A long dream.

Cahara backstory thing... In which he is not normally one to stick his neck out for others without a reward but when it comes to his wife's work environment it's a different story 👍

Bonus: D'arce my cutieness

she's The exemplary circle mage taking a permitted avenue to create a position of influence and Make something of herself, and it still isn't enough, and she's still forced to rely on wealthy and powerful patrons who don't fully see her as an equal person to them and can retract their patronage whenever they want, because a mage can Never be enough. and she knows it! probably better than anyone! she Knows she's always on the verge of losing everything she's built for herself! so yknow. yeah she's afraid, of templars and kings and queens and the chantry, of the Backlash the rebellion will provoke, and she's absolutely certain that the mage rebellion Can't Win, and when they are inevitably crushed, it will only be Worse For Everyone. that's not someone saying mages are Correctly placed under the templars' boots, that's someone saying If You Cause Trouble, All Our Most Vulnerable Will Be Killed. she's not entitled or disconnected from Normal Mages, she's terrified! & i think that often goes like. unacknowledged because. ok partly bc dai is constantly asking you not to sympathise with her and to instead be as suspicious of her as you can. but also because so much of her character is putting on a front and refusing to allow anyone to see her fear because so much of her influence comes from being able to control the narrative around her. you are falling for her bit!

Mandrake is in Telltale’s Choices Matter Festival this week, so we’re taking the opportunity to talk about some of the foundational choices for your character in Mandrake. If you’d like to see a little of the following in video form, you’ll be able to catch our segment at 22:30 BST on the 10th of August - today! - and later on our YouTube.

Unusually for our games, in Mandrake a number of things are already determined about your character. You’re always a Mandrake, the last descendant of the aristocratic family that once ruled the region. You’re always a gardener-sorcerer, resuming arts long-forgotten and long-forbidden. And you’re always a newcomer to Penhallion and the village of Chandley, having been born and raised in a far-off land.

But that still leaves plenty of room to decide things about your character: name, appearance, history. We don’t want character creation in Mandrake to be complex or time-consuming – after all, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to define your character with your choices throughout the game. But we do want to give you the chance to make some basic decisions about their past, to provide an initial glimpse of the world beyond Chandley, and to provide more variety for future playthroughs.

(I’ve used some screenshots to illustrate the choices. Please bear in mind all these are in-progress; they contain placeholder icons, and are subject to change!)

No nuance. If you don’t have a mother/are no contact etc this is not a poll for you.