#non-binary rook

[cha-c-san]

This game had me sobbing for fucking hours

[beetle-keeper]

I drew lace and the rook im romancing her with!

She is so short and their slider is all the way at max 😆

[nists]

i think this is where my Rook should sit during team meetings

[anunquenchableflame]

( mods list )

[bumble-b1]

In celebration of me getting a new laptop and actually being able to play Veilgaurd again, meet my Rooks.

Name: Elsabeth (Ellie) Ingelvar (current Rook)

Pronouns: she/her

faction: Mourn Watch

Class: Mage

Sub-class: Death Caller

Romance: Taash

Personality: The nicest, gentlest person you will ever meet. She hates fighting and will always try to find the most fair resolution to any problem.

Highest relationship currently: Lucanis and Davrin

Backstory: Abanded in the necropolis gardens by her mother who was on the run from the Qun because she was a mage. She was raised by all of the mourn watchers and also a few of the older Nevaran street kids, but had a particular bond with Emrich who she sees as a father figure. When her magic manifested he was her favorite teacher.

What she would do if she hadn't joined The VIelgaurd: She would be a researcher. She has a fascination for history and old artifacts which is where she and Tassh find a lot of common ground.

Fun fact: She communicates with the dead mainly by singing which was incredibly creepy when she was a child.

Name: Nyx De Rivia (next Rook)

Pronouns: They/Them

Faction: Antivan Crows

Class: Rogue

Sub-Class: Duelist

Romance: Davrin (this is still vaguely up for debate)

Personality: The definition of chaotic good bordering on chaotic neutral. Will step in if someone is fighting, but only if it's really serious. They love gossip and know everything about everyone. They are known to make jokes that are very funny, but very poorly timed.

Backstory: Was a slave in a circus run by a magister. When they were thirteen a group of magisterium students decided to release a small demon at a show because they were bored. They lost control of it and it killed Nyx's parents, caused them to fall from the high wire, and blinded them in one eye before the magister managed to kill it. Afterward, Nyx was left on the streets of Treviso because they could no longer perform. They were half dead when they found Teia and begged her to kill the students who killed their parents and the magister who let them. Teia agreed, but instead of taking the job herself she took Nyx in and told them that she would teach them how to take revenge. After a very long time, with help from Teia and Viago, Nyx became a crow. They are still searching for the magister who ran the circus.

What would they do if they had not joined The Veilgaurd: I don't know if Nyx would actually get revenge or not. I think that they would find the students and the magister eventually, but, at this point, they might feel that killing them is beneath them. They would definatly find a way to ensure that those people, and anyone else who enslaved or harmed others in any way, were brought to justice.

Fun fact: they have a sick back tattoo.

[stardustandash]

Figured its time to share my Veilguard fics on here!

Status: completed Oneshot

Words: 3,705

Slowly, they open their grey eyes and look up into Lace’s, perfectly hazel but far too full of worry. Though Rook’s hand feels like a distant, numb entity they manage to flop it on top of where Lace’s rests on their chest. Rook cracks a smile. “Knew you couldn’t resist my moves.” Their voice comes out weaker and shakier than they’d like, punctuated by the fact that their lungs are trying to figure out how to work again. They feel awful, but seeing Lace, herself and whole, is enough to press that aside. “What did you do that for, you dummy!” says Lace. There’s a hint of a smile, albeit watery dancing on her lips. Rook will take it as a win. “Worked, didn’t it?” Harding's loyalty quest was awesome! But poor Rook wouldn't recover from all that lyrium poisoning so quickly. This fic is the consequences.

[5arcasmw]

i know this has been talked about before but I CANNOT stop thinking about solas saying "please, rook, I do not wish to fight you"

like???

this is a man who has constantly betrayed, injured, and even killed his closest friends and confidants over and over and over again for thousands of years. he killed (or tranquilized) his oldest friend and former general just because he said "hey maybe people deserve rights" and he practically killed one of the last remaining embers of the woman he used to love. the woman he used to be conpletely beholden to. the woman he literally BURNED OFF OF HIS FACE so he could have enough power to tear down the veil.

and yet

he still refuses to hurt rook, and only lays a hand on them out of pure desperation during the sacrifice/worst ending when he literally has no other choice.

