#both in terms of number of people

[birlwrites]

Apart from his parents, does Barty have any other relatives (such as cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents) and, if so, what are they like? Does Barty visit them?

haha uh. nope!

i didn't come up with any of those, so, he does not lmao. he DOES have a variety of aunt- and uncle-like figures who are his mom's friends, many of whom were her colleagues when she worked at the daily prophet - she left her job when barty was born, then as he got older started moving more into art history and research, which is what she *really* wants to do, but she didn't start going full tilt on that until he'd left for hogwarts

SO since harriet was being a stay-at-home mom, her friends often came to her (or she'd like. meet up with them, she wasn't a shut-in until her family was placed under ministry security), and since barty was basically glued to his mom, this means he's very familiar with all of them and they've known him since he was a baby. probably some of them have kids as well, although jury's out on whether they're remotely near barty's age

[purplecelestial-buddy]

It's so funny to me that the fandom has come to see Hirano as a Sasamiya promoter of sorts because while he is, it took him some time to get accustomed to the idea of them together. And while he was never a hater Sasaki's actions towards Miyano certainly used to get on his nerves.

At first he was so worried and probably even felt a little guilty because (as mentioned in the following screenshot) because the only reason why Sasaki knows which class Miya is in, is thanks to him.

But like, that's not the face of a friend that's happy to play cupid and get their two acquaintances together. Not at all, that's the face of someone who puts his sempai-kouhai relationship with Miyano over his (pseudo) friendship with Sasaki.

Hirano from the first chapters would have jailed Sasaki if he were allowed to. (And he has his reasons, Sasaki has been something since the first chapters)

Anyway, the progression of events is really interesting.

He started, quite literally, shielding Miyano from Sasaki.

Then, he came to accept their relationship.

And at the end he really was rooting for them, to the point he ended up outright lying just so Miyano could meet Sasaki and they could talk it out and confess.

[kelocitta]

Tangentially related to some of the discussion i posted earlier but quiet literally the first RW Art Month i participated I did it completely on whim like, one day before it started. And I mostly did it because I hadn't drawn a ton of rain world and wanted to draw more. Fandom presence was a lot smaller than and I was one of a handful of artists who did the entire thing. Fast forward and I still do Art Month and I've gotten to work with VC directly. But it was quite literally something I decided to do completely on whim that set the ball rolling, and for something a lil more niche and certainly with a lot more dev/fandom art involvement than most. It's really random how and why you might get noticed more than usual, especially with the "toss it into the search and hope it pays out' mechanism of Socmed

[vyeoh]

Not to sound incredibly pretentious but I am genuinely concerned with how "strong visual aesthetic" is becoming conflated automatically with "good movie". Like the nightmare scenario is that movies just look pretty while saying absolutely nothing

[lwcina]

the fact that the us government can continue funding and arming a genocide despite massive public opposition really highlights how inherently non-democratic the united states is

[momo-de-avis]

Every single week, without fail, I lose an object. It's always an object that I place on a very specific place every single time, but then one time I decide to put it away somewhere else. I NEVER remember where that is. The one thing I hate about myself, and I do mean deeply and profoudnly hate, is how fucking shitty my memory is. I have gotten late to work because I picked up my keys on the way out, but then quickly set them down somewhere, but because I picked them up it was enough for my brain to register as "you have your keys" and then I couldn't find them anywhere for 30 minutes. I once tore the house apart, literally throwing drawers open and looking under the bed in despair, because I hung my purse on the mirror instead of the coat-rack behind the door, and I could not find it. This shit happens every week. Last week it was a wallet I just found crushed between two books, and today it's a recipe book. Next week it will be something else.

"You should try--" nothing works. It got so bad at one point I was literally medicated against my will, and it did shit. Every single technique known to man, from every ADHD online guru to Improve Your Memory gurus you can think of, everything failed. It's just a fucked up thing about my brain I have to live with.

[greenerteacups]

Hey GT why are you reblogging Krumione gifsets huh why is that??? GT?

I HAD A POINT TO MAKE!!!!!

[rocaillefox]

if you are writing fanfic about a story that has Themes and you say something in the exposition thats Directly Against These Themes, well. depending on what youre saying i may keep reading BUT the point is you are on some Thin Ice. (about if i will keep reading)

[boydykedevo]

Me explaining the parallels between Rose Red Ghost Quartet and Devo la Main TAZ Ethersea

[fingertipsmp3]

Kiiiiind of torn about whether or not to accept this job if I get it, I’m ngl

[lgbtlunaverse]

I've seen a good number of people ask a question along the limes of "why do characters like Falin and hate Laios when they're so similar?" and i've also seen good analysis on the differences in how the touden siblings carry themselves that would, despite their shared traits, make a person gravitate to one more than the other.

But i feel like we've overseen one very central thing here.

People don't like Falin

Like... the average person in dungeon meshi doesn't like Falin. She was deeply ostrasized by her home village, in magic school she had zero friends before Marcille and the others generally saw her as strange and a bit offputting.

Characters like Namari and Chilchuck like her well enough but not necessarily more than any other member of their party, including Laios. Neither Kabru nor his party think much of her. The canaries don't give a fuck about her. Toshiro's retainers don't see her as anything else than the weird foreign girl their boss has a crush on.

The reason we think everyone loves Falin is because, despite all the indifferent side characters, the 2 most important and central characters of the story are Laios and Marcille. Who are NOT representative of the average attitudes to Falin! But necromancy georg number 1 and 2 are our main eyes into the story and they love Falin so much that it colours our perspective of the whole world.

The only side character who qualifies as liking Falin and not Laios is Toshiro (at least at first, as he ends the story on much better terms with Laios) and that says a lot about his character, with him drifting to the quiet Falin precisely because of her oddness but being both uncomfortable with and deeply jealous of Laios' much more open expression of that oddness. Because he's a repressed guy from a culture where etiquette is incredibly important.

But like I said, that's a specific aspect of him, not to the world at large.

Because there's also people that click more with laios than with Falin.

Kabru, for one, who is initially distrustful of laios but clearly also deeply fascinated by him and drawn to him.

