefield during the War of the Lions until Empress Empress Celene and Gaspard de Chalons's armies agreed to cease hostilities.

[This is part of the series “Playing DA like an archaeologist”]

When entering this zone, Solas explains that this place has a thin Veil product of the battles that happened long time ago: the Exalted March of Dales. So we know we are going to see a mixture of elven ruins and human settlements. 

Scout Harding will inform us that in the area there is a group of rebels who are tired of the War of the Lions, and wants the Dales for themselves.

The first thing we see when we enter this zone are these statues that, design-wise, they are very, very close to the Humanoid Dirthamen/Falon'Din. Humanoid Dirthamen/Falon'Din is a squatted hooded figure, who doesn’t have any object in his hand. This one holds a plate which works as a brazier. In fact, the elven statues are placed in this entrance, but on the Emerald Graves side:

They are called Guardians of the Path, and by the note they trigger, they are Andrastian. Still the striking similarity between these statues and the one we associate with Dirthamen makes me suspect that, once conquered, the Orlesians repurposed the native statues.

The first ruin we find, which surrounds the camp, is an elven one, with a dragon painting on one of its columns.

Besides the path there is a rectangle statue which on its top has a star-shaped fountain with a dove. On a side there is a reused elven/dwarven relic tablet that will trigger the codex Memorials of the Second Exalted March which will be updated as we read all these stones spread in the region. They explain how the “battle” against the elves was happening, mixing Andrastre’s tale with probably bits of History.  It’s very curious how this piece of information depicts the elves as proud and murderous, far away from the Maker and Andraste, which is clearly a lie when we analyse Di’nan Hanin; these Dalish, unlike modern Dalish, had fused Andraste cult into their elven pantheon, not without reason: It had been some decades since they had recovered these lands thanks to Andraste’s promise.

The zone has several ramparts where the imperial army [either side] is trying to retake control from the undead and the demons. Recovering each of these is quite a repetitive task all over the place.

The only important comment about these ramparts is that they give us some idea to understand the function of these Strange Skull-Dragon totem : They seem to hold barriers around pits that allow the dead to rise, and also as columns surrounding zones with many undead or demons. They seem to be related to summoning rituals.

Along the region we find several Andrastian statues and the typical orlesian style in the remnants of the houses that still stand.

Fort Revasan shows the standard elven patterns of any elven ruin. The Orlesian occupation built extra, less durable additions with chess-like floors and decorated wooden elements.

Close to Fort Revasan there is a sealed entrance that requires a war table operation to be solved in order to open. It shows a Fen’Harel statue, guarding the entrance.  It’s a nice detail to see that the base of his statue shows an eluvian-like pattern worth to keep present.

Very far away in the North, over the mountains that surround this region, we see a big Fen’Harel statue observing the Exalted Plains. It’s hard to guess what this zone represented in the time of the Elvhenan [not the Dalish kingdom]. This place has 3 main elvhen ruins: the one in the North Rampart, the Ghilan’nair’s grove, and the Graveyard Var Bellanaris. There are more than these, but they are too destroyed or small. It’s hard to ponder if all of them date of the same time.

At some kilometres of distance from the Fen’Harel’s statue, we see a tower of radical different style. At a single glance, we can see it’s Tevinter. More details of this in the Post about Exalted Plains: Citadelle du Corbeau.

Riverside Garrison is another elven ruin which patterns make it look like Elvhen: flower pattern, square pattern and swirl pattern.

Inside, we find more elements that allows us to suspect this is Elvehan from the time when the Veil did not exist. There is an elaborated tile that we will see in puzzles in the Temple of Mythal, and one of those rounded trees, growing out of it.

With the exception of the rounded tree, the decoration looks like an elvehnan crypt; its style is the same one we found in the crypts of the Temple of Mythal. There are bodies, skeletons and urns everywhere. Of course, DAI has several bodies and skeletons that they use for everything dead, so I won’t focus on the armour or the details of these objects. They are always the same no matter what kind of dead you are looking at: an avvar body, an elven body or a dwarven body.

