#orlesian culture

[monocytogenes]

HI FAM, for Talk to Me Tuesday - give me some headcanons about Pravin relating to Orlesian theatre culture! What's all of that like for him?

HELLO I have an entire document called ~theater stuff~ for thissss

To start off--broadly, there are three ways of being an actor in Orlais:

Traveling troupe system: joining a troupe of other actors, who go around the country performing at different locales, such as at community events like festivals and market days, as well as in intimate settings like taverns, inns and private homes.

Patronage system: a wealthy patron puts together a troupe of actors and hosts them at one or more venues. Actors contract with the patron for a period of time--such as for a social season--and are paid in accordance with the contract.

Audition system: actors audition for roles in a particular production. This system is used by several high-demand venues, such as the Grande Royeaux, to acquire performers especially fit for a given part.

Each approach has its own pros and cons--troupes tend to have the most freedom in terms of what plays they choose to put on, for instance, but the most unreliable pay because they're doing gig work; patronage is good in terms of job stability but you don't have as much input in terms of who you're working with and what you're working on, and auditioning is a high-barrier-to-entry approach that nevertheless tends to be super financially lucrative--provided you get picked, of course. In practice most actors start out in a troupe and shift around between the three modalities over the course of their career.

Pravin fucked off to Orlais in the middle of the Blight, so probably sometime in 9:30, and it took him a bit over a year, maybe two, to get in with a troupe that he really gelled with and have his first big break (playing a Sexy Antivan Pirate). He got a patron out of that and spent some time in that system in Val Chevin, but wound up being typecast and underpaid and had to do gigs on the side; he actually got into bard work through Gaubert asking for help in getting that patron's husband arrested, lol. Alongside his general mistrust of authority that came out of his experiences in the Blight, that whole thing really turned Pravin off from patronage, period (as did, you know, the difficult political situation of being a professional bard), so since then he's alternated between actually touring with a troupe, various one-off gigs, and auditioning for parts.

He's really proud of getting roles at the Grande Royeaux precisely because it's competitive as hell and really signifies being at the peak of his craft--you don't get in unless you're really good, and you sure as fuck don't get a leading role unless you're one of the best in the country. It's something that carries a huge amount of clout within the theater community, and needless to say, is especially impressive for a foreigner.

Coming back around to culture: I think one of the things Pravin's spent much of his career doing is proving himself worthy of the country he's made his home. Orlais is this beacon of culture in Southern Thedas, and while I imagine there's some cross-pollination of Orlesian practices into Antivan theater culture (and standards around what constitutes good musicianship are pretty uniform, given dissemination through the Chantry), there's still significant differences, such as the visual language of masks. Pravin had some skill transfer from his musical training and the acting he did while he was at university in Antiva, and speaking Orlesian fluently and without an accent helped substantially, but when he came into the Orlesian scene he still had to familiarize himself with a multitude of cultural minutiae, and while the Orlesian theater community itself is welcoming by default--the Orlesian public? Not so much. His fellow actors quickly dubbed him their beloved Denci; his audiences would take one look at his skin tone and nevertheless see him as an outsider, with all the expectations of inferiority that went along with that. So when he did secure that leading role at the Grande Royeaux, it not only meant that he was an extremely talented actor and musician, but that he was an excellent Orlesian actor. Not some token Antivan good at imitating the form, but actually Orlesian.

(And that's part of why at the beginning of Inquisition's events he's kind of hitting a point where he doesn't know what to do with himself. He's made it. He's gotten to the top. He should be content with his life, then...right?)

[linka-from-captain-planet]

“Celene—sixteen and hollow-eyed…

… orphaned and alone in Val Royeaux”

Celene was only ten when the adults in her life decided she would be Empress, and only sixteen when that decision costed her parents… and left her alone to play the Game with its master, Lady Mantillon.

[vultures-and-scavengers]

still salty they had cullen "proud francophobe" rutherford support gaspard "ferelden will be ours again" de chalons.

[sangfielle]

the way dragon age handles ferelden is. so. something.

