#The lore

[cuddlebugmonster]

Mayhem final evolution!

When coming up on this little guys design I immediately thought of the Komainu.

Described as a lion-dog creature, Komainu are usually found in front of temples / Shinto shrines in japan. These creature are protectors and guardians of holy grounds, their sworn duty being to ward off evil spirits and serve any deities they are assigned to.

From the physique to the overall description, I just couldn’t get it out of my head. I mean come on !

Literally in the first episode of the show mayhem is shown purring, meowing, is called a “nuclear Saint Bernard” by Donnie and “dog thingy” by April XD

AM NOT CRAZY I SWEAR !!!!

THE WORMS !!!! THE LORE !!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

[tempestvista]

[linskywords]

Key takeaways from the WillMack podcast episode so far:

Omg I can't tell these boys' voice apart. How dare they both be boys of a certain age and why can't one of them have more of an accent

However, I did manage to suss out that Mack punched a hole in Will's windshield because Will was taking too long getting new golf clubs?? And then Mack just, like, not having another side of the story. They both agree that's what happened. Though Mack does maintain that Will's windshield was fundamentally unsafe for cracking that easily.

Also he refused to apologize because he was going to pay for it.

Their favorite song is Pony.

By Ginuwine.

From Magic Mike.

At least that's how they introduce it.

Will HAS A DANCE TO THIS.

Neither of them could remember the words to it on the air. (Or so they said.)

They think the idea of wearing each other's suits is gross. Not, like, weird, or they wouldn't fit, but gross. Cooties, probably.

They never go out to dinner without each other, unless they have family in town.

They do, however, get tragically separated on the road sometimes if other guys are called up. This resulted in Mack missing out on the best hotel cookies, which were in Fort Lauderdale. They bravely took this in stride.

Mack (probably) was quiet when they first met at rookie camp, but he opened up quick.

They think Cat and Toff can't take a joke. It's possible they're actually joking a lot more of the time than it seems and they're just really deadpan about it.

Mack thinks Will looks like a donkey, which seems fairly accurate.

Will thinks Mack looks like a parrot, which is completely wrong. Mack is obviously a capybara.

They go to coffee shops to people watch (but it's not weird!!) either once a month or every other day. Unfortunately due to my voice blindness I don't know who was making which claim.

It may have been Toff who suggested that if WillMack moves in with him, Cat will have to leave. Toff begs to differ.

WillMack is going to discuss living arrangements for next year after the end of the season. That has now happened, presumably. We need them to go on another podcast so we can find out what happened.

I'm sure I have forgotten many magical moments. Please remind me at your leisure!

[dovewingkinnie]

missing

[kata-the-bee]

An Uncomfortable Wait

Lore Story under cut

Leshy was the first to know that Heket would be coming.

It had been several months since the worm had been indoctrinated into the Cult of Death. It had taken a long adjustment period for Leshy, but with Sitri's help it made the process somewhat smoother.

Somewhat.

The Worm hated the sunlight with everything in his bones, and he still occasionally struggled with navigation. He had learned his way around the cult fine enough, but any trip and fall could completely ruin his sense of direction. Thankfully, Sitri was there to help, though he couldn't be there every second of the day. The cat had a job to attend to as well, and during those hours, Leshy was left to his own devices.

The other cultists mostly steered clear of the strange blind worm, especially after learning just what and who he was. The Lamb was careful but firm in telling those in the cult that Leshy would not be a threat, and that those that retaliated against him would be punished accordingly. Unrest grew at the news, but the next few months of minimal major events helped to ease the wariness at the former god's presence.

Still, Leshy was mostly a loner. The other worms, the former disciples of chaos, they treated Leshy fairly and with a casual friendliness. He would struggle to call them friends, but at least they didn't ignore him in the same way as the rest of the populace. Truly, the only one he would give that title to would be Sitri. They'd grown rather close over the months of living together, and the daffodil colored kitty served as a lone comfort in a isolated existence.