Close to Revasan Fort, there is a collapsed bridge decorated with a statue of Andraste and a landmark called Pont Agur. It explains with dubious accuracy that after the Exalted March of the Dales some villagers drown trying to cross the river, so the mayor built this bridge and dedicated it to humans and elves too. This started a rumour about the mayor having elven blood, and had to step down. I think this shows how complex was this land after the March; these things [elves and humans in relationships] have been happening since long time ago, as the Tomb of Elandrin shows us with the incident of Red Crossing. For more details read Emerald Graves: Din’an Hanin, Tomb of Elandrin.

Beside Port Agur we find villa Montevelan, where this story of the mayor happened. This was the first human settlement after the Exalted March of the Dales. It’s all destroyed now.

Inside some ramparts we can see big trees that got my attention: I don’t know if they can be considered the original vhenadahl, the trees that the city elves try to grow as a memory of their Dalish roots. These trees can be found in ramparts as well as in the Citadelle du Corbeau. In many times, they show bodies hanging from its branches, so they inspire some murderous sentiment to such an elven symbol [if these tree are supposed to be vhenadahl, I’m just guessing since these can’t be found in other elven ruins, so they seem to be more Dalish than Elvish to me.]

In this rampart in particular, we find a difference in comparison with the rest of the ramparts in the area: there is a small tower which construction date is hard to guess. It could have been built during the Exalted March or a bit earlier.  The entrance is decorated with these enigmatic tablets, depicting the Razikale Ceremony and the Horned warrior holding a sword. We have established they were Tevinter due to their presence in Coracavus and The Still Ruins. Inside the tower we find a Tevinter inspector, Tevinter containers, and minor, decorative Tevinter elements. Inside this tower there is a codex about Legend of the Three Sisters: Book 3, which makes the player aware of how stories change depending on factors such as historical-political situation, countries or censorship. This is yet another call out that the game does to us, players, to not take every single story we read as 100% true. 

It seems that Tevinter mages were present in the Exalted Plains at some point in History and performed some magic or experiments. Considering the Strange Skull-Dragon totem and the undead all over the place, I would be inclined to think that some faction during the Exalted March invited Tevinter mages to provide efforts in the battle. Which is a very odd concept if we remember that it was a war between Elves [many of them coming from families who had fought Tevinter by Andraste’s side to recover their freedom] and the Chantry of that time [which always had some frictions with Tevinter].

I thought in a possibility to explain this Tevinter presence: since many of the elves that fought in the Exalted March belonged to families that had been former slaves of Tevinter mages, some of them could have developed a vast knowledge of Tevinter arcane magic. I have the impression this is more or less proven in the Citadelle du Corbeau, where elves may have installed a Tevinter defence system in an elven ruin. Because of this last fact, I’m a bit inclined to think this is the reason why we find Tevinter elements in this region. However, that doesn’t add up that we find these tablets, which are more related to Tevinter gods and ceremonies than Elven ones. I can imagine elves resorting to Tevinter devices against the Chantry, but hardly performing rituals to Tevinter gods. 

As a conclusion I don’t think we can make a decent explanation of why we find so many Tevinter objects in the ramparts and elven ruin when there is no Tevinter building in the whole region.

We see this rock with an eye in many places of Exalted Plains, usually, but not exclusively, representing the attack of Orlesians [at least in the context of Exalted Plains and Emerald green]. During the main quest, in the attack to Adamant Fortress, it was the Inquisition who used these stones. Clearly a reused asset with little meaning, so I will skip it.

In Victory Rise we find more Elven ruins: we can see the elven patterns of swirls and flowers around this door.  In this place we find the codex of  Legend of the Three Sisters: Book 1. 

In Enavuris [such a name to confuse it so easily with Evanuris] we find a ruin that, after inspection, allows you to follow a quest to look for ancient elven glyphs. The power that the note  The Elven Glyphs talks about ends up being the “Dirthamen’s wisdom”, a strange shield that can be found at the end of the exploration of the Lost Temple of Dirthamen which has an oddly Tevinter look. [See the post related to the Lost Temple of Dirthamen]. It’s hard to understand what each of these symbols that appear in the glyphs mean. Clearly, all of them are secrets, such it is the nature of Dirthamen.  A brief, potential analysis can be found in the post of the Lost Temple of Dirthamen.

