"Hope"

Dragon Age: The Veilguard art book pages, under a cut due to spoilers:

This sequential series was another way to explore the story structure that was solidifying. It relates the story of Rook, who returns to her ship to find the Inquisitor waiting and expecting a report. Rook tells of the Necropolis mission being interrupted by Solas. Making uneasy alliances. Going undercover with the Qunari, rising in the ranks, and then betraying them to Tevinter. Finally heading to Weisshaupt, stopping the Wardens from making a huge mistake, and ultimately joining them and slaying an Archdemon.

The Dumat The ship idea was coalescing. The name Dumat was pulling ahead (named for the first Archdemon). We were on Frostbite, so we knew we could probably borrow some of that awesome ocean tech from Battlefield! One problem was that thematically, boats didn't quite line up with the spy theme. They're too easy to spot and attack. But you know what's not easy to spot? Submarines. The idea was completely insane... so we had to try it. This brought up the challenge of anachronism. Submarines don't fit in fantasy games. Obviously. But what if we found a way? The first attempts were to make a submersible boat. Something that looked mostly like a boat but could plausibly dive under the surface.

The more we researched and referenced submarine mechanics, the more nautical they became. Subs are incredibly sophisticated marvels of engineering, but the more we referenced them, the more we strained the believably of our fantasy world.

Top: Submarines provide the element of surprise. It was fun to explore how to exit and enter the ship for each mission. Bottom: Sneaking past Qunari dreadnought fleets and giving fishermen nightmares.

We thought it would be fascinating to have a mysterious prisoner in your brig. Do you let him out?

Dragon Sub To make a submarine that fit into our world, we tried to make it look more like a sea monster. We had already named it after the dragon Dumat, so it felt like a natural fit.

We tried to disguise the sub as a natural creature, making it look more like a dragon or a sea monster.

Dumat cutaway. We wanted the interior of the Dumat, built in Tevinter, to feel luxurious and mysterious.

Top: To help give a voice to the Dumat, we explored having a captain and an engineer. They had been shelved, along with their experimental vessel, for decades. We even explored them having an unrequited love story. Bottom: We designed a mystery engine that the engineer had to feed seemingly random objects into in order to keep it running. Ten dried lavender flowers, five quail's eggs, three brass belt buckels, etc... It would have served as a way to offer up some light fetch quests: "While you're out, could you pick up ten giant spider fangs?"

Underwater Mansion The direction that started to feel the most correct was the underwater mansion on the back of a creature. It was much more mysterious and appropriate to the fantasy genre. It still gave us the awesome underwater vistas, but we weren't limited to the claustrophobic restrictions inherent to submarines.

We explored having a giant golem or a colossal sea creature carry the Dumat mansion.

The mansion on the back of a giant... something that you would only catch small glimpses of. Is it a giant sea monster? A colossal construct?

Covert Commandos "Covert commandos" was our answer to the "fantasy spy" theme. Rather than slipping into the rogue mindset that that implies, it left room for warriors to smash things and mages to light things up with fireballs. We tried to imagine what the high adventure of covert commandos might look like. It was a lot of fun to explore different team-ups between classes and factions. How do they solve problems differently? Bottom left: Going undercover with a trading caravan to make a map. Bottom right: Escaping a dragon on griffon back.

Top: A heist becomes a rescue. Center left: Evading guards in the Undercity. Center right: Three brave warriors hold the gap while civilians escape. Bottom: Everyone is on edge when an Antivan Crow enters the room.

The palanquin heist.

Top: Switcheroo at the prisoner exchange. Bottom: The party holds a chokepoint.

Top: Complicated ecosystems. Center: Sneaking through the streets of Minrathous. Bottom: Scoundrels flee when the Crows come to town.

Top: Steal some uniforms and bluff your way past a guard. Bottom left: A high-speed aravel chase. Bottom right: The team using its skills to outwith some bandits.

Bottom left: Clearing a roadblock. Bottom right: Sabotage down at the docks.

Killing time until the monsters show up.

Top right: Discovering the griffon sanctuary. Left: Just five more seconds! Bottom right: End of the line.

Early NPCs The early stages of character design are exciting. Writers and artists will develop simple sketches or descriptions to start filling up the blank canvas. We start simple. If a character works as a thumbnail sketch, they'll work when blown up to full size. It's a great way to keep an eye on shape and color, to make sure they all stand out from one another (an important element on the battlefield). We explore NPCs throughout the duration of a project. They change constantly as we discover more about the project and have new problems to solve. Top left: An early idea for Cole to act as a compassionate voice for Solas. Bottom left: Some characters are strong right out of the gate and change very little, like Emmrich here. We won't know until the project nears completion. Bottom right: It's always fun to bring old characters into newer games. In this case, explored Sten from Origins as a dreadnought captain.