Which is why Sitri became so important after the Lamb broke the news. If this crusade would be anything like what the Lamb went through in Darkwood months prior, then the second youngest would soon be there.

Leshy froze. His sister would be there? The proud and powerful and temperamental frog? Would she be okay? Was her suffering about to end? His mind and body flooded with hopes and fears, joy and dread, all of which coalesced into a growing anxiety he had never before felt in his life.

The Lamb set out right after, or at least the worm assumed so. He didn't care about the details. He only knew one thing right now.

Leshy needed to be the first to be there for her.

He made his way to where the indoctrination circle was. Carefully, he felt at the stone to be sure he didn't get his routes mixed up before moving just to the side of it. He sat down to wait. It didn't matter to him how long he had to, he was not going to miss his sister being brought home.

The sunlight warmed Leshy to levels he couldn't stand, but he refused to leave. Even as the scent of dinner wafted through, he refused to shift, instead electing to ignore the gnawing pangs of his stomach. He'd been through worse and for less important reasons at that. The worm would be here for as long as it took for Heket to appear, even if it would take days or even weeks.

Sitri came just before sundown, seeing Leshy at the stone. He learned of the worm's location from a few other cultists and came as soon as his shift at the medical tent was over. Leshy looked absolutely miserable from the sunlight exposure, but Sitri had no clue why he was there. Why would Leshy willingly stay in a place he couldn't tolerate? Sitri had no clue, but knew that it had to be important. Leshy would never willingly do something he hated for longer than he had to.

The yellow cat sat by the worm to ask his many questions, but hearing the news came as a shock. Another bishop was coming? Sitri had only caught glimpses of the bishops from the brief times they visited the temple of chaos, though he never stuck around to get a good look at any of them. He dared not stay in sight near temperamental and haunted gods.

Hearing that the sole sister was coming only created more questions Sitri wished to ask, but that would have to wait. It could be days until Heket would be here, and Leshy had needs that needed to be taken care of sooner than that. Knowing the worm wouldn't move, well, that just meant Sitri had to fulfill his role of caretaker once again! The cat set off to gather supplies. He knew Leshy wouldn't go home if he had already spent the day in the sun, so there was no point in asking. Instead, it looked like it was time for a camp out!

Sitri went home to grab some blankets, plus the biggest sheet he could find. It wouldn't be perfect, but it should work fine enough for the task at hand. He returned to the stone to drop off the supplies, setting out once again to find some long sticks as well as get some food for Leshy. He was sure the worm hadn't eaten in a while, plus they would need some for overnight, too.

Once Sitri had everything he went back and got right to work, much to the confusion of his blind companion. Why was this yellow cat being so nice? Leshy ate what was given while listening to Sitri tri and get a basic tent built.

It didn't take too long before the "structure" was done. It may not have been the prettiest thing, but hey, Leshy wasn't going to complain about the looks of it. Sitri sat beside the anxious worm under the sheet tent, now not really sure what to say. How does one properly broach the topic of tortured godly siblings? Well, only one way to find out.

"So... what is your sister like?"

It wasn't an easy question to answer. Leshy had no idea what to say. He's seen so many sides of her at so many different points of her life. He may not have been there for her earliest years, mainly because he wasn't actually born yet, but he's seen her go from teen to adult, from young god to proud cult leader to... almost nothing. An echo of what she was, but that was the same for all of them. A disaster, a tortured and twisted awful version of herself that he barely recognized. Even through the sight of his crown's eye he could see only a husk of what she used to be.

The same haunted look must have been plain as day on the worm's face as Sitri was quick to get more specific. Rather than ask what she was like, he instead asked for stories of when they were young gods. Better to try and keep the topic more lighthearted when things were going to soon be much more difficult. There was no question of if. It was only a matter of when.

That question was, thankfully, much easier to answer. Even though it had been ages ago, Leshy could still remember the silly things they had done. Things done as a family... Like when he kept biting Heket, so she tried to eat him in retaliation, and Shamura had to intervene. Or another time when he got stuck in the middle of a massive lake that Heket insisted was just a puddle, and she had to save him. Another time, he tried to sneak up behind her, and she accidentally sat down on him...