Minor spoilers, and you don't have to read too deeply into this, because I don't think Kabru particularly dislikes Falin or anything. But it's interesting that when he talks about his distrust of the toudens in ch.32 he's talking about them both. But his big friendship declaration in chapter 76 is aimed squarely at Laios, he doesn't say "you and your sister" he says "you"

And Senshi!! He instantly clicks with Laios, well before he does so with anyone else in the party– who he also becomes friends with, it just takes a bit longer– specifically because they bond over their shared special interest in monsters!! Senshi is kind towards Falin and cares for her wellbeing, but he also... doesn't know her. The reason he is even here, helping to save her, is because he and Laios bonded over monsters and he wants to help his new friends out!

Of course, the theme of neurodivergent isolation is very present in Laios' story. I'm not denying that. He does turn people off, without meaning to and unable to fully understand why! But so does Falin. And just like there are people who like her despite of or even because of those traits, there are people who do the same with him.

In conclusion: "Average person loves Falin and hates Laios" factoid actually statistical error. Average person is neutral on both Falin and Laios. Georcille, Laiorg and Geoshiro, who live in the dungeon and think over 10,000 Falin-loving thoughts a day, are statistical outliers adn should not have been counted.

[genericpuff]

Tbh at this point you should just make your own webcomic app/website because it would probably be 100 times better than whatever going on with webtoon right now.

hahaha it wouldn't tho, sorry 💀

Here's the fundamental issue with webcomic platforms that a lot of people just don't realize (and why they're so difficult to run successfully):

Storage costs are incredibly expensive, it's why so many sites have limitations on file sizes / page sizes / etc. because all of those images and site info have to be stored somewhere, which costs $$$.

Maintenance costs are expensive and get more so as you grow, you need people who are capable of fixing bugs ASAP and managing the servers and site itself

Financially speaking, webcomics are in a state of high supply, low demand. Loads of artists are willing to create their passion projects, but getting people to read them and pay for them is a whole other issue. Demand is high in the general sense that once people get attached to a webtoon they'll demand more, but many people aren't actually willing to go looking for new stuff to read and depend more on what sites feed them (and what they already like). There are a lot of comics to go around and thus a lot of competition with a limited audience of people willing to actually pay for them.

Trying to build a new platform from the ground up is incredibly difficult and a majority of sites fail within their first year. Not only do you have to convince artists to take a chance on your platform, you have to convince readers to come. Readers won't come if there isn't work on the platform to read, but artists won't come if they don't think the site will be worth it due to low traffic numbers. This is why the artists with large followings who are willing to take chances on the smaller sites are crucial, but that's only if you can convince them to use the site in favor of (or alongside) whatever platform they're using already where the majority of their audience lies. For many creators it's just not worth the time, energy, or risk.

Even if you find short-term success, in the long-term there are always going to be profit margins to maintain. The more users you pull in, the more storage is used by incoming artists, the more you have to spend on storage and server maintenance costs, and that means either taking the risk at crowdfunding (ex. ComicFury) or having to resort to outsider investments (ex. Tapas). Look at SmackJeeves, it used to be a titan in the independent webcomic hosting community, until it folded over to a buyout by NHN and then was pretty much immediately shuttered due to NHN basically turning it into a manwha scanlation site and driving away its entire userbase. And if you don't get bought out and try your hand at crowdfunding, you may just wind up living on a lifeline that could cut out at any moment, like what happened to Inkblazers (fun fact, the death of Inkblazers was what kicked off the cultural shift in Tapas around 2015-16 when all of IB's users migrated over and brought their work with them which was more aimed towards the BL and romancee drama community, rather than the comedy / gag-a-day culture that Tapas had made itself known for... now you deadass can't tell Tapas apart from a lot of scanlation sites because it got bought out by Kakao and kept putting all of its eggs into the isekai/romance drama basket.)

Right now the mindset in which artists and readers are operating is that they're trying way, way too hard to find a "one size fits all" site. Readers want a place where they can find all their favorite webtoons without much effort, artists wants a place where they can post to an audience of thousands, and both sides want a community that will feel tight-knit. But the reality is that you can't really have all three of those things, not on one site. Something always winds up having to be sacrificed - if a site grows big enough, it'll have to start seeking more funding while also cutting costs which will result in features becoming paywall'd, intrusive ads, creators losing their freedom, and/or outsider support which often results in the platform losing its core identity and alienating its tight-knit community.

If I had to describe what I'm talking about in a "pick one" graphic, it would look something like this:

(*note: this is mostly based on my own observations from using all of these sites at some point or another, they're not necessarily entirely accurate to the statistical performance of each site, I can only glean so much from experience and traffic trackers LMAO that said I did ask some comic pals for input and they were very helpful in helping me adjust it with their own takes <3).

The homogenization of the Internet has really whipped people into submission for the "big sites" that offer "everything", but that's never been the Internet, it relies on being multi-faceted and offering different spaces for different purposes. And we're seeing that ideology falter through the enshittification of sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. where users are at odds with the platforms because the platforms are gutting features in an attempt to satisfy shareholders whom without the platforms would not exist. Like, most of us aren't paying money to use social media sites / comic platform sites, so where else are they gonna make the necessary funds to keep these sites running? Selling ad space and locking features behind paywalls.

And this is especially true for a lot of budding sites that don't have the audience to support them via crowdfunding but also don't have the leverage to ask for investments - so unless they get really REALLY lucky in EITHER of those departments, they're gonna be operating at a loss, and even once they do achieve either of those things there are gonna be issues in the site's longevity, whether it be dying from lack of growing crowdfunding support or dying from shareholder meddling.

So what can we do?

We can learn how to take our independence back. We don't have to stop using these big platforms altogether as they do have things to offer in their own way, particularly their large audience sizes and dipping into other demographics that might not be reachable from certain sites - but we gotta learn that no single site is going to satisfy every wish we have and we have to be willing to learn the skills necessary to running our own spaces again. Pick up HTML/CSS, get to know other people who know HTML/CSS if you can't grasp it (it's me, I can't grasp it LOL), be willing to take a chance on those "smaller sites" and don't write them off entirely as spaces that can be beneficial to you just because they don't have large numbers or because they don't offer rewards programs. And if you have a really polished piece of work in your hands, look into agencies and publishing houses that specialize in indie comics / graphic novels, don't settle for the first Originals contract that gets sent your way.

