I made a dragon age sideblog

Thank you!! For @dadrunkwriting

Pairing: Cassandra & Cullen Rating: T (mention of child death) Summary: Cullen and Cassandra discuss the aftermath of Meredith's rage and the Chantry's destruction. Cullen swears fealty.

~~~

"Did you plan for this?"

Cassandra scoffs — her wine glass tangles from lazy fingertips, dregs still staining the bowl. She tries to drain it and gets only drops on her tongue. "You give me too much credit. I could not foresee such a disaster."

"That's the point of you Seekers, isn't it?" Cullen grumbles. He's shuffling behind her, then makes a sound like he's kicked something. His soft grunt is evidence that it hurt. "Could have used you years ago."

"I agree," she sighs. "But I am here now."

The lady of the skies says some interesting things. Another chieftain tries to convince Tyrdda to storm the golden city, and the lady of the skies tells Tyrdda not to do that. When Tyrdda takes her tribe to the mountains and encounters dwarves, the lady of the skies tells her that dwarves are sundered but have honour

It’s pretty clear that Tyrdda’s lover is Mythal. Specifically the fragment of Mythal that we meet as Flemeth. In veilguard, Morrigan references Mythal falling in love with an alamarri chieftain.

The lady of the skies advises Tyrdda to have a child with Hendir, to keep the tribe alive. She names this child (later referred to as “her”, so a daughter) “Aval’var”, saying it means “our journey, yours and mine”. It’s also mentioned that her descendant with be Morrighan’nan

Once Aval’var is old enough to be chieftain, Tyrdda names her as such and then leaves to be with her lover. Taking into account avvar customs of sky burial to send people to the lady of the skies, this likely references her death and funeral, but the focus is that her and the lady of the skies are reunited.

Now, back to Aval’var. “Var” is a word in the elven language, meaning “our”, so when the lady of the skies translates Aval’var as “our journey”, that kinda fits. It’s certainly our something. Aval is not a word in the elven language, however we know from the children’s song in veilguard that the writers included words changing over time. A word in the elven language that sounds similar is “aravel”. If you don’t put much emphasis on the second a, and pronounce Aval’var with a long a, they sound very similar. This can mean a more metaphorical journey (as opposed to the literal movement of place to place, which is shiral), but as we know it can also be a type of transport, as it’s used to refer to the land ships/wagons the dalish use. So the child’s name could be “Aravel’var”, meaning “our journey”, but also potentially “our vessel”.

So, Mythal fell in love with an alamarri chieftain, convinced this chieftain to have a child, referred to this child as being a journey they take together with a potential second meaning of it being their vessel, a descendant of that child is called Morrighan’nan (with the ‘nan suffix also being elven, of unknown meaning. I’ve theorised it means first, which would make Elgar’nan first of spirits, which tracks, and makes Morrighan’nan mean “first Morrigan”, which is very funny). Do we know anyone else who was convinced to have a child by mythal, with the implication that child is to be used as a vessel for them both to continue life in? We sure do!

Kirkwall was founded a couple hundred years before the first blight. The placement of it is odd, and there was no real advantage to it that a mage based civilisation like Tevinter would require. Unless there was a need that we didn’t know, or that all that was needed was a place a bit out of the way, where things might go unnoticed.

So point one here is that Kirkwall is fucked up. Like deeply fucked up. The veil is in fucking tatters. It’s prone to haunting and possessions, and mages in the gallows have generally worse outcomes because the veil is so damaged. Like we joke about Kirkwall being fucked up, but there’s straight up something deeply deeply wrong with the veil in that place, and a ritual to break into the fade sure would do that.

Second point is the design of Kirkwall itself. It was clearly designed to handle large amounts of blood magic. It has drainage systems specifically for the blood of sacrificed slaves, and the streets are built in the shapes of glyphs. It was very clearly built FOR something, something specific. There’s also an elaborate system of tunnels underneath, in which mages conducted research. Secret research, that they had to keep hidden.

There were also a lot of slaves that went through Kirkwall, but a large amount that went missing from any record. Multiple records were forged to try and hide the discrepancy. Sacrificing slaves for blood magic was pretty normal in those days, so the only reason to hide it would be that you were doing rituals that you didn’t want discovered. The amount of slaves estimated to be sacrificed is in the thousands per year. The power that would generate is unimaginable and there would be very few needs for that much power.

Now, the canticle of silence tells the series of events leading to the first blight from the Tevinter perspective.

The first person to start work on the ritual was the priest of Dumat (corypheus). However after he’d been working on it for a time his first acolyte (which, side note, I think was an executor and this is the extent of the whispering the veilguard scene was getting at) suggested getting the worshipers of Urthemiel (led by urthemiels priest, the architect, because worshipers of Urthemiel were referred to as the architects and the builders) involved. The reason to get them involved was so that they, the builders, could “build [them] a road to the golden city”.