[bhalspawn]

i want to know about differences between dalish clans. does vallaslin vary at all between different clans? what about ones that live in wildly different climates? are there dalish clans that don't live primarily in forests, but wander in mountains or deserts?

[vigilskeep]

i could fix her (maric’s writing)

[iamthescalesofjustice]

while im not convinced it would have decisively ensured the fledgling orlesian empire was defeated, i do think the hakkon plan could have posed a major disruption to it that could have been capitalized on, especially if they had allied with others who opposed the drakons ambitions of imperial conquest. 

[kissingwookiees]

i cant decide if brendan and dorian ever adopt kids bc brendans fixated on the world ending and dorian is in politics... but i can confirm they have two dogs! not mabari but the thedosian equivalent of a sight hound.

[star--nymph]

Vivienne's fear being 'becoming irrelevant' isn't something that's linked explicitly to her pride, no matter what Solas says about her (and the irony of Mr.Pride himself saying that should not be lost on you), it reveals what and who Vivienne truly is.

She's a survivalist.

Because we don't spend as much time in the Free Marches or Orlesian circles, we don't get to experience what being a mage is in these cultures. In Ferelden and Kirkwall, a mage is a lesser being without freedom no matter what they do--but in the Free Marches and Orlais specifically, mages are commodities that are given freedom so long as they play an entertaining enough role. They can explore the world if they have a noble patron, if they catch the right person's eye. They are, in a way, two sides of the same coin--refusing mages agency and forcing them to relay on higher powers. Vivienne lucked out, as sad as it is, when Bastion fell in love with her; she found someone who was contrarian enough to recognize her as a full person and also someone with power that could help her rise through the ranks. This is not to say that Vivienne on her own wasn't an exceedingly talented and intelligent individual--by nineteen she was already the youngest full fledged mage in Circle history and she was skilled enough to make herself an enchanter. But, I can not emphasize this enough, none of that matters if she didn't also play the Game and impress enough people.

Vivienne could have been the most brilliant mage in the history of Thedas and it means nothing if she was overlooked by nobility.

So when Bastion made her his mistress, she gained not just a lover but also a means to an end. Now she can use her magic to protect herself. Now she can roam where she wants and not be question for it because she's Madame Vivienne. Now, she can walk into the Orlasian court and belong there.

And what happens? Celene notices her and makes her the Court Enchanter, a position that has always been the equivalent of a jester. Vivienne took that title, ignored that it was essentially a glorified insult to who she is, and made it a position of power. She made the Court Enchanter into an advisor, a political rank. She had done the impossible and made mages an actual political entity in the Orlasian Court, something that wasn't seen outside of Tervinter (not counting what players can do under very specific conditions if they made mages in DAO and DA2).

All that, however, only continues as long as the court recognizes her as something worth their attention. Vivienne needs to maintain her act as Madame De Fer, The Lady of Iron, the Court Enchanter, The Jewel of the High Court, because the second she just becomes Vivienne, it's over for her. The assassins coming raining in, her name gets devoured by rumors and gossip, and she'll be found dead at bottom of the stair case with a dagger in her back if she's lucky.

So of course when the Circles fall apart during the Rebellion, she clings to that Loyalist Mages to maintain that structure--of course she moves her pieces to the Inquisition, knowing that if the Circle DOES fall, she at least as another place for herself and mages latch onto--of course when she hears that Celene replaced her with a new Court Enchanter that appeared out of no where, she grows to resent Morrigan.

Like, Morrigan literally pops up out of thin air, makes herself invaluable to Celene, and then plants herself in the place Vivienne had to claw her way up to and create so she could survive. Would you not be resentful when your life's work is usurped by some random witch of the wilds because she happened to charm the Empress? Everything Vivienne strived for all whisked away because the court find a gem who glimmers ever so slightly more than Vivienne.

So yes, Vivienne fears becoming irrelevant because the world has made it so that irrelevance for an Orlesian mage means death.