For the last decade corporations have been convincing us that our worth is tied to the eyes we can bring to them. Instead of serving ourselves, we've begun serving the big guys, insisting that it has to be worth something eventually and that it'll "payoff" simply by the virtue of gambler's fallacy. Ask yourself what site is right for you and your work rather than asking yourself if your work is good enough for them. Most of us are broke trying to make it work on these sites anyways, may as well be broke and fulfilled by posting in places that actually suit us and our work if we can. Don't define your success by what sites like Webtoons are enforcing - that definition only benefits them, not you.

[ipso-faculty]

Perisex allies: stop this shit

CW: intersexism

Came across this infographic during some google image searching and I'm still kind of a state of despair about it because it's not just offensively wrong about what intersex is, it was used to teach university students about queer issues:

Alt text: LGBTQIA+ are defined one by one. Intersex is defined erroneously as "These are people who were born with genital organs of both sexes (male and female). It is a genetic condition."

It's one thing for your rando perisex person to be getting this wrong on social media. It's another thing entirely when it's professionals getting this wrong in an educational setting. 😩 And that this infographic appears in a peer-reviewed publication. 😩

It's even worse to know the students that were taught with this infographic were medical students, who will be the ones traumatizing intersex people for decades to come 😩

It's so wrong in so many different ways:

Intersex is not limited to people with genital differences. Most intersex people have intersex variations that are not apparent at birth, with puberty being the most common time of life for variations to present. Many people find out in adulthood having no outward physical differences.

Of the intersex people with genital differences, they do not have two sets of genitals. Most genital differences are still recognizably female or male (e.g. spadias), and those who have ambiguous genitals have one set.

Intersex is not "male parts + female parts" or even "intermediate male/female parts", it is an umbrella term for anybody whose primary/secondary sex characteristics don't line up with what is expected for male and female bodies. Some intersex variations make women look more feminine, or make men look more masculine.

Defining intersex by genital differences doesn't just exclude most intersex people, it also sets the tone that we are defined by our genitals. To be publicly intersex is to have non-stop DMs about your genitals. This sort of framing sets up openly intersex people for invasive questions and harassment, and it keeps large numbers of intersex people from coming out.

Many intersex variations do not have a known genetic basis. Many intersex variations are caused by exposure to certain hormonal levels in the womb. Certain medications when taken during pregnancy can trigger intersex variations.

While bodily variation is necessary for being intersex, the social experience of stigma, discrimination, isolation, hyper-medicalization, and hyper-sexualization are all just as much a part of being intersex.

📣 Perisex allies: this is shit you can stop. When you see other perisex people parrot this sort of misinformation, correct them. Direct them to look up resources written by actually intersex people.

Here are some starter resources to give:

Intersex explained by Hans Lindahl

Media and style guide by IHRA

FAQ by intersex-support

A recent post I did compiling information for trans people who want to be better intersex allies

[darkandstormydolls]

PSA to all historical fiction/fantasy writers:

A SEAMSTRESS, in a historical sense, is someone whose job is sewing. Just sewing. The main skill involved here is going to be putting the needle into an out of the fabric. They’re usually considered unskilled workers, because everyone can sew, right? (Note: yes, just about everyone could sew historically. And I mean everyone.) They’re usually going to be making either clothes that aren’t fitted (like shirts or shifts or petticoats) or things more along the lines of linens (bedsheets, handkerchiefs, napkins, ect.). Now, a decent number of people would make these things at home, especially in more rural areas, since they don’t take a ton of practice, but they’re also often available ready-made so it’s not an uncommon job. Nowadays it just means someone whose job is to sew things in general, but this was not the case historically. Calling a dressmaker a seamstress would be like asking a portrait painter to paint your house

A DRESSMAKER (or mantua maker before the early 1800s) makes clothing though the skill of draping (which is when you don’t use as many patterns and more drape the fabric over the person’s body to fit it and pin from there (although they did start using more patterns in the early 19th century). They’re usually going to work exclusively for women, since menswear is rarely made through this method (could be different in a fantasy world though). Sometimes you also see them called “gown makers”, especially if they were men (like tailors advertising that that could do both. Mantua-maker was a very feminized term, like seamstress. You wouldn’t really call a man that historically). This is a pretty new trade; it only really sprung up in the later 1600s, when the mantua dress came into fashion (hence the name).

TAILORS make clothing by using the method of patterning: they take measurements and use those measurements to draw out a 2D pattern that is then sewed up into the 3D item of clothing (unlike the dressmakers, who drape the item as a 3D piece of clothing originally). They usually did menswear, but also plenty of pieces of womenswear, especially things made similarly to menswear: riding habits, overcoats, the like. Before the dressmaking trade split off (for very interesting reason I suggest looking into. Basically new fashion required new methods that tailors thought were beneath them), tailors made everyone’s clothes. And also it was not uncommon for them to alter clothes (dressmakers did this too). Staymakers are a sort of subsect of tailors that made corsets or stays (which are made with tailoring methods but most of the time in urban areas a staymaker could find enough work so just do stays, although most tailors could and would make them).

Tailors and dressmakers are both skilled workers. Those aren’t skills that most people could do at home. Fitted things like dresses and jackets and things would probably be made professionally and for the wearer even by the working class (with some exceptions of course). Making all clothes at home didn’t really become a thing until the mid Victorian era.

And then of course there are other trades that involve the skill of sewing, such as millinery (not just hats, historically they did all kinds of women’s accessories), trimming for hatmaking (putting on the hat and and binding and things), glovemaking (self explanatory) and such.

TLDR: seamstress, dressmaker, and tailor are three very different jobs with different skills and levels of prestige. Don’t use them interchangeably and for the love of all that is holy please don’t call someone a seamstress when they’re a dressmaker

[causalitylinked]

   he knew he had an unspoken open door policy, that anyone could come in or out of his room as they pleased, often finding him hard at work and rarely asleep; he had felt that he slept enough during his coma, while having never been the type to sleep for long either, his mind active, hands kept busy, moving here and there with a limp. 

   so when a new face would appear, at least to him, opening the door and crossing into his room, he barely paid any mind other than noting if the visitor is one of the children that visited him, mugen, or anyone else that may need his assistance with anything; otherwise, if they desired his company, for some reason, as nehan hardly considered himself the best choice for conversation. he gave his typical greeting ( if it could be called that, else fiorito would find nehan’s reticent nature to be the most offputting  ): “ailments? feeling feverish?”

            unprompted asks. » always accepting!