The ritual is said to require slaves beyond counting, and someone disagrees with it and goes to minrathous to tell the archon of it, but the ritual is already completed by the time he reaches it.

So, the canticle of silence describes the ritual as taking place somewhere quite a distance from minrathous. It tells us it took a number of sacrifices so unimaginably large that even some Tevinter magisters were weirded out by it, and it implies that the architect and the builders who worshiped Urthemiel built something specific to allow it to happen.

And then we’ve got a city where the veil is extremely thin which indicates actions taking place there that damage the veils integrity, which is some distance from minrathous with no obvious advantage to its placement that would indicate why a city should be built there, where magisters did secret research, thousands of slaves disappeared from records, and which appears to have been custom built for an extremely powerful ritual requiring powerful glyphs and runes and large quantities of blood.

However with a bit more googling I found some websites that say emerius can be a surname derived from the word Aimerius, with some sources saying that can mean to rival or to emulate, and with some sources saying that word is derived from aemulus which is the Latin for emulate, and that certainly is relevant.

The avaar have three main gods: lady of the skies, Korth the mountain father, and hakkon wintersbreath

The lady of the skies is spirits, possibly specifically mythal and certainly in some instances it has been mythal

Korth the mountain father is titans, possibly a specific titan

So far hakkon wintersbreath has kinda just been there. There’s no clear thing that he is. All we know is that his main domain was cold and that he was bound in a dragon.

For the other two to be such significant things it suggests that hakkon is as well, and he’s not just some guy. Which means there’s a third element we don’t know about. Something with a link to the freezing cold and potentially dragons

Then we’ve got the caretaker, a spirit whose name refers to a job or the thing that they do. They refer to rook as dweller, which is also identifying rook by the thing that they are doing (we could also possibly add maker to this list). Many of the qunari titles we know the literal translation of behave the same way (eg hissrad= liar, tamassaran = those who speak (ie, speaker), ashkaari = one who seeks (seeker) or one who thinks (thinker)).

“When the great foe struck, we embraced the blood of dragons”

The Qunari translation directly refers to a physical act of combining the blood of the Kossith with the blood of dragons, while the spirit translation is more vague about what they actually did. Embracing the blood of dragons could mean a lot of things, not necessarily mixing their blood with dragon blood (eg maybe they already had dragon blood and now they were leaning more into it£

“Protect those with fire. They see what we cannot.”

“Champions blessed with fire protected us and saw the unseen”

In the Qunari translation, the adaari are who need to be protected, while in the spirit translation they are doing the protecting. The Qunari translation also seems like it’s talking about an ability the adaari have for seeing things that others can’t, while the spirit translation could mean that, but could also refer to that group having recognised a threat that others did not.

“If more of us come from across the sea, then the adversary will follow”

“If more of us flee across the ocean, it means our people failed”

The spirit translation more directly implies that should more of the Kossith (Qunari by the time they actually come) come from across the ocean, they will also be fleeing, while the Qunari translation is more vague and simply states that the adversary will follow if more come. The spirit translation also mentions a failure that the Qunari one does not

But that did make me think about Lucanis specifically, and his excruciatingly precise timekeeping while keeping Spite locked down, and how, if you hate your host and the prison he's built of himself, one way to really fuck with him would be to destroy the very thing he uses to mark time against you,

I completely agree with this! I have a lot of headcanons about new & unexpected things Lucanis struggles with after leaving the Ossuary, but one of them (which I think he does bring up in Lighthouse banter early after his move to the Fade) is that it really bothers him that he still can't tell time in this place. Between being underwater at the Ossuary, his deep fear of losing time to Spite, and the fact that he's surrounded by total strangers who could easily make up answers when he asks, I think he would be desperate to have some kind of mechanical, trustworthy metric of the passing hours.

As a result, my Rook asks Bellara to make him a fantasy quantum clock, which is the elven artifact that eventually shows up next to his bed in the pantry.

Accidentally flattened the work file image so have this until I get the motivation to redo all this work and then the other eras lol

Notes:

But there’s definitely something up and I think the answer is that she’s a spirit who became real, like Cole, but so long ago she’s forgotten

Her memories about where she comes from are vague, she can wield a bow without training, and Solas refers to her as though they are part of the same people (which he pointedly does not do with any other elf), that people being spirits who took physical form

She knows! She absolutely fucking knows. She had a transcript of a whole ass speech Warden Blackwall gave during the Fifth Blight, she knows he couldn't be in Ferelden. She knows the Blackwall that Inky brought back is a fake.

She just doesn't give a damn. Having a convincingly fake Warden allowed the Inquisition to make use of the Treaties to requisition resources to fight Corypheus. Leliana is pragmatic enough to go along with a lie if it gets the job done.

Cole's line in Trespasser is "he burned her off his face", and there is obviously significant power in freeing yourself, but it makes sense that Solas (who cannot change, and has to believe that NOTHING can EVER change its nature in order for his worldview to stand up), doesn't shift until the only God who learned HOW to change gives him permission to.