The stories went on for all the time it took to help quell Leshy's anxieties. Sitri listened to all of it without interruption except to help steer the conversation back to lighter stories when things became darker. It was one of the most pleasant things the worm had ever talked about, and it marked the first time he has ever opened up about his past to anyone.

As time went on and the sun was far gone, Leshy was finally able to rest his head. The blankets were perfect for the impromptu camping, and soon, the worm was asleep. It didn't take long for Sitri to join him in slumber. The pair awakened to the morning sun, Sitri going out to get food for them both. The day continued with tales of the past only broken by meals, as did the next two.

Things changed the third night when the sound of hoofsteps approached.

(Another long one! I hope that it makes sense and formatting isn't garbage!)

[comparativelysuperlative]

No, the Hachette v. Internet Archive decision is gross for a completely different set of reasons.

The Second Circuit ruled that the Free Internet Library (letting you read e-books, but only as many as they or their partner libraries had physical copies of un-checked-out that day) was illegal copyright infringement because it was:

Non-commercial (asking for donations wasn't a problem); but

Not transformative at all (they're using the copyrighted text itself, to communicate the same thing as the original author, etc); and

Distributing the entire text, rather than quoting excerpts or whatever; and

Supplanting the copyright holder's version in the same market, specifically including the pros and cons to the public and the authors if doing this became widespread.

(These are the standard factors for fair use, and it sure does look like the court accurately described how they apply here. It wasn't wrong on the law. But.)

You know what else does all of those things? Me handing you a physical book! If lots of people lend their books around, people might borrow them instead of buying more. And obviously the copy I gave you has the entire text expressing the original author's ideas and all that.

Sharing a specific copy you own is allowed, but only because there's an exception written into the law. (17 USC 109(a)). Without that, it would be distributing copyrighted material and apparently wouldn't be fair use.

Anyway, I'm taking Hachette as confirmation that the publishing industry would ban libraries if they could. That's not at risk of actually happening, because there are laws on the books. But all those dire consequences to copyright holders, and definitely all those fair use legal factors, if they're true of the Free Internet Library they're also true of the Regular Library.

[black-suns-rim]

you already know what's about to happen-

[beebeedibapbeediboop]

Hi, I love Matteo and Lily more than life itself, thank you

Wait til I've drawn all the LORE

[reverieaudios]

Hello. I have a quention. Mayhaps it has been answered before, but I cannot find it ;-; are Essence Eaters born? Or can they be turned? I'm tryna do sumn

It's all genetic, so they're born! The closest thing to "turning" that they can do is take a mate

They can only do it once, and the process essentially links their lives together (going feral when a mate dies isn't uncommon, unfortunately, if they don't die of starvation first). So if their mate isn't an essence eater, then their lifespan increases, they become a bit more physically strong/resilient, things like that. If an essence eater takes a mate they can also pretty much only feed off their mate. If their mate wasn't already an essence eater, though, they don't develop the need to feed in the same way essence eaters do, though

(A mate also doesn't necessarily need to be a romantic partner, but because they only get one that's commonly who they pick)

Hopefully this made sense I am very sleep deprived lmao

[mayo-wap]

i only have eyes, for you

———————-

trying out something new for once :p

[celestial-bell-drop]

So there's this person that has two really cool tadc aus you should like really check them out-

Both AUs belong to @iguessimfished

[alexturntable]

Rafa’s “I do remember, probably not him” vs Charles’ “I knew you before you knew me”

[seeker-ophelia]

Ophelia’s Review, Part Three: The Lore

Man. Thank you to @senseandaccountability ’s post for sparking this brainwyrm because I was at a loss for words on how to start this post, and I could not put my finger on what was actually bothering me.

Again, let me just say, emotionally, this game wrecked me. I enjoyed it. I (am probably one of the few who) liked the combat. I liked the companions (basic as they are). And I liked the story. I liked the locations. I liked the quests and the loot system and the companion banter. But.