In Halin’sulahn we find a very small Dalish clan. They are placed close to a rock which shows the usual painting of a yellow halla, and the one that looks like a battle with many elves on hallas. There is also a statue of a hart. After talking with the Keeper of this clan we are informed about several elven-issues that the War of the Lions has caused.

The encampment shows the typical Dalish symbols: these fences with ragged hides and tree branches paint in red or green on them.

I always like to highlight that the Aravels keep these undulating lines that make me remember the undulating patterns in many, if not all, murals found in DAI. It is also worth remembering that the aravels were prison-ships filled with slaves that sent elves to dwarven cities [check The Horror of Hormak].

In search for those ancient elven glyphs, we explore a zone called Ancient Baths. By its name it seems to be an elven building which allowed baths in the river. Its entrance is decorated with two archer statues, and two wall paintings: the yellow halla, and the black twisted halla with white elves wearing vallaslin [the Dalish “remember” that golden hallas guided The people to places where they needed to be, specially in desperate times. The truth behind that probable is more twisted]. Every time I see these paintings I suspect that this building was meant to be used by slaves.

As we proceed, we find a point where we need to jump off. This chamber, in its configuration [not grandeur], looks like the Temple of Mythal's main chamber where the priest stays in a high place, inaccessible to reach [no stairs in this chamber], looking from above down to the petitioner. 

This section has ancient elven decorative elements: two inuksuit decorated with red swirls and a central squared stone, both elements used for the elven dead. More than half of the ruin has fallen apart but it seems to give an idea that this building was meant to be used to see baths in the river.

As it can be seen, the decoration is ancient elvhen.

As we explore the map, we find this statue which triggers Andruil's Messenger, a codex that produces more confusion than understanding of who is the god behind the owl symbol. There is a painting of a yellow halla beside the statue. Since it is an information given by Gisharel, it may be extremely wrong. The tale almost hides a command: the people, aka the slaved elves, will follow Andruil, she will tell them when to hunt, when to raise hallas, and when to settle down. And for that, she will use an owl. Since we do not truly have better sources confirming that the owl, crow, or raven are Dirthamen’s sacred animal, it’s hard to suspect how much of this tale has been twisted along the Dalish history.

In the open we see more of these four painting together: The row of slaved elves, The Armoured Figure,  The Vallaslin shifting halla, and the black halla with elves wearing vallaslin. All these paintings together seem to speak about elves being capture, alienated [ they have no face nor heart] under the control of a symbol we have seen a lot: the golden ring, and these slaves are related to vallaslin and deformed hallas that shift. For more detail, see the post Nation Art: Elvhen.

Several times in the open we can find these owl statues or the archers. Sometimes even marking a path, as if they were guiding us to some places. Sometimes they are accompanied with the paintings.

The Path of flame, a name designated by the Chantry to this part, looks like the entrance of a bigger elven ruin, which is protected by two big Fen’Harel statues. The landmark we trigger around this area, extremely unreliable, suggests that this place was an elven arena. I hardly believe it, but certainly there is something about gathering many elves and forcing them to walk certain paths [aka, a path to mark slaves? considering the paintings]. The truth is, that the game has showed us two elvhen arenas already: In Emprise du Lion, called currently by orlesians names since the original ones were lost to the ages: Etienne’s Ring and Leontine’s Ring, which are now used by dragons. So, I have to say that despite not trusting this source in the slightest, the Ruined Arches of Exalted Plains have a similar look to those we see in Emprise du Lion. So maybe elves had rings after all but the purpose of them is completely unknown. 

In this zone, we find a solitary statue of Fen’Harel on the waterfall.

Some meters away from it, there is a Shrine to Sylaise, which entrance is decorated in the same fashion than the Ancient Baths: two archers indicating the entrance, and two paintings depicting a yellow halla and a black halla wtih elves wearing vallaslin.

When we enter the temple, we only find crypt-related elements: inuksuit and urns, and a codex of Sylaise is triggered: Sylaise: the Hearthkeeper, which is the usual one we find in DAO, and extremely unreliable.