    Now that it was officially summer and the Grandcypher recently made their annual stop at Auguste, Fiorito was prepared enough to pack sunscreen... but she failed to really account for bug bites, prompting a mosquito bite to unfortunately emerge over her arm at some point during the day. Because the doctors already had their hands full, treating those who were attacked by aquatic monsters, however, she ended up creeping back inside the ship to find Nehan, if only due to the fact she would feel so guilty bothering them.

    Why, considering how directly to the point he was, Fiorito figured she could simply head inside his room, ask if he had any tonics for mosquito bites, and then leave with or without something to ease the itch she was so tempted to scratch at. Of course, with that being her end goal, she doesn't even flinch when Nehan didn't so much as give her a proper greeting upon her arrival; after all, she didn't exactly drop by for idle chit.

    "Nah, it's neither of that," Fiorito brings herself to finally shake her head while edging a bit closer until she was standing behind him. "You actually have anything for bug bites? 'Cause I just recently found out this pesky mosquito got to Viola and now, she is itching like crazy..." By that point, she'll point a finger to her left bicep which she apparently had named 'Viola', and sure enough, one could see a visible red bite currently lingering there. "Think you could do anything to nourish her back to life?"

@toadmiretoweepover

[felassan]

Notes from the June 14th 2024 Developer Q&A, from the official BioWare Discord

Under a cut due to length.

Please note that these notes are mostly not directly-transcribed quotes! It was a live session, so these were quickly-written cliff notes produced at pace. So if anything sounds weird or slightly off, it's almost certainly because of that and not because of anything a dev said. Corinne Busche, John Epler, Matt Rhodes and Community Manager Katey were the devs that were there.

Update: I have done another pass of this post to tidy up typos, grammar etc. :>

Update 2: If you would like to listen to the Q&A for yourself in video format, or listen to it again, Ghil Dirthalen recorded it and has now uploaded a video of it here. This blog post is linked in the description under the video. ( ˶´ ᵕ `˶ ) Also, I have done another pass of this post while listening back to the video, to tweak a few things and fill in a few lil gaps that there was. :>

----

The session began. The first question was on which of the factions in the game the devs would like to belong to. The Antivan Crows have great fashion - Corinne said that we are going to love their threads. Corinne loves both them and the Mourn Watch. She said she would go with the Crows for fashion reasons, and her vibes-based answer is the Mourn Watch.

John's answer was the Veil Jumpers (for fashion + vibes both). “Who doesn’t like a walk in the forest, you know, even if that forest is filled with horrifying monsters and terrifying anomalies?”

Arlathan Forest is filled with horrifying monsters and terrifying anomalies.

The faction Matt would choose is the Lords of Fortune because "pirate-barbarian is just such a great combination of elements"; he likes that they are related to treasure-hunting, beaches, palm trees and everything like that. "It's a really good mix."

This game is a much more intimate experience, and in this regard the camera has been pulled in. The reason why is that the devs want us to feel like we actually are in this world, like we're walking these city streets of Minrathous, looking up, seeing the buildings all around you - "you're a part of this place". They believe that as the narrative unfolds, this creates a lot more immersion.

Since the question was about there being two companions, Corinne continued, "Now, how this relates to companions, we went back and forth on it a lot, but we actually found, with this perspective," having two companions really allows the companions to each have more visibility and presence. The companions are fully-realized, we will really see them shine. They did testing with their internal team and the Council of players as well [the Community Council] and found that when you’re playing in the combat system, when you’re planning strategies, two really felt like the right number to manage. Rook has a lot of different types of actions, abilities and individual attacks available to them as the PC - more than ever before - and the number of inputs we need to take when telling Rook and the companions what to do is also higher than ever before. Timing and position matter a lot in this game. With those things in mind, two companions in the field felt like the right balance.

Banter is still absolutely a core part of and big thing in DA:TV. There is global banter (the general stuff that we will get in all spaces) as well as mission-specific banter. If anything, this game has the most banter that they have ever done in terms of pairings of companions. They have added some interruptible and resumable banter too this time. John said, “You could not stop the writers from [writing banter] even if you tried”. Writing is one of the more light, fun things for the writers to do. They get to write little stories and arcs between different companions, and DA:TV is no different.

Corinne added: "John, listening to you speak, one thing that comes to mind, maybe people are wondering, with two companions in the field, do I get less interaction between them? Like, do I get to see my companions interacting in a broader group more often? And, the way you'll gather them around the kitchen table, there's just so many of those moments where they're all interacting with each other, those are some of my favorite parts."

They wanted to make sure that the companions had a life and relationships of their own outside of the times when we take them out into the field. "So we made sure that they had those interactions there as well."

They were asked about the customizability of Rook's backstory. Rook has 6 different backgrounds that you can choose from. Each of them is tied to one of the major factions in DA:TV. "Each one sets up who Rook was before they were recruited by Varric. Well that sets out the broad events. As you go through the game, as you have conversations, either with members of your faction, other characters, you can define not just what those events were but what they meant to you. What was your motivation, what was the kind of person you are as you build up Rook. Because again, we wanna make sure that roleplaying is at the heart of this experience, and taking Rook, giving them background to ground them in the world and then letting you decide what that means, what that says about you, is also a big part of it." "A lot of opportunities to really define who your Rook was and who they are now, so."

Q. Will crafting return? A. We can improve and customize our gear, that is a big part of RPG progression. "I will say though, it is different this time around, and it does get into spoiler territory so I'm gonna be a little bit cagey about it, but there might be a mysterious entity that assists you with that, that will be an important part of the narrative."

Emmrich’s skeleton Manfred is not "kissable" or romanceable, however, they added - “not that skeleton, but we’re not saying no skeletons”.

They have taken a different approach on how we import our decisions into the game this time around. This is now fully integrated into the character creator. The devs believe that this serves a dual purpose. Corinne said that she playfully thinks of it as ‘last time on Dragon Age’, though it isn't actually called this in the game. She noted that it has been ten years since the last Dragon Age game was released, so this aspect serves as a refresher on critical events as well as allowing us to remake those decisions that are critical to us. The system for doing this is very highly visual and uses the familiar tarot card aesthetic. "It’s a very visual and playful experience as you go through it." It was very important to them that this system was built into the client, so that you can play this game entirely offline. No online connection is required, no linking to EA accounts is required – this was a big fan request. Corinne added, “I don’t want to spoil anything by revealing what decisions you can import, but I will say that this [thinking about the decision import system and what decisions to include] has been a really interesting creative intersection for us, because on the one hand, this is a whole new adventure”. In this game we are in northern Thedas, in locations we have not been to before. This naturally affects "some of what will matter and what decisions they're not using this time around, as far as decisions. But obviously there are some very, very clear connections to existing characters." “It’s no secret that the Inquisitor is going to show up, so that’s a factor”.