[butchofthewilds]

Thinking about Leliana’s disconnect from Fereldan culture and kinda outsider status in Orlesian culture (especially as a servant’s daughter who was raised as if she was a noble for most of her childhood) (double whammy if you, like me, hc her as part elf (personally I hc her as quarter-elf with a half-elf Oisine))…how she doesn’t have a super strong sense of who she is and consistently gets attached to someone (usually an older woman) who gives her an identity and role and orients her whole life and persona around them…Lelianaaaa

[thekingofwinterblog]

How to fix Halamshiral as a Zone

Inquisition is a flawed game.

I don't think there's anyone who is going to argue otherwise.

The only question is wheter you place it higher or lower than DA2.

One of the things I think it does better than DA2, is that it managed to give every place a soul, an identity of it's own, and at least a distinct, if not always amazing storyline.

The emerald graves doesnt have a very interesting plot, but it has some spectacular side quests, and atmosphere, inculding a haunted mansion, which might be my favorite possession based quest in all of DA because it shows much better than others just how dangerous untrained mages actually are to those around them.

The storm coast tells a story of what was once an important dwarven port, and shows how it fell and was repurposed over time.

The Hinterlands shows the aftereffects of the templar mage war, as well as solas stupid plan to give cory his orb, and the mage rebellion and an actually decent time travel story.

I could go on, but the point is, I usually have at least aomething nice to say about every single region.

All except one.

Halamshiral.

Halamshiral was the single worst part of all of Dragon Age Inquisition for me, and every single time I boot up this game, it's always the last thing i do before the temple of sacred ashes, despite how bizarre the game flows as a result.

And the reason is because i hate everything about it.

I hate it's unique attempt at side quests, i hate the characters involved, i hate the Orlesians who inhabit it, and i hate how this section tries to copy what worked so amazingly well with Orzammar and Denerim during the landsmeet section, and fails every single shot it lines up.

The ONLY good thing i have to say about this, is that it's at the very least relatively short.

So here's today's question. How to fix Halamshiral?

Let's begin with the three main players.

Celene, Gasparde, and Briala.

The big problem with every single option, is that they all suck.

Celene and Gasparde are both fucking awful people without any redeeming qualities, they have no charisma, and there is no prospect of the Empire reforming itself under either of them, the way Orzammar would under Bhelen.

Meanwhile, Briala is much, much better, but the problem is that we know exactly what is going to happen here if you support her.

Maybe today elves will have it better, but tomorrow, when Gasparde is gone, or celene turns on elves again as she always does all the progress will be repealed, and reversed, along with a few purged alienages.

Its an old story that's been told before in Dragon age.

In short, there is no reason at all to care about this overall plot. None whatsoever.

There were so many reasons to care about both Orzammar and Denerim in the same situation, and every single character involved had so much more charisma than either of these would be monarchs.

So let's fix that.

Starting with Celene, take the idea of her wanting to reform the empire, and actually take it to the next level.

Celene is genuine in wanting to reform the empire, and has already taken grand, successful steps to make the entire thing much better for everyone, even elves, giving them and serfs more rights, outlawing the practice of chevaliers having a tradition of killing unarmed city elves to graduate.

But the catch is, while she is genuinely making progress, she is doing so within the confines of the great game.

Celene has nonintention of changing the great game, no plans of wanting to remove this thing that holds Orlais back more than any other, this center stone of their nobility and it's culture.

Meanwhile, Gasparde is a different kind of reformer, one that takes the ideas he had of him claiming to hate the game, and actually doing something with it.

He is far less progressive, has no love for elves, is far more warlike than Celene ever was... But unlike Celene, his ideas of reform isn't going to act within the grand game.

He's going to break it.

Unlike canon gasparde, this gasparde is hated by every single noble family in the entire empire. His only support, and it's a strong one, is the army. The parts of the army that supports Gasparde, and they are a huge part, are loyal to him personally to the hilt.

And he hates them back. He hates the game, he hates the way it cripples the empire, and he wants to change things. Like Celene he plans to break the serfs free of their chains, for the good of the nation and it's power and economy if not for any progressive reasons.