Inside the temple there is a small corner covered with a barrier, where a body can be found. This body has a valuable historical talisman of the Dales elves, and an ancient elven robe. It's not clear to me how to understand the situation in which we find it.

This talisman belonged to an historical warrior of the Dales, and since we find a Robe that looks like the same one than the Keeper of the Clan we met, I assume this body was an ancient Keeper who wanted to protect that talisman from the shemlen, and made a barrier with themselves inside, or they activated some trap of the small shrine and got caught in it..

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore ]

[thekingofwinterblog]

In fiction, especially in fantasy stories, there are several ways in the universe past is treated.

It can be completely explained in detail from a starting point to "present" day, it can be shrouded in myth and legend, with what actually happened being very hard to piece together, like a song of ice and fire, or everything people thought they know about history turns out to be wrong, like the Stormlight Archives.

Dragon Age has elements of all 3, depending entirely upon which part of history we are talking about, and what characters.

However, onebrather unique way it handles this kind of writing is the Story of Andraste.

While the games, books or other media of Dragon Age always keeps the question of whether or not she really was divinely blessed, whether her maker was real or invented by her to justify her message, and whether this maker if he be real was actually the creator god of this universe or just a stupidly powerful spirit, deliberately vague and without an answer, in most other regards Dragon age takes the unconventional approach that it gives us a lot of the answers from day one during the trip through the Temple of Sacred Ashes, and only then has characters in-universe hotly debate the topic of her life, while we, the reader, sit with all the answers and can judge it for ourselves.

Maferath, Andraste's Husband

Maferath is treated astonishingly well by in universe historians considering how badly he fucked everything up.

This is the man who turned his wife over to the Tevinter Imperium in exchange for a poorly planned peace deal, and then rather than at least try to keep the nation him and his wife built together, divided it up amongst his sons, shattering any semblance of unity Andrastianism had after Andraste's death, and setting the stage for the dozen lesser states of modern Southern Thedas, the tyranny of the chantry, and the Tevinters continued existence.

And yet in universe historians try to rehabilitate them, the same way real historians try to rehabilitate objectively terrible monarchs like King John of England, or ancient massmurderers who they claim didn't really commit their murders despite all evidence to the contrary.

Maferath reason for turning over Andraste must have been because he thought their strategic position was terrible as a result of Andraste's actions, and so in the aftermath of Andraste's greatest victory, he made a deal to consolidate their gains, at the cost of his wife's life.

Nope, he did it because he was couldn't handle the fact that for all his military genius, it was Her who rallied the people together, it was her who everyone loved, and if total victory was achieved, it was no doubt going to be her who would get all the credit, while he would be a footnote.

And so he betrayed her to get her out of the way in a manner that would still allow him to become famous and celebrated, all the while making an absolutely terrible peace deal.

The fact was there was no such thing. There was no great plan. No idea of making himself into a target everyone of his own people could hate and rally against.

He was simply a terrible politician with a fragile ego, and a big complex about being seen as the best, biggest, and most impressive man around, who couldn't handle the fact his wife was more important than him, and so he threw everything away on a terrible peace deal, when his wife was at the tipping point of destroying the Tevinter Imperium, and forging a new super state composed of all her followers... And then he stupidly broke the empire apart so each of his sons could be king in their own right.

All so he could attempt to become bigger an more loved than Andraste, when it's very clear that she was the political brian in this union, and he an utter fool in anything that wasn't battle.

Shartan, Thane of all Elves

Shartan is speculated to be many things, his history is forgotten, buried, rewritten and so on.

Some historians try to say he never existed. Others that one, single elf could never have achieved so much success on his own, there must have been more than one man who took the name, a bunch of rebel leaders who created a legacy for themselves.

Some claim he was won over by andraste's charm and converted to the maker. Other's that he must have been Andraste's lover for her to favor him so.

In his death some say he was slain defending Andraste, others that he fought his way to her pyre and died there, while one claim that he died besides her at a pyre of his own is dismissed as obvious fiction.

The reality is that Shartan was indeed a man, did indeed rally the elves to Andraste's cause, but was never a true friend of Andraste. His and the Prophet's alliance was one of convinience, in his own words "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", and they did indeed have a shared enemy.

