#pc: Hollix

[profmj]

We're (hopefully) going to be wrapping up the masquerade at Castle Ravenloft tomorrow night. Let's see if we all make it out alive.

[disasterdrvid]

6, 15, 17

Long time follower first time caller! I've been wary to get excited cause bioware has been playing with my emotions for over a decade at this point. I avoid most news and stuff about DA at this point but I appreciate your takes

Awww thank you so much! I've gone through cycles of wariness and excitement over the years, but tbh what's been coming out lately has me generally hopeful

6. Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have?

I have a canon worldstate and I've had my "canon" Rook locked in since December 2020 when the Game Awards trailer dropped! Iori (last name currently redacted) is a city elf born in southern Orlais who left following the civil war. She wound up in Rivain where she became a Lord of Fortune! (I've had her planned as one since I started writing her concept, well before any factions were confirmed. I just really loved Hollix in "Luck in the Gardens.") I've taken a lot of inspiration for her character from Long John Silver in Black Sails and, more recently, Izutsumi from Dungeon Meshi!

She has an older brother who disappeared after they left their village. Iori thought he went to join the Inquisition but he actually joined the Agents of Fen'Harel. I'm hoping some of Rook's story is open-ended enough that Bioware lets me get away with keeping that aspect because I find their rivalry really interesting--especially with how that plays into her and Solas' relationship.

If you want to see more of her I currently have her tagged on my blog under "#iori dragon age"!

15. Do you have any unpopular opinions about DAV so far?

Not many given that we don't really know much about the story. But I've been pretty vocal that I think the 10 year timeskip is a huge mistake. Trespasser ended with a massive thread of tension hanging over the story, and I genuinely feel that jump cutting to Solas already starting the ritual within the game's prologue feels anticlimactic. Like, Bioware had 10 years to build up this plot point and to me the writing indicated they were going to stretch this a little further into Veilguard. I'd even speculated the better way to handle it would be to treat Solas like Origins treated Loghain, and make his confrontation a late act 2 plot point and then make him a late game companion. Hell, I even wanted them to bring back DA2's structure where the game takes place over multiple years. The technology has caught up where something that ambitious should be at least achievable now.

I also think as time goes on the Game Informer articles are going to get reevaluated. Some of them are a little silly and I think the reporter is highlighting things that are just part and parcel for the series. I get that this is marketing to build hype (probably leading up to GamesCom in August) but just... idk. I think specifically the one about companions and romances rubbed me the wrong way. Companions from previous games also had rich inner lives and romanced each other when not romancing the PC. So yeah I think some of them are a little silly to write whole pieces about like they're brand new ideas.

17. Are you interested in all the lore and speculation or do you focus more on the games and stories themselves?

Sometimes? I don't go out of my way to read meta and speculation since I think speculation just builds hopes for things that were never going to exist in the first place. (Like my bitterness about no multi-year story in Veilguard.) I've done speculation in the past and I even did a bit of speculative fic for Iori. I was wildly off base for a lot but I found it to be a fun exercise to finding her character. I've also posted my own speculation here but that was more for fun than anything serious.

As for lore I have way too much brain space dedicated to this series than a person should 😅 I've been meaning to re-read my copy of World of Thedas vol 2 in preparation for the game. I think lore is a fun thing to learn so I can play around with it for my characters. I'll also say that I've read a majority of the ancillary works (thus far the only ones I haven't read are The Calling and The Missing) because I like seeing the world of DA outside of what the games have established!

Send me DAV hype questions!

[felassan]

Hi!

Thank you so much for posting all the interesting stuff from the book on here! I was just wondering if you think we will be playing as a Lord of Fortune in the next DA game?

I think we will from the mention in the book about DA4 and the description of them being good with disguises and stuff from Tevinter Nights but what do you think??

Hi Nonnie, you’re welcome. This answer is under a cut due to length. Tevinter Nights spoilers under cut.

I’ve definitely wondered about the possibility before (Tevinter Nights spoilers at link)! My speculation is that we’re in for either a Lord of Fortune companion or possibly a Lord of Fortune PC / PC background (or background option) in the next game. As you say, post-TN the Lords have been ‘flagged up’ again now with the caption in the book (“Where there’s treasure, there’s adventurers braving death to get it. The Lords of Fortune are always on the hunt for treasures - wherever it might be”). The companion feels like the more likely of the two but I do think it could work well for a player character. Paraphrasing a bit from the linked post, with a few additions:

Lords can be humans, elves and dwarves at least. I don’t see why a Tal-Vashoth or Vashoth horned person couldn’t join either, and with the general Qunari presence in Rivain there’s proximity. So there’s the race selection

They can be male, female or other genders, so there’s gender

They’re warriors (Mateo) and rogues with different specialties. I don’t see why a mage couldn’t join either, especially since TN gives us an example of a mage who, while not a Lord, is also a thief and uses their magic in that, and the Lords seem to be about skill and merit. Plus Rivain have some different views on magic and mages. So there’s class and specializations