The game only begins in Minrathous, it doesn’t stay there. “I don’t want to get into too much spoiler detail, but getting to go to and work with the art, narrative and design teams, to build out these locations that we've talked about", places in this game where characters in previous games came from and referred to in previous games has been really exciting for the dev team. We do start in Tevinter, but Minrathous is not the entire game by any stretch. "We've gone back to what we believe delivers the best, most curated, intense narratives." There is side content in the game, the locations can open up and we can go back and "solve mysteries" and things, but these are not fetch quests and they are not "grind content". The game is a very hand-crafted, mission-based, curated experience. The side content is really great. "The most important thing for us [on that], obviously we've talked about how narrative, story, characters are the most critical to us, and this has allowed us to build these experiences in a way that emphasizes that extremely well, tying into the story threads and the story beats."

Q. Will the companions have unique specializations? A. The "companions will have abilities that are truly unique to them, but also, they do fall into the archetypes of mage, rogue and warrior. For instance, because she has a bow, you might be surprised to hear that Bellara is in fact a mage, and I love that”. The bulk of the companions’ abilities are based on their own unique 'personality'. For example, Neve is the only mage that is an Ice Mage, so she has related abilities that are distinct to her, but because she is a mage she does have access to abilities that all of the mages share, like Time Slow. The devs are really happy with this balance, a good mix of representing their archtype, their class, and also their distinct "specialization or personality, whatever you wanna call it." “Each of these characters exists, each of these characters have a history, has a story of how they became who they were. Part of that was finding the intersection between narrative and gameplay”. They want to serve the needs of gameplay but also allow the characters to breathe as their own people both in conversations and out of conversation.

Healing spells return, and these are a part of the 'core mage kit'. "Your mages, you wanna make them a healer? Do that."

Q. Will DA:TV still have tactical combat? A. Yes, combat gets quite tactical. The combat system is an evolution of the previous combat system. The game has a robust difficulty system. Tactics are of increasing importance the higher up you go in the difficulty system. If you want a higher tactics experience, crank up the difficulty in particular. “I want to make sure I am super clear in my answer. Our pause-time tactical mode is not overhead. It stays close to Rook. It does allow you to cycle between targets both in and out of combat, there is a reason for that”. As the game progresses (we didn't see this in the gameplay reveal demo), it will display strategic information about enemies, such as what enhancements they have, what are they resistant to, what are their vulnerabilities, what are their elemental weaknesses. Our type of abilities, leaning into elemental gameplay, matters a lot. Also, tactical decision making also takes the form of coordinating abilities between Rook and the companions to create synergies or devastating (what they call) “detonation combos”. An example of this is that Bellara has an ability that is like a gravity well called Galvanized Tear. This pulls enemies together. You could use this to draw enemies in to one place. Then, Neve has a Slow Time ability. This affects the world around you but does not affect you. So you clump enemies up and then slow time. Then you could come in as Rook to do something like a devastating Area of Effect or Damage over Time spell or ability on the enemies that have been gathered up and slowed/frozen in place. The devs said that it is good to try and ensure that you have a few possible detonation combo synergies amongst your team that you choose to bring out into the field - so there is tactical gameplay while in combat, but also an element of pre-combat strategizing as you decide who to take. Also, the Wheel will tell you when there is a synergy combo available, remind you of those synergies between companions. You can queue both of those abilities up at the same time and when you pause out of the pause-time menu, they will both execute.

The enemies in Arlathan are “Fade-touched”, and they are vulnerable to lightning abilities.

Veil Ranger, one of the three rogue specializations, is one of Corinne’s favorites.

In CC, Rook’s pronouns can be chosen. You can select both pronouns AND gender, as as Corinne noted, these are related concepts, but actually not exactly the same thing. Rook can be non-binary. The pronouns available are she/her, they/them, and he/him. The Character Creator is very detailed and very deep. The team focused a lot on doing good hair and doing hair and skin tones respectfully. There is full body customization. They are going to show us a lot more on CC in the future, but at a time when they have the time and space to do so. The devs were asked about whether there will be a Photo Mode being in the game. They said that this is something that they are actively looking into. They know that there is a ton of interest in this. It is a feature that they like the idea of even just internally, as it is helpful for them to have this internally when they are building things out. They said that they will let us know about this when they can. "We are as geeked on that possibility as you all are."

On abilities: The Ability Wheel does have a capacity (as in number of abilities available on it). You have to choose which three abilities you want to bring for Rook, and what three for each of our two companions respectively. This creates emergent gameplay - you have to do that strategizing, building the combat kits before you go on a mission. The devs noted that while there are three ability slots for Rook, there is so much more than that on the Wheel. The Wheel has other things on it that we can perform directly from it. For example, on the Wheel Rook gets an "ultimate ability" that is associated with their class or their specialization. There is also a type of item we will get that will function like abilities, typically like buffs and enhancements, in the form of runes. These will be controlled for Rook and our companions from the Wheel.

We can choose what enemies our companions will target. Also, a lot of the companion gear really synergizes with that directing your companions. When you issue commands, that too will prock [sp?] based on the gear that they have equipped. "There is just so much from the Wheel, that once you get in and see everything working together, it becomes more and more apparent."

Fireball and Cone of Cold do not specifically return as spells in this game, but their successors do: Meteor and Frost Nova. These two abilities serve the exact same combat role and function as the previous two, only "with quite the glow-up", especially Meteor. It is “so satisfying nuking a group of darkspawn with a well-placed Meteor”.

On Accessibility features: They have spent a lot of time thinking about this topic so that we can play the game in a way that really works for us. They will go into this in more detail closer to launch when the time is right.