His motivation had nothing to do with the maker, and everything to do with his dream, his dream that his people would one day have a home of their own... But he was betrayed, just Andraste was.

And through the witness of the spirit carrying the memories of Hessarion's wicked and evil wife, we learn what became of Shartan. He and all of Andraste's Warleaders(Except for Maferath) was publicly executed by fire.

Shartan did indeed die on a pyre, right besides Andraste, but there was not sword of mercy for him. He died slowly, and painfully, and ultimately forgotten, just like the other warleaders.

Another soul lost to Maferath's betrayal.

Hessarion, The Lying Archon

Hessarion claims to have heard the will of the maker in Andraste's final moments, and used that as justification for his converting the entirety of his Imperium to the chant.

But this is a lie.

Whether he truly believed in the maker later in life, or not, Hessarion did not hear a voice from above telling him to kill Andraste. He did it for no other reason than that he could not bear to see the woman in pain and suffering, and so, acting on that impulse, he ended her life quickly and decisively rather than leave her in pain.

Hessarion built his ultimately doomed reforms of the Twvinter Imperium on complete lies about a holy vision from God. Whatever his intentions, it was built on a big, fat lie, not true, genuine belief in a higher calling.

Cathaire, the Witness

Historians claim that Andraste's miracle might not even have happened, that the Barbarian Queen merely took advantage of good fortune, but those who were there knew the truth.

For as the original Cathaire tells, the Barbarian Horde witness the fire of the sun coming doen to the Earth, scorching the land, inflicting such a destruction through fire and drought that the Imperium's entire harvest was gone, and so their armies could not march to fight Andraste's army.

And only then did the heavens open up, and create such a flood, that all that yet remained in the lands they passed were washed away like filth.

Whether it was though the will of God, her own incredible magic, or some mighty spirit's work, Andraste's miracles were real enough, and they brought her and her armies through to victory, all the way to the gates of Minrathous, where the betrayal from inside did what no Tevinter armies or spells could defeat.

Brona, the Seer and Mother

Much and more has been said of Andraste's visions, wheter they were real or not.

But what we do know, is that there was one close to her, who saw her future through the gift of magical and/or divine foresight.

Brona her mother, as her child slumvered beneath her heart, had a vision that told her of her daughter's life, and how it would end... Something she tried, and failed to stop.

The ability to divine the future is not unheard of in the Dragon Age universe, as shown with Flemeth, but as proven by Players chaoice in their actions, the future is rarely set firmly in stone.

Hawke will make the world shake before them... Provided of course they aren't killed fighting a Demon in the Fade.

Flemeth foresees her own death at the hands of the Warden, and takes steps to avoid it, but the Warden can choose to spare her life instead.

Compare the fickle, and uncertain nature of those predictions, with Brona's stonehard vision of her daughter's entire life from childhood to death, and it becomes clear that whatever force it was that defined Andraste's life, it was something with immense power, unlike mayhaps anything else seen in the series.

[dalishious]

Magical & Non-Magical Healing in Thedas

Magical Healing

Most healing magic falls under the School of Creation, which is about manipulating natural forces of life. It is a school rarely studied by mages, as it requires more finesse than any other school.

While any mage can study the school of creation and learn to heal, it is Spirit Healers who have the strongest healing magic. Spirit Healers can call in spirits to rapidly heal someone’s body, be it from physical damage or through disease. It requires a special gift of working with spirits in this way, which is rare among mages.

Finally, blood magic is also capable of healing. Solas says, “I once saw a blood mage healer who would shed her own blood to close a patient's wounds,” in defence of blood magic. But the details of this form of healing is unknown.

The extent of what healing magic is capable of varies by the skill of the mage practitioner. In the Tevinter Nights story Three Trees to Midnight, Myrion says that while he only knows a little bit of healing magic and can just close Strife’s wounds, his friend Jasecca was a Spirit Healer who “once reattached a man’s hand after it had been chopped off.”

It’s possible that the average mage in Tevinter is taught at least a little bit of healing magic, as in Tevinter Nights’s The Streets of Minrathous, Neve Gallus is also able to use her magic to slow the flow of blood out her wound, despite claiming to not be a proper healer. This is just like Myrion’s limited abilities.