From where we left off in Inquisition and Trespasser, we knew Solas would be a central figure. We wanted to show Solas having cast off his hermit disguise. He was never flashy, but he was calculating and intentional, so we gave him the ancient elven god equivalent of a business suit. --- In the early stages it helps to explore simple expressions of each character. It forces us to exaggerate, focus on fewer details, and really emphasise what matters most. Eventually we can start getting more specific, but this is a valuable stage not to skip over.

Top: Early sketches of Ghilan'nain and her experiments emerging from the sea. Center: A dwarf and her construct friend. Bottom: In earlier drafts, Solas had a partner who could play bad cop to Solas's good cop.

Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain were the two remaining elven gods. From the beginning of the project we were excited about a double Blight. --- Bottom left: Ghilan'nain is the mother of the halla, goddess of monsters. Bottom right: Elgar'nan is the god of vengeance and the sun, fire and shadow. The eclipse motif made sense very early on.

An early version of the party meets up in a private booth at the Blue Blood club.

some other pages -

Some opening pages

Foreword

Google Books preview pages Part One

Google Books preview pages Part Two

Amazon preview pages

Book art credits:

BioWare art: Matt Rhodes, Ramil Sunga, Albert Urmanov, Christopher Scoles, Nick Thornborrow, Steve Klit

Volta art: Gui Guimaraes, Stéphanie Bouchard, Akim Kaliberda, Alejandro Olmedo, Alexey Zaryuta, Julien Carrasco, Maksim Marenkov, Marianne Martin, Mariia Istomina, Marion Kivits, Matti Marttinen, Mélanie Bourgeois, Pablo Hurtado De Mendoza, Rael Lyra, Rodrigo Ramos, Thomas Schaffer, Tiago Sousa, Tristan Kang, Vladimir Mokry, Yintion J, Joseph Meehan, Stefan Atanasov, Julien Carrasco

Additional art: Marc Holmes, Thomas Scholes

the hands that cradled your face and titled it upwards to kiss your forehead are soaked in unfathomable quantities of blood. but they cradled me, yes?

Dark Sun Gwyndolin

the endless search

— (fenris)

The Harrowing

the inquisitor is ours with @starrythroat

I'm not sure when I'll get to play DAO, but if you don't mind sharing your mod list, I would love to save it for when I get to play 🥹

And THANK YOU for the detailed instructions!!

Of course!!

For those catching up, I posted a quick guide to how to fix DAO so that it is playable on PC (it crashes otherwise). If you need a detailed explanation for how to mod on DAO, then I have a doc here that goes into detail, since modding in DAO is confusing and no one explains it well.

My DAO modlist is below the cut!

Essentials

4GB LAA patch compatible DAorigins.exe - Unencrypted .exe file (for the 4GB patch)

4GB Patch - to fix the game

Make CONSOLE commands visible - makes console commands visible

DAO-Modmanager - mod manager that I mostly use if I'm not using override mods

CharGenMorph Compiler - compiler tool for appearance mods (see my guide for how this works)

Bug Fixes/QoL Stuff

Qwinn's Ultimate DAO Fixpack v3.52 - massive bug fix overhaul

Dain's Fixes - caveat, I only use some of these fixes, since some class with Qwinn's pack and others I just don't care about

FtG UI Mod - More Readable Fonts and UI - this plus the next mod helps for when your fancy not-2009-era resolution makes the UI unreasonably small

Nathanael's 4K Resolution Mod - fixes the UI to be bigger

FtG Quickbar - Center and Multi Rows - allows you to customize the UI a little more

Clear Dreams - no blur in the Fade - This plus the next mod if the Fade swirly effects triggers headache/migraine stuff like it does for me (totally optional though, it doesn't bother most people)

Fade Away (Fade Colour Curves) - cuts down on more Fade swirly

No Helmet Hack 1_6 - all and I mean ALL of the hats and helmets in DAO are ugly or annoying, so hide them with this mod

Bug Fixes for Awakening DLC (Optional)

DLC Transfer To Awakening Patch (UPDATED) - fixes the game so that DLC items like weapons transfer into the Awakening DLC

Awakening Silverite Mines Bugfix - fixes a pretty big game-breaking bug in the Awakening DLC

Awakening Blackblade Armor Dragon Drop Fix - super minor Awakening bug fix

Awakening endgame cutscene fixes - another minor Awakening bug fix

Awakening Riot Scene Persuade Fix - another minor Awakening bug fix (someone should bundle these)

Updated Textures/Graphics

Environment Overhaul - cannot recommend enough, it's my favorite texture overhaul

Dragon Age Origins Unofficial Remaster - Updates a lot of items and textures to use DA2 and DAI assets, as a longtime player I love it

Fine Dwarven Craftsmanship - Adds better dwarven textures that the other two mods don't necessarily add

Ultra HD Reshade for Dragon Age... - The reshade/recolors I like (your mileage may vary)

Armors/Clothes

Grey Wardens of Ferelden - dresses all Warden characters in updated warden armor, lets you spawn updated Warden armor

Grey Wardens of Ferelden Retexture - retexture of the Warden armors if you want them

Goblet De-Gobbler - a Joining chalice fix and more - fixes the goblet glitching out if you are wearing modded clothes during your Joining ceremony

Surana Circle Mage Robe - the mage robe I love so much

Surana Mage Robe Retexture - Updates the texture of the Surana mage robe I love

Crow Assassin's Armor for Zevran - cool Crow armor for Zevran

Crow Assassin's Armor Retexture - better textures for the crow armor!

