Blooming

char is the funniest motherfucker alive

as the warden, you lose everything you ever knew before: your family, your home, your friends, everything. it is all still there–except, maybe for cousland and aeducan–but you can never return to it. not as you were, and not as it was. you have been changed, and your past has changed with you.

as hawke, you are a refugeee. your very name is synonymous with grief. you claw your way out of a dying country only to find a dying city instead. all of your friends should be dead but aren't. you should be dead but aren't. whatever you do, you will fail. there is no returning to ferelden. there is no saving kirkwall.

with inquisition, because your character backstory is so much less defined (in-game, at least), the theme of grief is expanded towards the rest of the world. the theme shifts from being personal to global, the grief theme becoming intertwined with greater, historical questions. what does it mean to grieve empire? what does it mean to grieve a system that was, even if it hurt so many?

and, from what i've seen so far, veilguard is bringing that theme forward and honing it into a thematic spear. every quest, every companion, every npc story you follow. all of it is building together to try and answer the questions the previous three games have been asking:

can you go back? should you go back? is it healthy to want to go back? what can you do, when "back" is gone, a dream from a lifetime, a memory, a thousand years ago?

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Fenris has killed people he didn’t wish to kill because his actions were not under his own control. He understands this feeling.

So the problem is none of it feels earned. Rook just shows up, walks into a meeting with three(!) Talons no problem, Caterina drops a giant secret in front of Rook as if they’re a trusted friend, and then you show up to the Ossuary and… most everyone is already dead? Lucanis doesn’t particularly seem to need saving. In fact, he’s well dressed, kitted out, and kills everyone in the room you find him in by himself.

Instead, let Rook and co show up in Treviso. You meet Viago first. He asks if you have a ridiculous amount of money you couldn’t possibly have at this point in the game. Rook has to say no, and Viago promptly laughs, tells them they have no business with the Crows, and walks away.

The crew starts to worry about how they’re going to find that much money, and suddenly Teia melts out of the shadows. She and Neve know each other. A past job, of course. Teia admits she owes Neve a favor, but she can’t get her a contract for free. However, times are strange. The Crows have heard word of the gods, and Antaam have taken over the city. Do a few favors for the Crows under the Antaam’s nose, and Teia will at least get Rook and Neve another meeting with Viago and maybe convince him to take the contract at a discount.

Have the player do three or so fetch quests on the Treviso map. Use it as a chance to introduce them to Antiva and the Antaam. Have the last fetch quest culminate in finding out evidence of Lucanis being held in the Ossuary.

Boom. Suddenly this is not only over Teia’s head, it’s over Viago’s. Rook lands themselves in a room with the First Talon.

She admits she knew Lucanis wasn’t dead, but didn’t know where he was. She offers the deal: get Lucanis back, and you have your contract. No gold needed.

You get into the Ossuary, and it’s a fight from the start. Rook has to wade through Venatori guards. Basically half the dungeon past getting Lucanis? Have that up front.

Then Rook break the locks on Lucanis’ door, and steps in.

For a second, it seems empty.

Then, from the shadows, two purple lights, and Lucanis lunges. It seems like he’s going for Rook.

Instead, he unfurls his wings and tackles the Venatori rogue that was sneaking up on Rook with his bare hands. He snarls and drops the lifeless body to the floor.

(Give him a real simple outfit at this point. A grungy shirt and pants. He was a prisoner. Have him pick weapons up off the corpse.)

Then have the rest of the level play out the way it did. Maybe make Lucanis a little more stilted and rough around the edges — he’s remembering how to be a person again, not just an animal trapped in a cage. Spite keeps cutting in and out because Lucanis hasn’t had a reason to push him down before.