There are also objects imbued with magical properties capable of healing people. For example, in Herold Had the Plan from Tevinter Nights, Bharv’s amulet completely heals the scratches on his hand without so much as a scar, closes up the wound on his stomach, and even keeps him from dying over a fatal blow.

While magical healing is very useful, because of Chantry-propaganda against magic, there are some in Thedas who would rather suffer than accept magical healing. For example, when the Inquisitor arrives at The Crossroads in the Hinterlands, a soldier tells Mother Giselle not to let any mage touch him when she offers to fetch a healer. But this is not the universal opinion. In Kirkwall, the people of Lowtown and Darktown were willing to shelter and protect Anders as thanks for his healing them.

Non-Magical Healing

There are books found in game that have anatomical diagrams, meaning there is some form of studying the body:

The most extensive evidence of what non-magical healing is like is from the Surgeon character found in Skyhold. The surgeon knows how to set broken bones, and also mentions doing amputations as a last resort. When asked how non-magical healing works, she replies, “good health isn't magic. It's diet, exercise and a balance of the humors.” She has many comments about bloodletting in particular:

“Hmm, somewhat off-colour today, Inquisitor? An excess of bile, perhaps. Might I bleed you?”

“Try not to touch the leeches. They are quite delicate.”

“Come for a bloodletting?”

Humorism was the real life historic belief that the body was made of four fluids: blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm. Disease was believed to be caused by an imbalance of the humors, and so treatment was to “balance” the humors, often by bleeding the patient. This goes against the basics of germ theory also evidently believed in Thedas, so perhaps this surgeon is in fact out of date?

A note found in The Fallow Mire says, “The Gardners are too sick to save, everyone says. Grandfather and my brothers barricaded them in their own house so they wouldn't make anyone else sick.” This would suggest that the average person knows the basics of germ theory, at least to a degree that they know how diseases spread and how to prevent them through quarantine.

If you take Dorian to the Fallow Mire, he will comment, “At least in the city, you can find a decent healer. Out here you have, what? Roots and berries?” So, healers are not always available. In lieu of practicing healers, common folk turn to those who know about herbalism.

[RELATED POST: Canonical Herbalism in Thedas]

Additionally, there are a variety of folk remedies found across Thedas. For example, to cure a cold: “Bring a cup of whiskey to nearly a boil in a kettle, until its vapors permeate your surroundings. Add the juice of half a lemon and two peeled and crushed cloves of raw garlic. Consume before the whiskey cools.”

-----

SOURCES:

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas vol. 2

Tevinter Nights: Three Trees to Midnight

Tevinter Nights: The Streets of Minrathous

Tevinter Nights: Herold Had the Plan

Codex entry: The Four Schools of Magic: Creation (DA:O)

Note: Diary of Peter Marsh (DA:I)

Creation Ability Trees (DA:O) (DA:2)

Spirit Healer Ability Trees (DA:O) (DA:2)

Dialogue with Fereldan refugees in Lowtown (DA:2)

Dialogue with Mother Giselle and a soldier in The Hinterlands (DA:I)

Dialogue from Dorian about the plague in the Fallow Mire (DA:I)

Dialogue with Solas about blood magic (DA:I)

Dialogue with Surgeon in Skyhold (DA:I)

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[wifihunters]

not to Dragon Age Preemptively but

there's been so much (valid) worry that da4 isnt going to handle the issues that are inevitable if the game is headed into Tevinter and like? Honestly? I think it comes from the games trying so hard to make everything feel like a devil's advocate moment in defense of roleplay rather than like. An actual choice.

In Origins you could do some absolutely heinous things. You could do some heinous things without realizing! Depending on your origin, your reaction to the templars, Vaughan, Bhelen, etc... most of us probably fucked something up our first playthrough just based on information variation. Still, with few exceptions, there are weighted 'good' options in most areas.

That... felt like good roleplay. The mission was simple (you were fighting an evil zombie dragon. If you really needed to ally with it to feel complete, there was a dlc for that) and how much you wrecked the world on the way to that objective was up to you, but you definitely know when you're doing an evil dao run.