On the timeskip: John said “Anyone who's paid attention to Dragon Age, timelines are always a little iffy. They change and morph over development as we see how long events take. But for DA:TV we were actually pretty consistent since the start". It has been about ten years since the events of Trespasser transpired. "As you may have noticed, Varric has become a little bit of a silver fox." Solas’ Ritual has taken time to set up, and we are coming in at the end of that hunt [in the start of the game.]

They confirmed that Solas is still bald. Matt: “Solas is still Solas. I really like how Solas has turned out this time around."

In Thedas, ancient elves go bald when they’re like "millennia" old. So, Solas was not always bald. "So if you were to end up seeing what Solas looked like in the past, things might be a little different." What happened to Solas' wig from Tevinter Nights? John: "I'm sure he still has it somewhere. He's just taking care of it elsewhere, it's his most important possession."

Q. Will we be able to change companions' appearances and outfits, or are they fixed, similar to Dragon Age II? A. Matt Rhodes: "Yeah we, um, Dragon Age II was, we loved how the followers turned out in that, but it was, it was sad given, given our constraints that we had to keep them with just one basic outfit. So we really tried to make some space for them this time around, so, they still have, kind've iconic color palettes and things like that, but they do have a wider range of appearances that you can find for them. Some are just cool, but then there are some that are tied directly to their narrative and just kind've, what's happening in their life."

Q. "Will we be seeing or visiting Kal-Sharok? I've been obsessed with it forever." A. Matt Rhodes: "Yeah, me too. I, I will say, what's been really cool, so in previous games, we've kind've alluded to this before. It was a lot of fun to hint at the locations that were off the map, the mysterious places that you weren't gonna go, where you weren't going, and so you could just bring in some props or some characters, a piece of art, things like that, and you know, even Tevinter was only vaguely hinted at, and then we would just add, add drips, and bits and pieces. So that stuff was really fun. In The Veilguard, we're actually getting to visit, like, a whole lot of those locations that had only been hinted at for reals, you actually do run around Tevinter and a bunch of the other locations that we've revealed. But this also means, like, we're not completely filling out the map and so that there are actually new things that we can start hinting at, that we can start drip-feeding, and so, it's kind've fun. I'd say say, yeah, for what we can show of Kal-Sharok, and, and other locations, it's just, there's more to do."

There are a number of different types of dialogue wheel in the game. All of the dialogue wheels are based off the same principle. In DA:TV, there are "tone wheels" (roleplaying your character and picking a consistent tone), "emotional wheels" (where you can pick specific emotional reactions), and "choice wheels" (which are, 'I don't have a strong emotional or tone tie here, but I do want to make a choice based on what I do'. The "Investigate" option also returns. They want players to understand as much as possible about what it is they are going to be picking on the wheel. "And understand, and again, choice and consequence is fun, we wanna make sure the choice is clear, even if, again, one of the best parts about consequence is making sure that's not entirely clear."

Q. How extensive are Rook's decision trees for companions and NPCs throughout the game going to be? A. "Huge. It's a Dragon Age game. We wanna make sure you have choices, we wanna make sure you can choose your roleplaying but also choose outcomes of conversations, choose how events unfold. We wanna make sure that we also react to decisions you've made. So, for example, you may be talking to a follower who is an elf, and if you yourself are an elf, obviously you're gonna have a different perspective on events than someone who is not an elf. Sometimes that means different conversation options. Sometimes that's going to mean entirely deep dialogue trees. As well as based off decisions you've made throughout the game, so. Again, making sure that the game feels like the it's noticing what you're doing is a huge part of how we've written out the dialogue trees in this game."

Each of the seven companions have full romance arcs and they are all romanceable by all genders. This does not mean that they are playersexual, and this fact is important to the team. The companions don't conform or twist their identities to who we as the player are, and they don’t suddenly have a preference for men or woman based on what we are playing. Instead, they have their own fully fleshed-out identities which they are true and authentic to. They are all pansexual in this game. They have their own histories of romance, and sometimes we will hear about their preferences and things of that nature from them. If you don’t romance them, they will actually build their own romances with each other. Taash and Lace is one of Corinne’s favorite companion relationships. She says that she has heard that the shipname in the community for this is "Laash". (Corinne pronounced "Taash" like "Tosh" or "Tawsh").

Q. What are the markings on the faces of Davrin and Bellara? A. "There are quite a few, easily more than we've done before I think, tattoos from various cultures. We're bringing the vallaslin back of course. There are a ton of different options, especially when we're going into all of these new regions. Each region has its own kinda visual language for that. But yeah, we are bringing the vallaslin back, and then a couple of the characters have them, but we've kinda customized them a little bit, they're a bit more specific to their personality."

"The depth and authenticity of the companions, journeying along with them on their arcs, learning about their hardships, what they care about, being by their side." Corinne said "they all feel like my dear friends".

Corinne's favorite thing other than the companions is the CC. "That CC, the makeup options, the range of sliders... I'm a qunari fan, so even just the way you customize the horns and combine that with the really great looking hair".

The art team worked very hard to make the story more visible around you in the game than ever. They really leaned into trying to make sure that every design, prop, characters, environment, VFX, that all these choices were putting the story on-screen. They wanted to put the story on the screen so that we can really see it all unfold. Matt, who has worked on all of the Dragon Age games, said that DA:TV represents one of the best attempts they have ever made at doing this.

This game contains "the deepest companion arcs" that they have ever done - not just in a Dragon Age game, but in a BioWare game in general. "Being able to work across all the disciplines, building characters who look and sound and behave in very specific and characterful ways." Each companion has their own story arc you can go through, decisions you can make. "They really do take center stage. As you play through them, you see the care and love that the team has put into each one."

There are moments in each companion arc that will make you cry, angry, excited.

John loves the way that the companion arcs integrate into the story as a whole. "Finding ways to bring these characters together. Finding ways to make this narrative, this story of, you need to put together a team and stop the end of the world, has just been absolutely exciting and thrilling, and again, you see the team's love in every single piece of it.”

DA:TV has been the highlight of John’s 17 year career in games. It has been part of his career and life for "literally the last decade and a half". He has worked on it since DA:O. "There's something about DA:TV that feels like an amazing mix of novelty but also familiarity, it's like coming home in a way that is going to be very exciting for people who are existing Dragon Age players. There's also so much here that's new and exciting for people, new players and old alike. Going to the parts of the world, seeing things we've never seen before, and just getting to take this amazing world and series and expand on it, and build on it in ways that, have just been honestly an absolute thrill."

