Veilguard - Blog Posts
Keeping the original post's tags below because they are so fucking right
in my heart of hearts the mythal in the crossroads is 6 feet tall, horned, decked out in armor fitting a self-appointed goddess borne from primordial war and a giant fuck-you dramatic feathered cape. it hurts to look at her directly. out of the corner of your eye you swear the shadow she casts is in the shape of a dragon. she's been stewing in resentment for so long the air just always smells like a wildfire and lightning strikes. ya'll remember the fucking puzzles in her temple? you wouldn't be able to just walk up to her and start talking to her, idc how long it's been since she's had petitioners.
if you want me to believe in the "like holding a piece of the sun" line you have to do better than the pajama-wearing default character creator template num 9 that we actually got.
Боже! Он такой красивый получился!
post-veilguard life rookanis idk how to caption this
romancing lucanis - a story told in memes
Solas, you absolute trash man. You goof. You dweeb.
See this? The lute in his hideout under the Lady of Glory statue? See what’s at the top there…?
This homeless loser bought a lute with his own fucking face on it. He wanted to get caught so fucking badly he walked into a store and either picked this shit out or worse, had it custom made. This’s the medieval equivalent of Vanilla Ice getting his own face tattooed on his back. I hate him.
(He’s one of my favorite fictional characters ever)
My new Inquisitor! Mir’renan Lavellan!
Warrior, best friends with Cassandra, basically adopted Dorian after telling his dad to eat shit 💚
One of the many reasons, I will argue that this is his best armor set and should’ve been his heroic one. Totally unique to him and so Spite themed/ Spite positive. It’s just encompasses their entire relationship and looks so good with the wings out.
Lucanis' corset lives rent free in my brain
Finished my first play through with my Crow!Rook!
I’m devastated! My Lavellan’s happy ending broke my heart and the Lucanis romance is wonderful!
But am I gonna take a break? No, not for a second!
Warden Var’fen “Rook” Thorne reporting for duty!
Her parents left her clan during the Fifth Blight, after they fought with the other Dalish in Denerim and King Alistair refused to honor his promise of land to the Elves. Offering their skills to the Grey Wardens as trackers in the Anderfels where she’d discover her magic and live as an apostate. Training to be a healer with Warden Mages until they invited her to join them on a trip to the newly emerged Kal-Sharok and stumbled into a nest of Darkspawn.
Barely managing to clear them out, but not before Var’fen was blighted and subsequently took the Joining at the age of 23. Suffering a rare side effect of the ritual that turned the sclera of her eyes black. Meeting Varric shortly thereafter and at 24, using a fake last name since joining the Wardens, they would make their move against the Dread Wolf.
Doing whatever it took to stop his ritual…
Her likes include:
*Cioccolata calda ☕️ (never had chocolate until Varric bought her a cup and was addicted ever since)
*Dogs 🐶 (left mabari, Josa behind with her family when she left to hunt Solas)
*Rocks 🪨 💎 (picks up a pebble or crystal wherever she goes. Most are just cool looking lumps of granite)
*Giving gifts to friends 🎁 (gifts may or may not be pebbles that “remind her of them” and no, she will never explain what she means)
*Harts 🦌(her parents raise them for mounts to herd halla. Brought them along from Ferelden to the Anderfels when they moved)
*Smoking Elfroot 🍃(helps with period pain; bad before, but the Joining made it worse)
Her dislikes include:
*The Chantry ⛪️(only got her vallaslin to keep Templars from dragging her off to a Circle)
*Dracolisks 🦎(saw one lick its own eye like a gecko once and never recovered. Scarred for life)
*Cooked vegetables 🥦 (if it’s slimy? She will die before eating it, but likes salads, carrots and has been yelled at more than once for shuffling around the pantry/kitchen, eating a whole bell pepper/cucumber/tomato, like a rabbit)
*Taxes 💵(self-explanatory)
Who she’ll romance:
This dapper gentleman, whom she met once before while recruiting conscripts in Nevarra City. Bumping into him on her way out of the city dungeon while he was leaving the morgue after corpse-whispering to help solve a murder. Never exchanged a word, but she remembered his polite apology (the first she’d ever received from a Shem) for nearly knocking her over and he remembered her eyes.