And he'a going to start with Halamshiral.

For this Gasparde isn't merely positioning men to stage a coup... He's planning to kill EVERY SINGLE NOBLE in Halamshiral. Evety man, every woman, every child there.

He's going to reform this empire by wiping out it's cancerous nobility in one fell swoop, and install himself as supreme dictator to see his reforms through, and wiping out the entire Orlesian nobility that might have opposed him, french revolution style.

And thus the Inquisitor has a dilemma.

Unlike Orzammar, where only one side was a reformer, both of these Orlesians are... But you have to choose one.

Do you choose Celene? The more progressive candidate, who wants a more peaceful Orlais going forward? But who is not willing to get ridd of the grand game to do so, thus making it a permanent risk that all her reforms will be undone...

Or will you support Gasparde, and by doing so be complicit in destroying the entire nobility of Orlais, many of whom are not guilty of the shit that Celene and Gasparde here both hate so much? Gasparde is far less likely to create a peaceful Orlais going forward... But he will have obliterated the Grand Game for good and all, a prize that might be worth this Red Wedding style bloodbath.

Meanwhile there is Briala, the elven spy who has enough influence to allow, or prevent Gasparde's plans from going through.

Here there should be another moral dilemma, quite different from the base game.

Do you convince her to aid Gasparde, in exchange for the Elves getting a duchy of their own in Halamshiral? Do you then back her up with Inquisition forces and support, forcing Him to publicly announce her as such, and trust his own, twisted version of honor to actually stick to it going forward(Something he ultimately does), or do you throw her to the Wolves the moment things get rough?

Or alternatively, do you convince her to side with Celene, and bury the hatchet? And if so, on what terms? And similarly, if she actually wants to get something out of this, you actually need to back her up... Something you may, or may not choose to do.

And voila, here you have an actual story of intrigue, massive, lasting political changes as a result of the Herald's actions, and morally grey on grey choices.

Everything that Denerim and Orzammar had in spades.

Now moving on from the plot to the actual place.

Halamshiral has no soul.

It's a french villa on a mountaintop. Whoop de freaking do.

It has no interesting murals, unique art only found there, interesting geography, or anything really to make it stand out.

Compare it to Denerim and Orzammar, and the way they fleshed out the entire city's levels of power and criminal underworlds, and you see the difference.

Denerim is a very realistic, squat, squalid medieval city, with it's buildings built on top of every single bit of available space.

Orzammar is a full on high fantasy dwarf city lit up by a lake of lava.

Halamshiral is a villa presented as a city.

How do you fix that?

There is an artist here on Tumblr who pretty much showcased what Halamshiral could have been, if they had taken the idea of the Dalish(who were the original owners) taking inspiration from native americans(amongst others), and use that to build a truly spectacular city, which has long ago been paved over, but the structure is still there.

Make it a city on the water, like the aztex capital of Tenochtitlan, a marvel of canals and stone.

Make it this Venezia like city, with canals everywhere you look, and the entire city running on water. A marvel of Dalish city building, where they took something as simple as a couple of islands in a lake, and built the most beautiful city in the world.

And rather than just limit you to the palace, instead let you actually explore this city.

Expand the entire event from one night, to a week.

Let the Herald explore the city, meet the players, interact with the nobles, become friends with a few like you could with Ferelden's bans, which in turn makes the possibility of sacrificing them for the greater good hit so much harder.

Let you choose what fancy stuff to wear to the balls and meetings, rather than have this stupid motto of forcing you to wear one, pre determined outfit like this game had for some reason.

Let you discover the places where what little Elven Architecture and art still remains can be found, and talk with the elves who still live here, the descendants after the first elves the Orlesians enslaved.

Make the plotting of Gasparde and the positioning of troops be gradual, not instantly discovered and twarted.

And at the end, if you choose to back Gasparde, you mirror that scene from Dragon Age 2, where the Templars sail across the bay, and you either step aside and witness the bloodbath you just allowed to happen, or you fight them and be recognized by the nobility(most of which are horrible, horrible people) as a hero who just saved the day.