There have been times in the companion arcs where, even knowing exactly what was going to happen, with some of these decisions, Corinne had to set down the controller, let out a heavy sigh and go, "oh my god, what am I going to do here?"

Corinne: “Can we just give a big shout out to the dev team? I am so proud of them. This team has poured their heart and soul into this. To anyone from BioWare who is listening in, thank you so much. Y'all are just the best”. John: "Absolutely. Here here."

Q. Why does Varric have dark hair now? A. Matt: "He has been adventuring for a while now." His hair is actually more gray than black, but he's been in very dark scenes so far. We will see him in more contexts.

The Inquisitor appears in the game in the flesh. The devs know how attached we all are to the Inquisitors and they have seen our love for our OCs. The Inquisitor can be customized, "include some of our new customization options". “Yeah, they’re gonna show up and they’re gonna be your Inquisitor.” John: “The story of Solas and the story of the Inquisitor obviously, are tied, they're tied together as much as any story, so it would have been strange for us not to bring them in for this one. They're gonna be a part of this story, so."

Right now, the team's focus is entirely on the quality of the game as it is so important at this stage – they are all-in, with all of their attention on finishing the game and on the quality of the game and the promise on it. They are 100% focused on making this being the most complete game that they can make it.

There are no microtransactions. There will be no battle-passes. You do not have to connect online to play. They want to make this "the most complete singleplayer game that they possibly can".

Armor transmog exists in the game. "Hell yeah." Corinne said that she is the kind of player that believes "fashion is the real end game". She said that there is a transmog system, and that it is sick.

Q. Are any of the characters explicitly ace, or on the ace spectrum? A. Corinne shared that she is gray-ace. “I will say though, that none of our companions this time around are explicitly ace. When we look at the characters, their motivations, who they are, we always assess, 'is this the right time?' This time it wasn’t. But what I will say for everyone on the ace spectrum out there, I would love to represent an ace relationship, some time in the future when it feels like the most authentic fit for a companion, when we can do it best."

Q. Can mage Rook do blood magic? A. “This gets a little spoiler-y, so let me just say, Rook has some pretty good reasons to avoid blood magic. Rook is not gonna wanna be interested in that. But I will say, the mage skill tree is packed with all kinds of spells, traits, and perks to give you a ton of flexibility in your magic."

One of the three mage specializations is "a necromancer one". Another was described as “an elemental one”. The third was described as being more like "a combat mage".

Davrin has already named the young griffon "Assan". "Assan is a very good boy." [Assan emojis flood the chat]

In Dragon Age: Inquisition, we had Skyhold. In this game our headquarters is called The Lighthouse. There will be more to be seen on this later. Narratively it serves kind of a different purpose to Skyhold and also the same purpose. The Lighthouse has elements that will change over time, and there are some things about it that we can adjust. “It definitely does start to feel very much like home over time”.

Q. Do pasta and noodles exist in Thedas? A. Matt replied by geeking out about worldbuilding. “DA:TV for us is a real dream opportunity to go places that we've only ever heard references to or seen hints at. And so, going through the worldbuilding process and trying to build these places out, not just as neat things from the IP, but also, if you've read about the stuff, if you've been following along, you've got your own version of it in your head, you've imagined what it might be like, and probably hoping for something spectacular, and our brains are always far better at creating this stuff than any game developer or any artist can really do justice to. So you really have to swing for the fences to make something very satisfying and exciting. That can be everything as big as architecture, landscape, biomes, ecosystems, but it does get into things like art, culture, costume design, and also food, and this time around we did, that was one of the many things that we did look into just to try and catch the character and the feel of a place, to make it feel believable and lived in. So, that's my really long answer for, yeah, I'm sure, at least one place does have pasta."

Mabari are not nearly as big of a thing in the north of Thedas as they are in the south. Sadly, in DA:TV we will not get a mabari (but to be fair, we have a griffon!!) And he can be PETTED! “I have actually hugged the griffon”. There is lots of opportunities to interact with the griffon. "Can we see Assan in chat if we wanna see him in The Lighthouse hanging out?" [Assan emojis flood the chat] "This was so important to the team, too, this is the team's, like, just huge support for this feature, so props to them."

We will get to see the Character Creator before launch. "We are laying out a roadmap for what we are going to show and when we are gonna talk about it. So, yes, you will see it, as we get a little bit closer to launch."

In CC, the body customization can be done for humans, elves, dwarves and qunari. Qunari hair options and horn options are rad. They acknowledged that it was hard to have nice-looking hair for qunari in DA:I.

"Related to this, your Lineage (human/elf/dwarf/qunari) gives you a lot of really unique dialogue options, so that's a really lovely aspect of choosing your lineage as well." "Each lineage, depending on the lineage you choose and the background you choose, there are some specific call outs to. For example, if it's the Mourn Watch, them being a faction from Nevarra of mages, obviously your experience as a dwarf there is going to be different than say a human or an elf, so, there are also specific callouts tailored to those combinations with again, the intention of giving each lineage their own little flavor as to how they fit into that faction as a whole."

Barkspawn/Dog is safely gnawing on a bone somewhere next to a fireplace in Ferelden! Don't worry, he is fine. Mabari live exactly as long as you need them to.

"Rook's last name is defined based on their faction, again, we wanted to tie that into your backstory, but also, there's a name generator that can give you a selection of first names. Obviously if you want to make your own first name, that's definitely something we support as well." But if you always struggle during CC and name all your characters like 'Bob' or something, you're gonna be okay thanks to the name generator.

The Voice Actor cast are very talented. They devs are super excited to talk about them more over the summer. They are not quite ready to announce their names yet.

Q. Will there be a Collector’s Edition? A. They will talk more about the different editions of the game that will be available soon.

Q. Will tavern songs return? A. There are tavern songs in the game, and they are pretty great. They said huge props to the audio and performance teams that made these.

There is a little tavern in Minrathous called The Swan. The song that you hear there is great, and is probably Corinne's favorite.

More information on the required PC specs will come soon.

They are not quite ready yet to talk in specifics about the music. But in broad-strokes the process of creating the music is always the same: working with the composer, figuring out what the themes are, working out what kinds of elements they want to keep, working out what specific elements they want to tie to specific characters. It is a really in-depth and collaborative process. The team have great audio and music people. They want to make sure that the music feels like a cohesive part of the game experience.