It seems like people from other countries in Thedas can also join too as Hollix essentially offers to the Tevinter girl. All this kind of stuff is a solid lead-in for CC and space for RP, both in-game expressions of it and headcanon

Hero of Ferelden, Champion of Kirkwall, Herald of Andraste, Lord of Fortune. Not a bad PC title either, and the “Lord” part in LoF is gender-neutral

RP flexibility: someone could have joined up for any one of a number of different reasons - adventure/thrills/fun, fame, fortune, glory, history buffs, to earn money, to be doing a job that isn’t a life of drudgery or mundane, to see the world and the sights all over Thedas, and for common thieves and similar folks it could be a way of advancing, putting their skills to use, doing something more ‘glamorous’ or getting off the streets (their situation-depending). Bharv had a farm and a family while being an active Lord and planned to retire after being in the game for like 40 years. Herold had previously done naval service before joining. Hollix was in the circus before joining. Again lots of room for RP and variance, there’s more to them than ‘just another merc faction’

the live service elements could involve jobs, heists, monster hunts and stuff? some kind of mechanic based around that and a Lord’s reputation?

Solas definitely could know of them but so far there’s no indication that he does (“find people he doesn’t know”), whereas it’s specifically mentioned that he has knowledge of a whole bunch of the other factions

As a new faction to us it would be something new, fresh and interesting for the PC to be part of

They usually act solo or in pairs/small groups, so there’s the “here’s why you aren’t going about in a group of Lords or getting help from your whole faction” stuff (I’m thinking of the story reasons that were set up which explain why the Hero and Alistair are the only Wardens in DAO)

The accessories and trinkets and stuff = customization

Being a Lord also gives the PC a reason to be knowledgeable about history, Deep Roads, ancient ruins, artifacts and for dungeoneering, travel and monster fighting. Those are things handy for Generic RP Protagonist in general but also, some of them are going to be useful things to have in the conflicts to come (history, Deep Roads, ruins, artifacts)

It sounds like the next PC is going to be a nobody initially or largely anyway, rather than someone in a role like the one the Inquisitor occupied, so this point might be moot, but - it would also be more sensical for why the PC is going around doing the quest they’re doing. A lot of DAI is like “Why is one of the most important people in the world currently doing all this busywork? They have an army of goons they could be sending out and tasking with doing this stuff”. I mean, we do do that delegation with the War Table and everything, and it was important to build the Inquisition’s power and for the Herald to be seen around, but y’know? A Lord of Fortune is a bit more like a Geralt-type, going around doing side quest-style contracts for people. So side-questing could feel more natural

Semi-related, there’s also the fact that DA4 sounds like it’s going to be a story of someone who’s the opposite of the Inquisitor - someone unknown, from the bottom, with no power, or at least initially. The Lords are considered among the best treasure hunters in Thedas so they’re not nobodies, but you could be a ‘junior’ Lord who hadn’t been one for long and hadn’t made a name for themselves yet. I’d actually be quite interested in amassing the LoF display of worn-treasure, accessories and trinkets as the story progresses and the PC does more stuff

They’re based in Rivain and we’re going north

The LoFs as a faction might have their own knowledge and concerns about Solas (Mateo was on the shadow Inquisition’s Genetivi Expedition)

The shadow Inquisition know of them now via Mateo and Hollix

Their propensity for the covert/subterfuge type stuff - breaking and entering, thievery, roguey-stuff, disguises, stealth, deception and so on - would suit both the previous "spies and heists" version of the game and the whole Shadow Inquisition’s “we must operate secretly and below the radar to limit the possibility of Solas finding out about our plans" stuff

And it’s a decent way of getting a new unknown PC mixed up in the narrative - Lords travel all over Thedas, dungeoneering and everything, obtaining ancient artifacts, fighting monsters, protecting people on jobs. They take contracts. The shadow Inquisition have been hiring at least some people for work to do with their current efforts. Solas and his followers have been recruiting people. The shadow Inquisition have been looking for things that could stop him and Solas and his followers have also been looking for artifacts. I can totally see, like just for example, a Lord initially being like on a job or something trying to find some artifact that it also turns out that Solas’ people or the shadow Inquisition also want to get their hands on and so becoming caught up in everything that way, or knowingly or unknowingly being hired by either faction and it going from there

tl;dr I think a LoF companion is more likely but can def see how a LoF PC would work! A Vint Siccari also seems like a likely candidate for the PC, though I would rather the PC is not a slave or former slave.

Sorry for the scrappy nature of this post!

[The Future of BioWare - Tevinter Bound (2)]

[Mark Darrah’s Mysterious Red Book]

[Highlights and insights from the DA chapters]