Dragon Age 2 is a game I enjoy, but its a dating simulator on rpg rails. Hawke is doomed to fail, you just pick who you fail on good terms with. It doesn't have a place in this argument because it's the most pessimistic game so far.

Inquisition seemed to try to combine the two but... failed?

Corypheus is the 'archdemon' 2.0, Samson and Calpernia feel like less involved Meredith and Orsino except they're just mutually exclusive. The Inquisitor is Hawke but destined to succeed no matter what.

Every world choice doesn't change your character's morality, it just reskins the setting with thin paint. My wife going to the mages felt shadier than my (purposeful attempt at an evil run?) run with the templars, really for no reason other than making both sides equal. If DAI was your first game (it was my wife's) you didn't feel any ramifications for this other than which 'boss' attacks Haven. I barely noticed Fiona and I knew who she was.

And the thin reskins and 'equality', 'everyone is morally grey', makes it so the developer can't write an actual stance. Every companion and character needs a "true, however---" check in place so they can't overtake the player's moral godhood. If that was the goal, writing things like genocide and slavery, cultural destruction and bodily autonomy.... shouldn't be on the table as plot points. Go smaller or make an animalistic evil god again.

[snowy-sims]

Why Rezaren’s portrayal was a waste of potential imo

I'm not saying he deserved any better, but the way he just immediately became a mustache-twirling villain killed any nuance or discussion that could've been had about the real evil at the root of his behavior: the way slavery, power abuse, and systemic inequality are accepted as the natural order to things in Tevinter society.

Historically speaking, few slave owners likely considered themselves evil. Putting aside the people responsible for large-scale atrocities, those who passively participated in the system and had grown up with it - like Rezaren - simply accepted it as a way of life. Many might have even considered themselves benevolent by virtue of not "mistreating" their slaves, or considering their slaves as "part of the family" - ignoring the massive incongruity of how the slaves are always at the mercy of their owners and are never treated as equals.

The same incongruity is evident in the set-up of Rezaren's relationship with Miri and Neb. "We were raised as siblings," he says in the same breath as he admits his mother owned them. He reminisces about their "happy" childhood, but conveniently glosses over the abuse they faced or how Miri would again be completely at his mercy to control or dispose of as he wishes if she "returned home".

IMO, I think it would've been way more interesting if he had been forced to tackle this incongruity. By pushing him to realize that as much as he misses Neb and Miri, the two are still objects to him more than real family, he could've had a crisis of faith for his world-views. If they wanted to keep him a villain, he could still choose to be wilfully ignorant and stick to his ways, refusing to admit that he was wrong and thinking he knows what's better for them as their master. We see bits of this in his confrontation with Miri in ep 4, but it's glossed over in favor of painting Rezaren as your typical callous and power-hungry magister instead.

I think that in turn kind of oversimplifies the whole narrative theme of how evil slavery is. Slavery isn't just evil because all slave owners are villainous sociopaths who think of people as tools by default, but because it's a system that facilitates and promotes such behavior in every level of the society in which it exists. By pinning it on a single individual character's moral compass, we ignore that the real evil is how terrifyingly easy it is for anybody born to Rezaren's amount of privilege to do the same without ever questioning how messed up that is. How normalized dehumanization and oppression become as part of everyday life, and how difficult it is to challenge those benefiting from it to see what they do as evil.

Idk, I'm likely overthinking this given the length and the budget of the show, but I just thought it had such potential when they first presented us with how he sees Miri as a sister, only to more or less trash the implications of it within half an episode. I think it would've been more compelling if they had just stuck to Rezaren wanting the circulum to revive Neb and have his "family" back rather than weave it into his ambitions.

The narrative primarily signals "Rezaren is evil, that's why he's a slave owner" after the Divine reveal, when we could have focused on "Rezaren wants to stay a slave owner even after knowing how it harms the people he claims to love, and that makes him evil" -- the latter which could've been a far more powerful commentary on how awful slavery is, at least in my view.

[dreadfutures]

wip wednesday

tagged by @shivunin | @ndostairlyrium | @effelants and some others I think, and coming in under the wire to tag some people:

@exalted-dawn | @warpedlegacy | @wickedsnack | @neontteeth | @oxygenforthewicked | @knightdawn | @queenaeducan | @fensyl | @victoriousscarf

Share any wip or recently completed thing of any fandom or medium!

and then to share myself: a conversation between Dorian and Ixchel Lavellan in my next chapter.