Practical Morrigan Robe - An outfit for Morrigan I really like

Morrigan's Robes Collection - retextures for the Morrigan outfit

Leliana Item Pack - New clothes for Leliana

Leliana Item Pack Fixes - fixes/retextures for those clothes

Loincloth Fashion - more clothes if you want them

RLs Swan Song - Even more clothes (pick and choose individual files, there are WAY too many in here)

Noble Dress Overhaul - If you want the NPC dresses to look nicer (or you get a dress yourself that you want to wear)

Female Noble Clothing Overhaul - totally different NPC dress overhaul

Female Noble Clothing and Noble Dress Overhaul Compatibility Patch - patches the last two mods into one overhaul (it basically reassigns who wears what lmao)

Wynne's Aequitarian Robes - Unique mage robes for Wynne, if you're into that

Male Circle Robe Replacers ( Robes of the void ) - updated mage robes! Guys-only tho

Female Circle Robe Replacers (Bethany Robe Replacer) - updated mage robes, girls only

Hair (So Many Hairs)

DAO - Anto Hairstyles - various hairs

HAIRSTYLE DAY - more various hairs

HAIRSTYLE DAY VOL.2 - even more various hairs

Hairald of Andraste Hairs - individual hairs that you have to add via chargenmorph (I explain how to do this in my mod guide)

Companion/Player/NPC Retextures

Unique Face Textures for Companions DAO Edition - probably my favorite retexture set, but I'll admit, I mess with companion textures myself in the Toolset soooo you may find others you like

Sten of the Beresaad - fave Sten retexture, makes Sten look like a mix of his DAO texture and an updated DA2 texture

Sten - no clothes - if you want a shirtless Sten (goes with the Sten of the Beresaad mod specifically)

Pineappletree s Vibrant Colors - more eye colors for you

Alternative Default Eyes - my favorite eye texture

Lovely Tints - adds more hair colors

Natural Freckle Tattoos and Tints - more skin tones/hair colors plus freckles, but I think you can only use them in the Toolset

Sun's Tints - more eye colors and such!

Mabari Recolours - Origins - recolors your mabari dog!

Tranquil Brand 2.0 - Adds Tranquil brands to Tranquil NPCs

Fun Additions

***Not Recommended for First Playthrough!

Skip the Fade - ***let's you skip a quest that many find annoying

Extra Dog Slot - Let's you summon your dog as a fourth companion

Improved Atmosphere - DO NOT use the whole mod as it will break your game/mess with too much. I only use ONE file and that is the More Party Barks (party_barks.dlg) since it adds more location-specific banter

The Rescue at Ishal - ***adds a cutscene to an early quest, but I only recommend it after finishing the game once since it can be spoilery to later game events

CHANGE YOUR HERO HAIR AND FACE ANYWHERE IN THE GAME - let's you update your warden appearance but, warning, it's kinda a complicated process

Universal Voices - lets any race have any voice

ZevranASAP - ***makes it so that Zevran's encounter with the Warden happens way sooner

Fare ye well Duncan - ***a little minor cutscene added early in the game

DahliaLynn's Sleep Until Dawn - Let's you go to sleep in camp for RP reasons

Alistair's Dark Ritual - ***replaces a late-game cutscene with a new cutscene, Alistair-Romance specific, don't recommend for a first playthrough

DahliaLynn's - Alistair's Nightmare - ***adds a little cutscene to the game, totally extra content

DahliaLynn's - Alistair's First Night Love Scene - ***swaps Alistair's canon romance cutscene for a modded one (your mileage may vary on how much you might like it lol)

Alistair Romance Eavesdropping - ***adds a bench to camp where if you sit on it, you can "overhear" companion banters that are turned into full cutscenes now (it's very cute I won't lie)

I haven't yet dived into Zevran romance mods lol there are some though! And there's plenty more where this comes from, this just happens to be the mod list I use as someone who has played the game a ton and wanted a sort of "overhaul-but-still-true-to-the-heart-of-the-game" modded game.

Anyways enjoy all you modders out there <3

redraw of something old from 2023. smilesss

https://archiveofourown.org/works/3457130/chapters/7585658

You know those cheesy romance novels you see in store nowadays? Well, this is my take on a Solavellan version for my all time favorite modern AU Solavellan fic, "Message Sent" by Aicosu The fic is a bit of a y/n when it comes to Lavellan, and since my personal Lavellan is also named Ellana, I just cast her as the role of love interest.

^_^