Have the venatori plot be to kill both Gasparde and Celene, rather than their involvement mostly be about handing the player the the easy knife for the knot of which monarch to pick without having to get your hands dirty.

Also have the entire group be gathered for once. Every inner member of the Inquisition just like at Denerim.

Each of whom have their own thoughts on the events.

Who supports who? What is the right thing to do? What is better for the inquisition? Are you staining your honor beyond repair if you back Gasparde? Does the Inquisitor maybe have a breakdown after witnessing what they just allowed to happen and they walk through the gardens or rooms filled with corpses? Maybe have the scene at the end with the love interest be about a moment of them truly comforting their lover in the aftermath of it all, understanding(or not) that as boss, it's your job to have to make the tough decisions. And now you have to live with them.

Or if you wanna go the other way, this could be one of the breaking points like Origins had. If you support Gasparde, Blackwall choses to tell you to get bent, and that he will die as benefits a knight. Defending the week, and calling you out on how you are just as bad as he ever was, a child killer who's going to run away from responsibility, to pretend you are some better person than what you actually are. You're a murder. Just like he was. You are just as responsible for the blood that's flowing as he was with that carriage back in the day.

It would have been a far more impressive reveal moment for his crimes, that's for sure.

Cole probably would be the one who would be second most upset, but wheter he leaves or ultimately stays should probably be depended on your other choices and your relationship with him prior to this, probably have his personal quest be the determinating factor of what he chooses to do.

And i could go on, but point is, this would be a return to Origins choices actually mattering. There were choices that could make or break a characters bond with you. Shale would not budge regarding Caridin, Leliana and wynne would stand against you if you choose to defile the urn, Sevran would choose to betray you for his old friend if he didn't like you enough, and of course the age old choices at the end of act 3 in da2, where you have to pick between templars and Mages, as well as anders fate, and chances are regardless of what you do, at least 1 person ends up dead.

If anyone reading this has any suggestions for how to further improve this storyline, feel free to share, but regardless, i think we can all agree that this is a vast improvement of what we actually got.

[vaguely-concerned]

Down Among the Dead Men Reread thoughts!

The Mourn Watch continue to be my faves. What a bunch of absolute Fifth House style freaks. The description of Myrna taking control over Karn's possessed and enraged corpse like she's 'walking a small but wilful dog' fhkdsafhash amazing. I can't believe bioware is giving me the ability to roleplay as essentially a magical janitor. a good-natured magical corpse janitor slash gentleperson scholar. what more could I ask

the only time Emmrich is the least bit brought out of balance in the whole story is when he gets flustered at the way audric/curiosity kneels to take myrna's hand when they create their spirit/watcher bond. which. fdjfaks okay. we might perhaps read some stuff into that. 'let the poor fellow up' alright okay uh-huh. just taking some notes don't mind me. he genuinely seems so sweet and like such a comforting presence, though, I really can't wait to get to know him better

the way the mourn watch interact with spirits is fascinating. of the human cultures we've seen they may be the closest to conceptualizing them as equals (within clear limits -- there's still a leash, and a hand that holds it, at the end of the day).

the city watch exasperatedly bringing possessed corpses to the mourn watch like someone taking stray cats to a shelter or something is wild and hilarious within the context of the rest of thedas

audric taking a moment to drag outdated orlesian fashion my beloved

the big 'uncatalogued' self-animating skeleton monstrosity seems like it could be connected to the huge high lord vollnir-ass skeleton we've seen in the trailer no? tho honestly there's enough weird shit going on down there that it could be a completely unrelated skeleton monstrosity too lol

I love the way chantry beliefs and older cultural traditions meld in nevarra. the fact that audric finds the idea of cremation disturbing even though he isn't comfortable around the dead is really neat.