AND EVEN IN THAT ENDING he could have just turned them to stone and plucked the dagger out of their hand like he did to their companions but he DIDNT

he wanted to see the old world restored with them. if rook wasn't there to see it too, then what was the point?

even if your rook has a primarily negative/hostile relationship with him HE STILL DOESN'T KILL THEM!! HE STILL WANTS THEM TO LIVE!!!

if it really came down to it, though, solas probably would have killed them in order to tear down the veil and "fix" his mistake, but i KNOW that rook's death would have been one of, if not his biggest regret.

idk... i just think it's really interesting how solas becomes so obsessed with rook in his own way, more than almost anyone else we've seen him interact with. he could have killed them at any time, turned them to stone as soon as elgar'nan was defeated, but he didn't. he wanted them to see the old world restored with him so badly that it inevitably lead to his downfall.

[loustica]

DATV — Coffee With The Crows

[Non Binary Dialogue Option]

"Perhaps it's closer than I thought." Yeah, Lucanis, they're standing right next to you actually <3

[revacholthinker]

my rook 🤍

Reva | he/him | non binary | Mourn Watch | Emmrich kisser

[nashcandream]

Oh NOW random screenshots want to upload to the Xbox network.

That smile though. 🥹😭❤️

I wish Lore had a different expression but that’s okay. I still love them. They are also very ready for their hair to be pulled back again.

I just finished a few things in Minrathous and it rained the entire time the little team was there. I know what the rain and humidity does to my curly hair lol I like the idea that no one really knew how much hair they had until today. Which happens to me a lot when I wear my hair down or have a puffy curl day.

—

The BG3 break was needed because I kept hitting a wall with gameplay. The pace of Veilguard has been a relief, though I will be immensely sad when it’s over. It already feels too short of a game. But I have complicated feelings over the series ending. Like a strange form of mourning and grieving.

I know I’ll have to take a break from Veilguard before finishing it. Who knows when that’ll happen. I get so emotional, I’ll probably just keep restarting playthroughs before I allow myself to see the end game.

I’ll just keep enjoying the journey and delving into fanfic in the meantime.

[cha-c-san]

I feel so seen by this game, in so many ways

[transificationbeem]

First art of my qunari warden rook!

[nists]

my Rook, aka Nifft, non-binary elf evoker mage, he/him, in his early 30s during the formation of the Veilguard.

he was born in Minrathous, to a poor but loving family. when his magic sensitivity manifested, it earned him a place in one of the local mage schools, though, being an elf, he was not treated too well by most of his teachers and fellow students. assumed to be female at birth, but always identifying as masculine non-binary, it later turned out Nifft is intersex, as he grew and developed dominated by male hormones. he is infertile.

during his late teens, one sunny day when he was at school, a tragic accident, a house fire, claimed the lives of his family. overcome with grief, Nifft left the city. after travelling aimlessly for days, he sought out a Dalish clan some of his acquaintances were familiar with. the city elf proved himself and was accepted into the clan, staying with them for nearly a decade.

Nifft dated a few people, mostly men, during his young adult years, but the relationships didn't last.

word reached him of an underground organization in Minrathous devoted to improving life conditions in the imperium, and, intrigued, he decided to return and investigate. after a few nostalgic months, he ended up joining the Shadow Dragons, in the hope of bettering the city he grew up in for others like his family.

in his early 30s he joined the Veilguard, where he met professor of necromancy Emmrich Volkarin with whom he fell deeply in love and lived happily ever after.

:]]]]

i'm not very knowledgeable about Dragon Age lore, so please feel free to correct any inconsistencies i may have incorporated.

[anunquenchableflame]

( mods list )

[skywardknight420]

I'm totally normal about Lucanis and definitely not been shipping the everliving FUCK out of him and Rook... definitely

Oops! I have no idea where this came from! it's not even mine!! I swear!

[themontess]

Thoughts on Lichdom by Marilys Ingellvar

Bit of a stream of consciousness on behalf of my Rook, prompted by playing through Arrangements a few days ago and wondering what they might actually think. Under the cut for spoilers, cw for death/fear of death, alcohol use and drug use. (Also, tag @redheadsramblings because I was about to post this anyway - might as well tag you in the whole thing rather than just 8 sentences!)

Emmrich wants to become a lich. That was the first revelation on a tour around the Memorial Gardens, which by turns saw them gather flowers and pay their respects to Rupert and Elannora Volkarin - his long-deceased parents - and share their first kiss (and second and third kisses) at the base of some impressive statuary. A single flower, Shrouds Bloom, is still pinned to Rook’s lapel. At the time, they’d said that the proposition was no stranger than anything else their order encountered. That remains true, in aggregate. Specifically - to Rook - the idea is lodged like a bile-stone somewhere in their gut. They don’t head back to the Lighthouse straight away.