The Lore.

[Part 1:Emotion]   [Part 2:The Dragon Age System]

If you’ve read my Part 2 Review, you know the end of it is actually its own little fic-let on the Veilguard realizing the veil needs to come down.

And I’m just going to straight up copy a paragraph from @SenseAndAccountability ‘s post (I strongly recommend you go read it, its fantastic).

Replaying really emphasizes how incredibly little the game convinces me of its original main quest - to prevent Solas from doing his ritual. This is a problem as a long-term player because for three games we’ve had build up for a great crescendo tackling the overarching themes of the (restrictions and oppression of) magic, of tears in the Veil, of religious tyranny and oppression based on myths about the Black City and the temptations of flawed humans, we’ve seen and deconstructed the elves quite a bit, we got started on the dwarves and in DAI your Inquisitor can openly ask Solas if it wouldn’t be better if the Veil came down because then spirits wouldn’t be separated from the living and risk becoming demons. Cole, whose function is to reflect the plot, talks endlessly about the old songs wanting to be sung again, about how it hurts to be cut off from part of yourself, how the templars feel it, how the mages feel it, how the elves and the dwarves feel it. The Veil as a prerequisite for life has been deconstructed, the Fade demystified, the gods have mostly fallen. The Veil as an actual wound inflicted on this earth has been presented as a theory and not been convincingly rejected by the narrative. 

Let’s recap, just a little bit.

In Origins, we are introduced to the Dragon Age World. Its politics, its magic physics, the races, and its religion. We are introduced to the concept of the Chantry and the Templars and the Circles (*wiggles my eyebrows at you). We learn about demon possession, and about spirits in the fade. And maybe most importantly, we are introduced to the concept of The Blight.

The unstoppable, indiscriminate zombie-plague that sweeps Thedas once a century or so. And maybe more importantly, thanks to the sacrifice of the Grey Wardens, how to stop it.

In 2, the Thedas lore is even subtler. We were introduced to Dalish Gods in Origins, but because of Merrill we get a little more. We start to become curious about the Gods of the race that has been subjugated and enslaved throughout the common Ages. We learn the tense political atmosphere surrounding the Templars and the Mages, and the Chantry’s weakening hold on the politics and structure of Southern Thedas as a whole. We learn about slavery in the north, about the basics of the Qunari, and we have a Terrorist (potentially our lover), hit the religious organization in our city.

In Inquisition, we learn all about the magic. We learn about the fade, about the veil, we learn all about the Elvhen. We pick a side in the Mage/Templar war, we learn about this strange process of Tranquility, the only power templars have to control mages (thanks to Cassandra), and we also learn what that control costs (thanks to Cullen).

And because of Solas, and Cole, we learn about spirits. About how the Veil turns them to demons on their passing into the real world. About how all they want is to stay true to their purpose. They are simple, pure things, and while there are demons, of course, its not all bad in the fade as maybe we might have believed before. After all, Solavellan’s first kiss happens in the fade.

In Descent, we learn about titans, about memories, about songs, about lyrium, about isatunoll.

In Trespasser we learn about why the Titans even matter. Orbs. Power. Greed. The creation of the Veil, and what it really means.

*Insert Kronk Oh-Yeah-Its-All-Coming-Together.gif*

We had 10 years to scheme. 10 years for theories. 10 years to datamine.

So what did we learn in Veilguard?

Well, in the grand scheme of things, nothing.

We have theories confirmed. Which Evanuris hat belongs to who, how the blight was created, how the blight is spread, and how the blight is controlled (kinda-not-really). At least, we learn how the Evanuris are doing it.

What did we learn that was NEW?

We learned about the Morn Watch (but I mean, did we really?) Emmerich has a good relationship with wisps and spirits. We learn about his distinction between a spirit and a soul.

We learned *a little* more about Qunari culture.

We learned it was a blood magic ritual that was holding the veil up, tied to the life force of the Evanuris, now tied to Solas.