*Veilguard Thought*
“Feather Brigade,”
Davrin, you big fucking nerd (affectionate)
Veilguard Spoiler (Cute!)
Just visited Holden and his daughter Mila in Hossberg and you know what banter I just got?
Holden asks his daughter if they’ve earned a treat that day, she of course agrees and the dad essentially says “Good, cause Rook’s Crow friend brought me some cioccolata calda.”
Lucanis went out of his way to purchase, package and hand deliver luxury coco (you know it’s not cheap, he’s Rockefeller level rich) to a child he met exactly one time in the middle of a battle to thank her for saving their lives. What a sweetheart. What an angel. Pookie bird. Love of Rook’s life.
I can’t not marry this caffeine-addicted bird man.
Veilguard Spoilers (Harding)
So, I’ve decided I’m always gonna take Lucanis on Harding’s personal quest, because she says this little line:
“We will thrive, in spite of you.”
Which reminds me of the Hebrew proverb:
“Living well is the best revenge.”
And to me? In my mind? As my Rook and Lucanis both embrace her as she’s having this revelation and in saying that? It feels like Spite was there, too. Giving her the little nudge she needed to power through the bulwark of her grief, as Lace Harding. Not just a Child of the Stone. To live her life as a wholly free Dwarf that no longer requires the presence of the Titans in order to be “enough.”
To become her own person and truly be.
Because it’s hinted/shown in the art book that the Dwarves already existed when the Titans were walking around, but solely served as the caretakers of their giant bodies. Sort of swarming out of them like ants to clean up the hive after a storm.
So, maybe the sundering of the Titans granted them freedom? Free will, even if it came without dreams or magic? Certainly something to think about.
Little more of my Crow!Rook, cause I got the Lords of Fortune fit. Viago’s reluctantly proud of her for almost slaying the dragon and saving Treviso.
Ever make a Lavellan so beautiful that when you finally see her in-game, you get goosebumps? Solas is about to be devastated when he sees her again…
Also, gonna add my Crow!Rook as a bonus cause she’s gorgeous and gonna romance Lucanis :)
Christine “Rook” De Riva 🐦 🔪
Some of the street performers in Dragon Age: The Veilguard are people with fushigi balls who, I can only guess, are pretending to be mages and I love them SO MUCH
Only if you forget to cherish him 💜💀💚
*Solas Thoughts*
So, in Inquisition, the combat AI had everyone, including Mages (traditionally glass cannons) running straight into the fight.
And somebody mentioned a headcannon about Solas, thinking about this system. Assuming you didn’t direct your characters individually, like chess pieces. Wondering if the reason Solas specifically did it, was because he was used to using a dagger and orb (the lyrium dagger and the foci orb), the way Mage!Rook can in DA: the Veilguard.
Would definitely fit, right? You never see him with a staff in the flashbacks and why would a staff-wielding Mage (presumably support/back rank, not vanguard) need to wear a full chest plate, pauldrons and gloves that protect his lower forearms/wrists. Not to mention, in a banter with Blackwall/Rainier in Inquisition, he mentions being “hot-blooded and cocky” as a youth. “Always ready to fight.”
Doesn’t seem like a support role to me and he’s the Dread Wolf. God of Trickery? Treachery?
Sounds an awful lot like a multi-class Rogue to me…
*Veilguard Thought*
So, not really a spoiler. More of a headcannon related to a banter. Lucanis tells Taash he has a pet snake. One that, one would assume, was kept by the Crows while he was trapped in the Ossuary.