the necropolis is going to be SUCH a banger of a level I just know it. escher-ass house of horrors and casual comedy. (the corpse that sits up to scowl at audric and myrna accusingly for waking it before just lying back down😭). the fact that there must be actual architects who must spend their whole careers creating vast halls that will only ever be wandered by the restless dead...

also there are public gardens attached to the necropolis! now there's the space for a picnic if ever there was one

[anneapocalypse]

On the actual significance of the "Grand Game"

In the three Dragon Age games thus far we have seen Orlesians from three perspectives. In Origins we get the Fereldan view, Orlesians Are Evil, this from a nation occupied and oppressed by the empire and not yet over it. In DA2 we get the Marcher view, or you could call it specifically the Tethras view, Orlesians Are Stupid, a view no doubt cultivated by the fact that the only Orlesians you meet in Kirkwall are rich expats wealthy enough to have a second home in the Free Marches but not important enough to actually need to be in Orlais. And in Inquisition we get I think the closest thing to the Orlesian view of Orlais, which is: we're very powerful and you should want to have us on your side; please ignore all the chaos and civil war and how expendable we consider the lower classes.

Throughout all of this I think it is worth noting that the only people who think Orlesians are so subtle and clever are Orlesians, and mostly it's just the nobles and their hangers-on who think that about themselves. We're introduced to the concept of the Grand Game through Leliana, who romanticizes the whole thing due to her life as a bard. Varric by contrast has very little in the way of romantic notions about Orlesian nobles and mostly portrays them as comical buffoons, from Emile de Launcet to Duke Prosper de Montfort; not one of Varric's Orlesian characters is ever meant to be taken seriously by the audience. In Inquisition, a lot of hay is made about the Game and the need for favor and so forth but it pretty much all boils down to "Nobles have money and troops. We need those. Make them like you."

To me, the interesting thing about the Game is not that it's actually deeply complex or intricate, but how central it is to Orlesian identity. Of course there are intricacies to court politics, but most of it comes down to knowing whose interests and connections lie where, and how those interests may be successfully manipulated. That's not "Orlesian politics," that's just politics, and it's not meaningfully different from politics elsewhere. What sets the Orlesian aristocracy apart from Ferelden, when you look past the cultural trappings and the aesthetics, is mainly that Orlais has much stronger barriers to upward mobility in place (freeholds, or land owned by commoners, are practically unheard of in Orlais, whereas the freehold is the backbone of Fereldan culture).

But where I think the cultural significance of the Game truly matters to Orlesians is in the way it's meant to set them apart as the Good Empire. The empire that is cultured, sophisticated, civilized--you know, not like that other, bad empire up north, the one with the blood magic and the legal slavery. Please pay no attention to the blood-soaked floors of the servants' quarters (or the illegal slave trade that flourished in occupied Ferelden and behind closed doors of remote estates). We negotiate power with subtle words and gestures, and definitely don't sustain it with the blood of the powerless just like the magisters do, but without the magic. It's the magic part that makes blood magic bad, not the murder part. (This is a big part of why I love The Masked Empire, so much, as it really has so much to say about the nature of power and empire and who truly suffers for the games the nobles play, but it's also why what we see in the servants' quarters in "Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts" is so important.)

And this all ties into Orlais as the seat of the southern Chantry as well, sitting in opposition to Tevinter politically, culturally, religiously, all of which are inexorably intertwined.

[felassan]

TheVerge article on the Dragon Age cook book: "A cookbook helped me understand Dragon Age’s origins" [link]. the article writer interviewed the writer of the cook book.

Some quotes from the article, under a cut in case anyone doesn't want to be spoiled about the cook book:

"The book is narrated by a new character, Devon, who features both in an introduction as well as in all the blurbs heading up each recipe. Devon is the child of Nan, a minor character from the human noble origin in Dragon Age: Origins who worked as Castle Cousland’s cook. Devon travels Thedas, following in the footsteps of the games’ heroes and villains and eating their way around the world.  “Food is a very interesting way of establishing details about a world, and in a very subtle way,” the author behind Devon, Jessie Hassett, said in a phone interview. “A particular dish that you choose to include in your fantasy world can say a lot about that world.” Writing the blurbs was like having an opportunity to write “canon fanfiction,” Hassett said, and that meant staying true to characters and cultures that have shown up in the games so far.  “You really have to put yourself into this mindset of: Okay, I’m this character in the world of Thedas,” Hassett said. “How do I perceive all these various things, and then how do I communicate that in a way that feels like the character’s voice?”"