We learned about the Evanuris’ Dragon-Thralls and the strong connection between the two, a connection strong enough to get their souls out of Solas’ Fade Jail.

We learned that the Evanuris could not only control The Blight, but had relics to give to others (the Venatori) to control blighted things. We learned their greed for power was so vast, so consuming, they were willing to Blight the world to achieve it.

But we fought an archdemon, in Origins and in Veilguard. We see and know the terror and horror of the Blight.

This makes any action Solas commits understandable, and even necessary. Would we have done anything different? If my leaders were bent on blighting the world, wouldn’t I go to extreme lengths to stop them? Compromising my own morals, dignity, and values to do so?

I think I would.

Having such a terrible evil, having such an indiscriminately bad thing, The Blight, leaves absolutely no room for nuance. No room for complexity. Just good versus bad. Destroy the bad thing at all costs.

So we do. Wham, bam, Evanuris dead.

And the only thing stopping us from tearing down the Veil, is the Blight.

Because Solas tells us that the Blight is in there too.

But, he made a new Prison for the Evanuris, one without a veil, before Rook & Co. interrupted his ritual. Why can’t we move the blight into there and still tear down the Veil?

What is stopping us at this point?

Solas says: Thousands would die

(You’re trapped in your regrets)

This is why you had to use me to escape the prison. It’s made from regrets. And you’re trapped in yours.

You cannot understand -  

Destroying everything won’t erase your mistakes.

You have a chance right now to save the world. Bind yourself to the Veil and stop it from falling.

2. (Do this the right way)

You’re right, you do need to make up for the damage you’ve done, but breaking the world again is the wrong way to do it.

Letting the veil collapse –

Is what YOU want. Making amends isn’t about what YOU want.

You have a chance right now to save the world. Bind yourself to the Veil and stop it from falling.

3. (This won’t help anyone)

Who does this help? A lot of people are going to die… So you can fix something they don’t even see as wrong.

It is not just people, spirits –

Will be destroyed when you do this, too. Won’t they?

You have a chance right now to save the world. Bind yourself to the Veil and stop it from falling.

Listen. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but there's more to Dragon Age than Solavellan.

This, in the end, was an emotional decision. The decision to leave the veil up was tied to emotion, and not logic.

So, what does all this mean?

Well, for players new to the series, nothing. They were always fighting for the Veil to stay up. The opposite of what the antagonist wants, pretty much. Easy enough to follow along.

But for returning players? Lavellans who stood in Fade-Haven? Players who walked Vir Dirthara? Mages who made the Descent, and saw how horrible it was for the dwarves to be sundered from their dreams, and made the horrifying connection that the Veil did the same to them?

Trespasser Solas: You must understand, I awoke in a world where the Veil had blocked most people’s conscious connection to the Fade. It was like walking through a world of Tranquil. (We aren’t even people to you?) Not at first. You showed me that I was wrong… again. That does not make what must come next any easier.

When I learned about the rite of Tranquility in Origins, I was disgusted. The first thing that popped into my head was lobotomization. They are one and the same to me. Turning a person into a husk of what they were. Separating them from their emotions. From hard emotions, yes, from things that are not easy, even painful, but at the cost of themselves.

We walk with Harding through her decision to, although the Titans are angry, and what was taken from her people was great, not reunite Titan and Dwarf because…

Lace: The story of their end is the story of our beginning.

Mythal releases Solas from his journey to reunite Elvhen with the Fade.

Harding releases angry Titans from their quest to reunite with the Dwarvhen.

And so the Veil stays up. The Titans stay sundered.

But… at what cost?

Lest we forget, it was the sundering of the Titans from the Dwarves that CREATED THE BLIGHT. The Titans created the blight as a weapon to infect the Elvhen as punishment for their death, their tranquility.

This Tranquility Ritual, be it in the form of keeping Mages from the fade, be it of Titans or of Elvhen, is WRONG.

I’m a Blue-Collar Journeyman, and we have a turn of phrase we use with old fellers who don’t want to change the way they do things.