Rook needs to buy reagents, a task for which they don’t need company. They reassure Emmrich with a fourth, tender, kiss that the distinction is between need and want. He is wanted. But they need some time alone. They neglect to tell him that their destination is a seedy bar on the wrong side of Nevarra City, a purveyor of illicit and inscrutable substances for merriment and mortal ill. If the professor had ever had cause to visit such an establishment, it would not be proper now. Even Rook raises their hood, their blonde bow braids and bright eyeshadow becoming a little too recognisable. They hand their shopping list to the clerk and sit with a glass of amber spirits and a line of something questionable. They won’t go home until the effects have worn off, and they will bring a gift. Gifts. Waiting out the high will buy them time to think.

Emmrich has a fear of dying. This, Rook knows. They have witnessed it first hand at Weisshaupt, where his increasingly measured and cheery responses to the destruction around them barely masked the simmering panic beneath. It had been hard not to grab him by the shoulders and slap it out of him, not that there had been time for it. Then again, near Lavendel, about to face down the blighted dragon. It was more acute then. The necromancer standing straight, but gripping his staff until his knuckles turned bone white; his voice silent, but his breaths gasping like a man drowned or buried six feet under. He got over it. He always has. But this is a fear which haunts him worse than any malign spirit: not the certainty of death but the uncertainty. When and how it would happen. What might be left behind. Lichdom offers that certainty. Emmrich will die, and then he will remain. Free of that fear. Unless he doesn't. Unless the ritual fails to come to pass. Then he will just… die. And what might be left behind, then? Rook takes a top up of their drink as their first provisions are brought back from storage. It burns on the tongue, like the funeral pyres their culture loathes, but they down it anyway.

What will happen to Marilys once Emmrich is gone? Rook finds it hard not to think of themselves by that name, their given name, in relation to the professor. Not since they let it slip some few weeks before. They have only known one another perhaps a month more than that. Marilys has always had a healthy attitude towards death - or at least as much as one can have, having been found in a crypt as an infant. Death is the boundary which defines life. You live, you love, you cry, you fight. And then you die. Emmrich worries - they know he worries - about the age gap between them. He has remarked that he has grey hairs older than Marilys themselves. What can he offer them? As if he is some invalid at the end of his ninth decade, not a man fit into his fifties. He has his hair, his teeth, his eyesight. No noticeable afflictions of the spine, the joints. He has years left to give, years Marilys would share willingly. Time they would cherish were it to only last a day - which seems like all any of them can ask for at the minute. But if they succeed - if Marilys, Rook, and the Veilguard save Thedas, then all the years he has left will be theirs. Lichdom would rob them of that.

Not the time: they would still have Rook’s lifespan. Not the companionship, nor this frilly, spark-hot passion which oscillates between them like an errant wisp. Emmrich's soul will still be his own. The Lich Lords can't have existed for as long as they have without exploring acts of physical intimacy; they do not cast all partnerships asunder with their flesh. But to Rook, to Marilys… the thought of one day losing Emmrich is part of what makes this new romance all the sweeter. Their time together is an empty vessel into which it can all be poured. He will be loved. He will be mourned. How do you have a legacy if you leave no-one behind? In quiet moments. Emmrich has stated precisely what he craves. Rook saw his eyes light up in the Gardens, when they promised his parents they would never leave him lonely. He expressed concern about what will happen to Manfred, when he one day passes (it is a stupid question, Manfred will be treasured by Rook all the same). But what will happen to Emmrich when everyone else is gone instead? Is witnessing death after death after death of those you care about worth avoiding the finality of your own? It is, Marilys thinks, a perversion - as within the bounds of Mourn Watch normality it might be. They don't have the words to tell him that.

“Here you go, love,” the proprietor says, setting down the last of the supplies. “Running low on the flasks you like, but ask the apothecary down by the wet market. If you don't mind what's been in ‘em, they might have a few to spare. Anything else for the road?”Rook takes another line, and they'll take a long walk. Gathering gifts that say I care for you, please kiss me again, stay with me. Cookies. Good beeswax candles. A small bead to add to the chain that runs from his left wrist to his thumb, a partner to the one they've had installed as a ball capture on a helix piercing. It's selfish, but they hope it works. Hope one day they can find the words to have this discussion for real. Because Emmrich Volkarin may fear death, but Marilys Ingellvar would and will fight gods to convince him to live with them first.