At no point in the entire franchise does Solas let someone else make the call. He has to believe he's the only one who can. Mythal, but more importantly the part he murdered to steal power from, tells him it's time to give that up. And after fucking eons of being a dick about it, Solas decides to listen to her. That maybe compromise is okay. That maybe the world people built after he disappeared is worth something. That he's done. That he can leave her, and everyone else, and go back to observing, which was all he wanted in the first place.

faith possesses wynne to save her. anders allows justice to possess him to save him. even lucanis and spite (...) band together out of a mutual need to survive. they save each other at great risk and knowing that not doing so would make the surviving half's life infinitely easier and less dangerous (minus lucanis and spite. don't worry about it.), and then they continue to negotiate that shared existence with like. really comparatively a lot of care. like we definitely do, in dragon age, see possessions that are violent, not really consensual, fatal to the mortal, but we also spend a Lot of time with cases where... the big fears around possession... are just visibly not True. which is not even beginning to talk about spirit healing in general (and how the Two "we merged because i love you and i don't want to lose you" abominations are spirit healers).

@rookbubu for you, I will tell you everything. I apologize for the length and that it took this long lol

I love mountains just as much as I love deserts. I've lived in both and they just hold a special place in my heart.

Key Named Mountain Ranges of Thedas

Frostback Mountains

Gamordan Mountains

Hunterhorn Mountains

The High Reaches

The Hundred Pillars

Vimmark Mountains

Wandering Hills

Notable, Unnamed Mountain Ranges and Hills

These are either mountain ranges shown on the map and not labeled. I've also included some suggested mountain ranges based on lone mountains as well as the in-game geography.

Unnamed Mountain Range in Rivain - This one doesn't have much information on it, but given what we know about the area as well as Antiva, they're probably pretty warm and tropical. (I have some thoughts on these but need to update my biome map for Thedas.)

Unnamed Mountain Range in Seheron - These are likely akin to mountains in Southeast Asia in general. Seheron grows a lot of spices from that region so I'd put my money there.

Unnamed Mountain Range in Antiva (Connected to the White Spire) - Given what we see in Veilguard around Treviso and the general arid climate in lower elevations, I'd assume that these are alpine like.

Unnamed Mountain Range in Arlathan Forest - These are seen around the crater of Arlathan. Though these are also possibly coming off of the White Spire range, and one of the mountains we see in the game could be the White Spire. It is hard to tell as the location is never really solidified in the game. But presumably it is near the edges.

You know, I always feel a little sorry for Master Dennet. The Inquisitor is like, hey, I need a horse expert! Here is a horse expert! And he comes along to be your horse expert.

And for a while all is well. He brings his own fine horses, and the Inquisitor adds to the stable as she finds new breeding stock—often excellent. Where she got the charger from, he doesn’t know, and he feels too honored by having it in his care to ask.

And then the Inquisitor starts coming back with like… deer. And Dennet scratches his head, because he knows horses, and just because it has four hooves and you can put a saddle on it doesn’t make it a horse. Hell, the food and space and exercise requirements for a cob and a draft horse aren’t the same—a goddamn deer is presumably completely different. But he goes around Skyhold rounding up Dalish elves until he finds one who knew something about halla, on the principle that that’s probably the closest thing, and they work it out. (He’s always respected the way Dalish treat their halla, so it’s not that big of a leap. And even though Dalish—the Charger—doesn’t know anything much about how to raise halla, he looks the other way when she wants to spend half a day in the deer’s box stall being all affectionate at it. Can’t hurt.)

But deer of various kinds are at least still… well… grass-eating hoofed animals. Things don’t begin to really go sideways until they bring back the first dracolisk.

It’s a lizard. It’s a giant meat-eating lizard. Dennet is a master of horse, and he will stretch that to deer in a pinch, but asking him to figure out the care and feeding of big spiky lizard things is a bit much. It is—he tries to explain, first to Cullen and then to Josephine and finally to the Inquisitor herself—as if someone had decided that because you knew how to knead bread, you were obviously a master pugilist, because both things involved punching things. For his trouble he got a friendly clap on the shoulder and a “Just do your best! We can free up some funds to hire you more help!” (help from where? was he to hang up fliers somewhere for dracolisk handlers? where exactly was one supposed to go for that?).

(We will not even discuss the zombie horse with a sword through its head. We will not. The zombie horse got a stall to itself and was studiously ignored, on the principle that it was dead, and not much Dennet did could either help or hurt it.)

Dennet knew that he was in over his head and then some when the Inquisitor showed up with a charming grin and a giant fucking nug, and all he thought was, “Better see if any dwarves know what to feed it.” (Dagna does, but he’s a little afraid because she keeps having these ideas for ‘experimental feed,’ and….)

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