Just because you’ve been doing something for a long time, doesn’t mean you’ve been doing it right.

You can do something for years, and still be doing it wrong.

And both Lace and Rook decide that this is the way things have been done, for AGES. We’re not going to change now.

And I’m just… Solas. As John Travolta playing Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction, confusingly standing there, looking around with my arms out.

Did we learn nothing from the Lessons of Origins? Nothing from the Lessons of Inquisition?

Maintain the Status Quo? That’s the answer?

At what cost?

One of my favourite lines in in my Part 2 Post is this;

Veilguard, is shallow. The essence is there, beneath it's Veil, pressing and bursting at the seams to escape, but is being held back by a gentrification of Thedas.

This decision, the decision to keep the veil up, is shallow. Its basic. Its Easy. It is pre-masticated, lunchable drivel. It was spoon fed to us in easy dialogue and groupthink.

What about every other thing we learned in the other games of Dragon Age?

If Weekes et al. want me to forget about how horrible the Rite of Tranquility is, they’re going to have to come out with a hell of a companion novel between now and DA5, because this makes no sense to me.

I ask you. If sundering Titans created The Blight, what did sundering the Fade create?

Or should I say,

If separating Dwarvhen from their Memories created the Blight (out of Titan anger),

What did separating Elvhen from the Fade create?????

Lets talk about Ser Dave.

If you read my part 2, you’ll know that Ser Dave is my name for the ‘?????’

Not only is it so insulting to my intelligence to call something ‘?????,’ because of course then I’m going to pay more attention to it, but its so lazy. Let it introduce itself to Rook and say “call me the wicked witch of the west,’ ‘a concerned party,’ ‘I am the Batman,’ ‘I am No One,’ ‘I am Daivd Gaider,’ ffs.

An I excited at a new villain? Yes. Am I happy to learn there was a shadow organization pulling the strings behind all of my villains throughout The Dragon Age? Abso-fucking-lutely not. Am I happy Southern Thedas, Treviso, and Minrathous are essentially razed after the rise of the Evanuris? No.

Nothing we did in any of our previous games mattered. Nothing I did mattered. Ser Dave was there the whole time, controlling, balancing, guiding, whispering.

I was doomed to fail from the start.

The moral of the story in Veilguard is to not assume the burden of others actions:

And yet its Ser Dave and the Nazgul Band that assumes responsibility for my villains?

What in the Actual Fuck?

So what is going to happen in 5? I don't know. Will I find true agency? How do we have a villain worse than a God? How do we live in a Tranquil’d world, knowing the alternative? How do you bring back the dark, heavy, realness of Thedas, after the gentrification of Veilguard? After blanding Thedas, making it easier for more palates, needing to feed the EA Machine.

For the record, I have yet to complete my second playthrough. I have yet to find all the codices. I have yet to get all the companion banter. I have yet to play as every race. I have yet to make every decision. And if Inquisition taught me anything, its how one little piece of information can change everything. So, for the record, this whole post could be wrong.

In fact, I hope, and pray, that I am missing a big piece of something in Veilguard. That I just haven’t found it yet. That one little thing that’s going to shift my worldview. And I’m going to play until I find it.

Because these messages Veilguard is sending? They’re too contradictory. Too opposite to be coincidence. Too Different to simply be Bad Writing™. I said that Veilguard is a Tranquilized Version of what DA4 could have been. Inquisition, 2, and Origins, were too deep, for Veilguard to be this shallow.

And… Maybe its copium, but I’m kind of hoping that it was on purpose.

[prismpuffle]

Susie and Ralsei coded

[saishu-harachi-thegatorlord]

SPOILERS FOR DRDT CH2 E16!!

(taylor mention omg)

The lore!!! Taylor gets a name mention, and- We now know that Ace feels responsible for his death! Since he mentioned not wanting Levi’s to be the third death on his hands-

anyways ace fans how ya feeling?

also i loved the execution so much im sorry

omg wait ace bonus ep soon guys :3