Outside the window a gentle rain fell, silent through the thick walls and thick glass, but Ixchel could already imagine the heavy droplets in her hair. Mahariel had been right: the weather would turn on them soon.

The moody, spitting sky reminded her of Hal, of course, for it was the same color of his cold eyes. She tore her gaze away from the window and cast it down at Dorian's shoes, for her head felt heavy with guilt. Unfortunately, she immediately noticed the new scuffs on his boot from where he must have been dragging his injured leg as he acclimated to using a cane.

It was an odd thing, she thought bitterly, to not be the worse off of the two. With that, her heart dropped into her roiling stomach. She knew how she would feel were she the one to be left behind due to a debilitating injury--she knew how she had coped with it after the Exalted Council, with the intoxicating depths of her bed to wallow in, and the bitter cut of isolation reinforced by her own moping. She had never liked wine as much as Dorian, but she could understand, perhaps, how life might seem just a little more bearable through the alcohol-softened eyes. How being alone might not feel like such a sharp wound at the bottom of a bottle.

She sighed and leaned over in her chair, propping her cheek up on her palm--the very same she would one day lose. She found him seated similarly, watching her with a look more critical than she thought she deserved.

"So am I to understand we are on the eve of your great departure?" he asked, and it was not the question she knew was on his mind.

"Seems so," she murmured. "I hope you'll see me off with the rest of my adoring followers."

"Mm, I do so love watching you leave," he drawled, and she smiled a little despite herself. "If only it didn't mean I would be left in your chilly old castle built in what was certainly the armpit of Elvhenan--"

"Aren't armpits usually hot and smelly?" Ixchel scoffed. "I would call Minrathous more of an armpit than here."

"Today, perhaps! You can't pretend to know what climates were like in the old magical days of yore." He waved his other hand at her without laughing, but even he had started to smirk again. "It will certainly stink much more once the Iron Bull returns, which I'm told will be soon. A sorry substitute for my best student, I will say."

Ixchel's eyebrows shot up, and her heart shot to her throat at the praise. Perhaps it was silly to be so injected with joy every time he acknowledged her more scholarly interests, but she couldn't help how comfortable it felt--how much like an olive branch, or an extended hand, it seemed.

"Yes, yes, I must begrudgingly admit I will miss the sorry old man," Dorian said in his most petulant tone. "I will have to settle for Miss Davri and Dagna for intellectual stimulation in Solas' absence. It's just not the same. A little conflict whets the intellect, you know?"

Ixchel reached for the nearest object to throw at him, but she never released her grip on it, amused that he didn't even flinch at her feint. As she settled the book back on her lap she took a glance at the cover; it turned out to be a heavy memoir from some Tevinter Dreamer from a long-past century.

"Of course, I'll miss you too, I suppose," Dorian said, and then whatever impish gleam might have been in his eye faded entirely. Entirely sober, he said, "Don't have too grand an adventure without me, Ixchel. I've had my own taste of debilitating injuries now, and I wouldn't recommend hurrying to get more of your own."

Ixchel sighed and flexed her fist. "I will do my best," she said, words heavy with the promise. "But you have to promise me you'll not go too feral left to your own devices here, Dor. I've spent enough time trapped in these walls, too."

She tried to hold his gaze to impart her deeper meaning, but she found she had to look away sooner than she wanted. It hurt, aching in the same parts of her that were left raw from telling Vivienne the truth of her life and death, and her conversation with Cassandra.

It wasn't just that it hurt to remind them both of how literally being left behind in Skyhold had killed her. Cassandra and Vivienne had both confronted her with a question she still did not have an answer to: did things need to be the same as they once were? Were her friends still fundamentally the same people they had turned out to be by the end her life?

Was she right to worry for Dorian, or would he steer away from the dangers she knew might befall him?

Dorian leaned forward a little in a half-hearted attempt to catch her gaze again. "I'll be here when you return, mula," he said. "Just make sure to come back in one piece, alright?"