No idea what kind, but did he bring it with him to the Lighthouse?
And if so, does it live in Harding’s greenhouse???
Cause she’s the only other dedicated Rogue (Belara is a mage who happens to use a bow) and she’s used to animals, right? I just picture her working in there at the beginning, pulling out all the dead stuff/planting new sprouts and a little corn or king snake just slithers up and she has a heart attack, cause she doesn’t know it’s a real (because they’re in the Fade).
And Lucanis (freshly recruited and very tired) just spends the next several days apologizing, cause it’s the only place warm enough and he can’t rightly keep it in the pantry with him. So, they end up compromising.
He buys a tank for her to put the snake in at night and she lets it wander the garden during the day to eat bugs and mice that might wanna nibble on her plants.
*Veilguard Spoilers(sorta)*
Just saw another tweet with some concept/story boarding art from Lucanis’s romance…???
Fanfic girlies take notes (I am girlies)
His wings were supposed to pop out during/ to interrupt a kiss? Romance scene in a gondola? Possible multiple sets of wings when he’s really pissed/Spite’s crashing out? A lake scene? (Possibly at his family estate…???)
So many ideas…
good morning how do i kill the yearning before it kills me
*Veilguard Spoilers*
So, Emmerich Volkarin.
Alfred+Gomez+Doctor Frankenstein=✨husband✨
I get it. Totally get it.
One thing though? Saw a tweet after running around his room a little confused, wondering where this man sleeps and you know what? I think this diva sleeps on his autopsy table. It might be stone, but he probably cleans it off, rolls out a futon, crosses his hands over his chest, like a vampire in a Victorian night shirt and long cap, and just nods right off into adorably morbid dreams.
Pookie is absolutely about the ✨goth vibes✨
Plus, I mean? We already know what he gets up to in coffins…
Headcanon about the toning down of the Crows in Veilguard.
If we think about ages of Teia/Viago/Illario and Lucanis (and Rook, if that's your HC), they're all (roughly) the same age, right? And I would imagine not much different in age to Zevran, who's been messing with the Crows since DAO.
So what if they're the 'next generation', and perhaps agree with "oh shit, what the Crows used to do was awful, we've got to do better". Teia does have some hero worship of Caterina going on, sure, but I like to think that this generation of Talons is actually doing much better than their predecessors thanks to Zevran clearing the way for them and showing them they can do better.
Ugh, I dunno, I just want to feel hopeful in this little space because I'm very much enjoying Crow!Rook
Hello! I'm back with another Dragon Age portrait. This time, it's Bellara as (again) an Anthony van Dyck portrait, specifically the "Portrait of Lady d'Aubigny." Painting all that drapery was fun torture but I'm happy to be done. If you would like to help me choose the next subject, I'm open to any suggestion!
https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/egart/bellara/
I know for a fact that David's face card never declines.
I'm continuing my series of Dragon Age the Veilguard companions as classical paintings, this time with Davrin as Anthony Van Dyck's Portrait of a Gentleman. Idk who I might do next, maybe Bellara or Neve
https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/egart/davrin/
Vellore is an elven Antivan Crow, who fought her way from the gutters of Antiva city to the ranks of house Valisti. Using her beauty and charm Vellore disguises her intelligence and blades beneath a flirtatious persona waiting for the right moment to strike. Secretly she is conficted between the power and security the Crows offer her and a life free from bloodshed.
Eurydice is a young Dalish Veil Jumper fascinated by the mysteries of ancient elven technology. Inspired by the Inquistor, she left her clan to travel to Arlathan forest where she could dedicate her life to exploring the fade and building a new future for the People. Deep down she is lonely person, and perhaps finds too much comfort in the oddities of the fade.
It's been one day and I already love Bellara so much. her hair is so big, she has too many pockets and she carries a bow as big as she is. what more could you need in a woman?
so pumped after seeing the new dragon age trailer. maker, the character designs, the setting, even the music makes me want to yell!