On the narrative themes of the game: “What you start with [when setting out to create/write a game] and where you end up aren’t always necessarily the same. Sometimes you start writing out a theme, you realize actually it's more interesting if we attack it from this angle or maybe if you twist it a bit." This has been true for all of the DA games. “For DA:TV, one of the biggest themes has been how regret shaped peoples' lives, how people deal with their regrets, how people maybe move past their regrets.” Each of the characters, the stories as a whole, have elements of this tied throughout. They really wanted to have this thematic cohesiveness to the game's story.

The world reacts to Rook’s lineage and backstory. There are unique dialogues or conversation options based on backstory and lineage.

There are glorious, fantastic dwarf beards. "I don't know what magic the character art team did with the beards", but they feel/look like how beards should.

"If you go against a companion’s wishes or make decisions that they don’t like, you can piss them off, they might not agree with you and they will take some time away. That said, this is the biggest threat to Thedas we've ever seen, so they, they're always gonna be willing to show up to defend Thedas, but yeah, you can piss them off and they'll leave for a minute. As it relates to them showing up to defend Thedas, well yeah, they will, unless..." John: "No spoilers Corinne."

“The things that we have enjoyed, the things that shaped us, show up in these characters”. "I don't think that any characters have what I would describe as, this [thing] was a direct reference."

Q. Why is Harding a companion? A. John: “It was impossible not to see the love that people had [in the Dragon Age: Inquisition era] for our murderous girl-next-door dwarf. She has always been a fan favorite. But I think beyond that, it's something that Harding's writer wanted to explore, there was more story to tell there, more perspective. And beyond that, Harding obviously has a strong connection to Solas, Varric and the events of the past ten years. I wouldn't say that it's always been, but I'd say that Harding's one of the first ones that we settled on, that this is a character that we want. And her writer had a story that they wanted to tell with her so, it just made sense." Matt: “It's not a huge part of her character but, she tends to be one of the people that have the most insight into Solas, who he was." John: "It also provides you with that little bit of perspective. Who was Solas, what kind of character was he? Using characters to provide windows onto the world is one of my favorite things.”

They want to make sure each quest provides a perspective on the world and the characters, and feels obviously and immediately relevant to what you are doing. "Narrative and narrative heft". We are trying to save the world. “We really wanted to make sure that these quests were something that you”, someone who is trying to save the world, would think is important or worthwhile to do when faced with the end of the world. Everything is hand-crafted and intentional. We aren’t going to be "gathering Shards in the Hinterlands"; everything is built with intention and a dev lovingly crafted the experience. They heard loud and clear previous feedback on this. There are quests of all sorts and sizes, but all of them share that kind of 'this is the kind of thing that The Veilguard would do', especially when faced with the end of the world. "We spent a lot of time listening to what y'all said."

Q. Are there any locations in the game that can only be accessed by making specific story choices? A. "This does start getting into spoiler detail. But I will say that" locations can fundamentally change based on decisions we make. For some of the parts of the world that we will go to, the choices that we make have an impact on how these spaces exist and develop. “Don't want to get to into story spoilers, but your decisions do impact how the world shows up”.

If Rook gets knocked out during combat, we will have to reload our saves unless we have invested in companions’ progression and what they can do (they can be specced out to be able to revive Rook, if you have invested in their progression and what they can do).

Q. “Will Solas still occasionally or dramatically speak in iambic pentamer?” John: “Massive kudos to Patrick who always writes Solas so well. Solas is a returning character, it’s the same Solas you know and love or hate depending on who you are, the same writer. So the answer is, yeah, it’s Solas”.

The decision of who was left behind in the Fade in Dragon Age: Inquisition does not show up in DA:TV. However, this does not mean that it will be a decision which will never be important in future. "Not for this one, though."

There are no mounts. “Mounts addressed a need in Inquisition that we don’t have in DA:TV. You’ll see why when you get to play”.

On sidequest design – they are all hand-crafted, all story-focused. “Narrative is so much at the core of DA:TV, and anything other than hand-crafted quests just felt like it would be a disservice to the game we were building”. There is no mechanic in DA:TV like Power in DA:I, there is no mechanic that blocks your progression until you fill a bar. “You have the autonomy to engage in these quests as you like, there is no 'grind-out gates' before you can progress”. “We want to make sure that doing this content feels as natural and part of the logical flow of the story as possible”. They acknowledged that Power was a divisive mechanic in DA:I.

Q. Are there War Table missions? A. “We haven’t talked much about the player’s base, The Lighthouse. We will save that for now. The Lighthouse, your headquarters so to speak, has its own unique purposes and functions this time. This is an area that we will leave for you when we talk more about The Lighthouse.”

Dual-wielding (they wanted to bring it back) is back as part of the rogue kit this time. Warriors are focused on mighty two-handed weapons which have a real heft to them when swung. (Warriors can also use sword and shield). The amount of hits rogues can get in in rapid succession is really satisfying – dual-wielding is the providence of rogues this time.

John: "The thing that keeps me sustained is just knowing that the game we are building is the right one, knowing the pieces are coming together." They mentioned “knowing just how much people care about this franchise, care about these games”. They are excited for when people can see the fantastic work the team has been doing, they think people will be excited when we get to see it. This game is huge. John gets pleasantly surprised on a daily basis even today and is always amazed by the awesome stuff the team has done, how good it looks etc. Sometimes he spends an hour late at night watching the work come in, watching the cutscenes come, watching the work coming together, it etc and is blown away by the work like 'holy smokes'. Corinne said “Speaking on behalf of the dev team, everyone is working so hard, putting so much passion and of themselves into it, this is a franchise the team really loves. Seeing everyone’s support, cheering us on, has meant a lot to the team, I want to say thank you to all of you.” They are working on a way for the Q&A to be immortalized somewhere for us so that the info does not disappear into the ether. "Stay tuned". John hopes this was the first of many of these opportunities to talk to us directly. He is really excited, and Corinne noted that how much Dragon Age means to us is wonderful. "It's wonderful to see you all excited and invested. Thank you again, truly."

Session ended.

[source: The dev BioWare Discord Q&A on June 14th]

Update: If you would like to listen to the Q&A for yourself in video format, or listen to it again, Ghil Dirthalen recorded it and has now uploaded a video of it here.