"When writing a description for the “Dwarven Plum Jam” recipe, Hassett described the price of importing jam to Orzammar as “eye-watering,” and invented an enterprising merchant trying to import its ingredients instead." 

"Dwarven culture in Dragon Age has a highly competitive streak, and so Hassett fleshed out the world and the spider leg recipe by inventing a fierce dipping sauce competition. It follows that those who come up with the most desired sauces would guard their recipes jealously against “many a nefarious plot to acquire them,” as Devon puts it. Hassett described the sauce wars as one of her favorite parts of the book. “Spider dipping sauce is serious business,” she said."

"Much like our real France, Orlais is a wonderful country for growing grapes and making cheese… but not a place you’d be able to sustain a cacao crop. “And yet,” Hassett observed, “there are a lot of Orlesian recipes that have chocolate.” Why? Because all those nobles are showing off. “Orlais is all about appearances. You have The Game, especially among the nobles — it’s all about displaying your wealth, your power.”"

"As for the other Varric-themed recipe in the book, “Varric’s Favorite Cinnamon Rolls,”  there was only one thing to ask Hassett: “That’s Merrill, right?” “Oh, yes,” she said. “I agree.”"

[source and full article]

[vigilskeep]

when you first start the cousland origin, you can have some conversations with arl howe, teyrn cousland, and duncan that shed some interesting light on the political situation in ferelden. it’s definitely the origin where you get the most context on the rebellion and on cailan and his father. while howe isn’t exactly the most trustworthy of sources, he is also one of the most openly critical of cailan that we have access to, which i think is worthy of interest

howe remembers maric with what the toolset describes as “genuine fondness”: “your father hasn’t spoken of our time with him? that man took care of his friends. as they say, he was large as life and twice as tall!” i think we should pay particular attention to that man took care of his friends.

what howe’s talking about is a really important aspect of kingship, where you win the consent and enthusiasm of the nobility for your rule by offering rewards like wealth, land, and prestige to the loyal. kingship is always less stable than it’s portrayed, and this is one of the ways that kings must essentially sell to the nobility that answering to them is worth their time, which would be especially important in ferelden given everything we know about its culture. fereldans believe someone only has power when it is given by the loyalty of those below them, who have the right to freely rescind that loyalty. the dao codex says that “the sight of [fereldan kings] asking for—and working to win—the support of ‘lesser’ men is a source of constant wonder to foreign ambassadors.”

i suspect howe is remembering a maric fresh from the victories of the rebellion, who was able to reward those who had followed him with the spoils of those victories. at the end of the stolen throne, we see that in the final days of the rebellion, maric was killing those who had betrayed his mother to the orlesians even when they arrived under truce to meet him on holy ground. in dao, we see no lingering orlesian nobility except for those who married in and continue to be met with marked hostility. i think we can safely surmise that maric elected to make no conciliatory measures and give everything to those who had followed him; with the orlesians on the run and his people out for blood, he was in a strong enough position to do so, and it certainly served to win the fond memories of men like howe.

by contrast, howe goes on to say, “it’s too bad cailan isn’t half that.” the toolset notes establish very clearly that it’s the same issue, elaborating on howe’s thoughts: “bitter turn, i don’t get as much from the current king”, and “disdainful, i have no use for him, he does me no favours”. this isn’t a minor character detail, if howe’s last words when killed by the player are anything to go by. “maker spit on you... i deserved... more...” whatever it is that howe feels he should have been given, by the crown or anyone else, it characterises his actions and his defining treachery.