I mean in this trailer alone we saw half a dozen new factions, THREE whole new nations and settings to explore, seven new companions as well as uhhh red lyrium infectet darkspawn, the return of griffins in Thedas, and the freaking EVANURIS!
I'm honestly so excited
Good job. You panned a great game with some of the most diversity in gaming history, a poc cast and a nonbinary character played by a nonbinary actor, and the ability to be trans or nonbinary yourself and talk about it in the game. Congratulations. If we don't get another game with this level of representation for years you know what the fuck happened.
Okay, let's talk about the coming out scene, because people are saying Taash was the one out of line.
Shathann is a sympathetic character. That does not make her a good person. She saved her child from a life of servitude by leaving the country she loved and tried to preserve that culture in her child. I respect that. I also wish there was a way to encourage Taash to embrace both sides of their culture.
BUT.
From the moment we meet her, Shathann criticizes literally everything her child does. Taash runs an errand for her, and Shathann criticizes their posture, pronunciation, gender presentation, AND sexuality, completely unprovoked, yes, in one fucking conversation. Shathann invites Taash over for dinner and then makes Taash cook that fucking dinner. And this has happened before, as stated in the dialogue. Taash is so affected by this behavior and probably worse they have endured their entire life that they say "you don't get to tell me who I am" at a simple question about their heritage, out of pure instinct.
Now to the actual scene.
Taash invites their mother to their new home and prepares a dinner for her, which Shathann immediately criticizes and has Taash make vegetables to go with. Can you imagine inviting someone into your home for dinner you prepare only for them to shit on it and ask you to cook more. And Taash does so, with a grunt. I'd be like bitch you're in my house, I cooked, eat. But they just do it.
Then they say it. "Im nonbinary." Shathann asks what that means, completely fair, and Taash explains that it means they're not a man or a woman.
Shathann asks if this is because she criticizes their gender presentation. Now listen. I have a parent who thinks nearly everything "wrong" with me is a reaction to their actions. It pisses me off. So Taash is getting reasonably frustrated, and insists that's not why. VALID. They were asked a question and they answered.
Let's talk about the Qun and gender identity. Yes they have a word for people who identify as a different gender than they were assigned. But this is implied to apply to trans men and women, not nonbinary people, so Shathann is asking Taash if they "just" identify as a man, because that's something Shathann can better understand, something more convenient for her to process. Sort of like when trans people come out to someone and are asked if they're "just gay."
No. And Taash says no. They have explained who they are. If Shathann was just having a hard time processing it that would be one thing, but she basically talked over Taash and tried to suggest that they were just a man, which they are not. Taash is being vulnerable. Taash doesn't even HAVE to tell Shathann this, but they want to, they think she deserves to know.
And what Taash says next is not purely to do with this one conversation, as explicit in the text. "why am I never enough for you." Never. Not now. We have seen Shathann critique Taash in every scene they share, and that's with a whole other person present who is not in the family. We don't know what happens in private. Shathann signed her child up for a fucking war without even talking to them about it. What Taash says is the build up of years of being talked over and criticized for everything they do, provoked by offering themselves to that person in a vulnerable position only to be talked over and criticized more.
"Why am I never enough for you."
And Shathann does not answer. She doesnt say "of course you are." Even if she disagreed with Taash's identity, which would be shitty, she could still affirm that they are enough for her. She doesn't.
She fucking leaves.
Maybe she thinks that's what Taash wants. Maybe not. But if someone asks you something like that, you affirm them. You say they are enough. Especially if they're your fucking child. But no, this conversation is too inconvenient for Shathann, she's not getting her way like she did when she signed Taash up for a war without their consent, so she just leaves. She could've said "I don't understand, but I love you." She couldve said anything. But she just left.
I'm sad she died. Im glad she accepted her child in the end. But no, Taash was not in any way out of line in this conversation.
Shathann was.