it’s in these same conversations that we see another side of this demonstrated. there are two points where howe can openly criticise the king, and bryce immediately admonishes him for both. one even has the toolset note: “speaks sharply, as a lord to a lesser man, not a friend to an equal”. it definitely comes across that way; the way he tells howe “that’s enough” is not far off the voice he uses when the player, his child, displeases him. bryce can’t tolerate any criticism of cailan, as the couslands in dao are ardent supporters of the king. to venture some hc, i suspect that this is not merely royalist fervour, and that howe’s resentment for having been given less is matched by bryce’s awareness of the precariousness of having more.

over the centuries, the theirins have consolidated their power and eradicated almost all the teyrns (the noble rank that is second only to the king). with the only other lingering teyrn being loghain, who is essentially part and parcel of the royal family, the couslands stand alone as the only real rivals to theirin power within ferelden. there are rumours that bryce was once considered for king instead of the theirins; he too could have decided to believe he “deserved more”. but unlike howe, and perhaps understandably given his strong position and happy growing family, he is satisfied with what he has. he will not take the risk of even the slightest challenge being made within his hall

(i expect that bryce’s satisfaction with the current situation further spurred howe’s dissatisfaction to its heights, given the complicated cousland-howe history and the fact that he was expected to accept a friend he had fought beside as a superior for the rest of his life.)

i don’t think howe’s judgement on cailan is likely to be without basis. we don’t hear about any victories the young king has to his name, from which he could have passed around spoils. (to be fair, cailan had harder luck than maric in this regard. a king who raises a successful rebellion gets to bring glory and prestige to everyone who follows him, whereas a king trying to rebuild after that rebellion mostly gets to bring, uh, taxes probably. especially on wealthy centres of trade like howe’s amaranthine, one might assume.) cailan also takes a far more diplomatic approach to the question of orlais, which perhaps predictably did not win over many nobles of howe’s generation. it makes sense that cailan’s strongest supporters would instead be men like bryce who hope for things to simply continue, peacefully, as they are. perhaps in another world where cailan had won the battle of ostagar, he might have earned wider respect. (you could actually argue on this basis that there’s more sense and purpose to cailan’s glory-seeking than he usually gets credit for.) but howe already acts before ostagar, which can only demonstrate his certainty in cailan’s failings at this point: his belief that even if cailan could win, he would not be stable enough to pursue justice for the couslands

[voelene]

What languages do the team know ?

I mean, they all speak trade, of course, but let's think about the other languages.

Harding : according to the wiki, Ferelden only uses trade now, the alamarri language abandoned for centuries. But she might speak some dwarven dialect, even as a surface dwarf. She also could have picked up some Elvish words, Avvar, or Orlesian from her travels with the inquisition.

Neve : Tevene is obvious. As she doesn't seem to operate outside Minrathous from what we know of her, I think that's it (I might wrong, haven't read the missing comic where she appears)

Taash : depending on wether she is Tal Vashoth or Vashoth (and what her caretakers taught her in this case), she might speak Qunlat or not. She speaks Rivaini, obviously.

Lucanis : Antivan is no brainer, but he very probably picked up Tevene, having spent some time there for his venatori contracts. He might have been taught other languages during his education (while not a spy, it could still be useful to listen on private conversations)

Bellara : as much Elvish as is possible to know for a modern day Dalish. Apart from that, her drive to learn could have led to other languages, but I can't think of a specific one.

Davrin : some Elvish too. We don't know where he hails from, but depending on his former clan preferred hunting grounds, he might know the related language (same with Bellara)

Emmerich : Nevarra doesn't have a related language in the wiki, but they probably have a distinct language to go with their very particular culture (and they probably have ten different terms to speak about a dead person depending on the freshness of the corpse and how it was entombed). But as a scholar, he very probably knows other languages, at least in their written forms.

I know it's not very important, but I want to know who will react when Lucanis calmly insult someone in Antivan, or who will be able to spy on evil magisters or qunari invaders. I want Taash to go on a tirade in Rivaini for five minutes and everyone being "can you start again in a language we actually understand?", while Emmerich just goes "I can translate if you wish".