Julian of Cintra

Where is Rivain?

As you can observe in the screenshots above, we are at the rivaini coast, more specifically in the Warden Fortress that features a banner of the orlesian Chantry and one of Ferelden.

Now the Chantry banner makes sense. It has influence in half of Rivain still, as one can also see with the annulment of Dairsmuid circle in 9:40, which even gets a small quest with a spirit at the coast. Though unfortunately the Chantry influence in the nation is very underplayed otherwise, despite it still holding cultural importance. Not as much as in other nations like Anderfels (the most devout nation of Thedas, which is another can of worms to unpack for my faith post) or Orlais but still.

Faith b-side

Did you know that the Rivaini are suppsedly pantheists who believe in a natural order, as per the Wiki? The royalty (yes, they have one) is andrastian still as they are sitting in Dairsmuid, the capital city, where the Chantry still has influence and where they had the circle (annuled).

But beyond that? The further you go east, the more you will find a harmony of the Rivaini and the Qunari as their believes are, per the Wiki again, quite compatible. Those are once again facts that the Veilguard does not wish to address at all, though that is an issue with every nation. The faith always gets neglected, despite this game being the one that was marketed as "defy the Gods" and has the return of two deities of the elven pantheon. It should deal with faith nearly as much as, or maybe even more than, DAI did it.

Yet we see no mention of what they believe in, which is ultimately lots of squandered potential for the worldbuilding and the complexity of their society - that somehow has no known faults anyway, which is another problem. The Veilguard does not offer a glimpse into their shadows, which every nation has. A utopia is called that for a reason, it is a nice dream but utterly unrealistic.

The importance of good worldbuilding

More questions emerge when one sees the fereldan banner in a rivaini Fortress. To illustrate the issue even more:

How do these banners get there? Why are they one of the more dominant parts of clutter as far as heraldry is concerned? What is the lore justification for that? Because it is not just some decor to fill the world, that is what Epler might say.

Every piece of decor adds to the worldbuilding and the environmental storytelling. So having a fereldan banner in Rivain is actively immersion breaking instead of increasing the feeling of actually being in Rivain right now. That is as if Val Royeaux in DAI would have featured Vint heraldry, it makes little sense.

Not to mention that Ferelden has never really expanded. The nation was formed 400 years ago by King Calenhad who united the tribes. The fortress is at least 300 years old already and was a Warden fort. So the question emerges once more, how did it get there? It would make sense for a Tevinter banner to hang there as they ruled the world once, so finding their heraldry in more obscure places still would be immersive, it would give a sense of seeing history right now. But this? This is just lazy and nonsensical.

As it stands, the details of the maps are downright immersion breaking and not in line with the lore. The fereldans have never been in Rivain. Good environmental design is important in regards of proper worldbuilding, even if those are subtle details. Should those fail to match the setting, it will be noticeable and take you out of it. If they are well done? Well then they are a great immersion boost. Rivain failed that.

The only real indication of us being in Rivain is the name of the map and maybe the ocean, though that could also be the antivan coast near Ayesleigh or anywhere in the northern part of the Rialto Bay.

2. The lore at the coast

The lore was butchered of course, almost needless to say when talking about Veilguard. I shall mention it anyway. It was horribly butchered and feels like it was just tossed out the window bc complexity is bah.

We receive basically no new lore on Rivain at all. If you want rivaini lore, go play DA2 and DAI especially - you get more there than in the game where you visit Rivain (thank you map for telling me that, I wouldn't have figured otherwise. Feels more like the Warden's coast).

The Warden's coast is a great way to describe it too! What we get are two Warden fortresses. First the one from Taash's dreadful recruitement mission ("Right now we are fighting evil god monsters and their blighted Dragons!") and secondly the one from Sharksmound, the volcano.

It starts with the environmental design again. Lots and lots of Warden clutter and even art. Clutter that would belong into the Hossberg Wetlands and in Weishaupt. One or two wall arts in Rivain would be fine, if there was some Rivaini art and clutter too. There isn't, as previously established.

Now the very interesting point is what I will call the regional quest as it spans all three acts and also the entire map. I am talking, of course, about uncovering the secrets of Warden Grey and his fate.

Warden Grey was the first Qunari Warden whose path we are tracking. The notes talk about his career from his joining to his sudden case of death that he suffered while holding the line against the horde of darkspawn that emerged from underground. Yes, we get a rather lengthy note series about the darkpawn's arrival...at the Rivaini coast and instead of lore on their culture, politics, faith, relations with spirits etc. The Darkspawn are more important and the focal point of all lore disclosed to the player there.

Actually, most of the quests are about the Wardens. Uncovering Warden Grey's story, finding a Warden treasure in that fortress (the first one), Warden statue puzzles...lots of Wardens, isn't that nice?

So no, to sum up this subsection, you don't get rivaini lore.

3. The Lords of Fortune

"Welcome to the Hall of Valor!" Beautiful words from Isabela (who was butchered but that's a topic for the past characters post).

Now we do know that Corinne Busche (no shade to her, she made sure the game even shipped bc no one else got their act together) fought tooth and nail to keep the Hall of Valor in the game, as per her answer to such a question during the infamous Reddit AMA. But why?

Because the Hall of Valor is the hub of the Lords of Fortune, obviously, but also because it is the only place where we get a teeny tiny glimpse at rivaini culture thanks to the presence of spirits there. Based on previous games we do know that the rivaini are much more open in their dealings with spirits, especially thanks to the Seers, which we meet one of - Seer Rowan, a Qunari Seer.

And in some ambient banter between her and a fereldan Lord of Fortune we at least see the difference between the two nations demonstrated in the view on spirits. While the fereldan is worried about abominations and all, Rowan is relaxed about it and remarks upon the fereldan influences on that view. That's also the full extend of rivaini lore there by the way. Keep that in mind please, it will be brought up in subsection 4 again.

For Gold and Glory

Now to the Lords of Fortune proper. They are a band of treasure hunters led by Isabela, so far so good, right? No, so far so bad. Because somehow these treasure hunters are played as culturally sensitive ones who do not steal cultural relics and keep them. You could explain that with Isabela's experienced from DA2 and the tome of Koslun, it would even make sense. Now if only we got any hint of that - any. Also I cannot see it for an Isabela who did not return to Hawke. She never reflected on her actions as she got away with them as usual.

But the worst offense really is the cultural sensitivity, as they aren't even culturally sensitive and have an obvious downside that the game simply refuses to acknowledge (just like it refuses to acknowledge that a crow house for orphans is fucking dark and not hopeful).

From Taash we learn the following:

Bellara: So, those artifacts you... find... You sell them? Taash: Some of 'em. The rest go to Shiv. Bellara: Who's Shiv? Taash: Elven guy. He's from a Dalish clan that works with us. Bellara: A clan works with you? Taash: Yeah. Shiv makes sure we don't sell anything sacred to your people. Bellara: I... huh. ─────── Bellara: So, about Shiv... he examines ancient elven artifacts you find? Taash: Yeah. Tells us what not to sell because it's cultural. Or because it might blow up. Bellara: How does he know? Taash: He's the... thing. What's the word? Like my mother but for elf stuff? Bellara: He's the Keeper for the Dalish clan? And the Lords of Fortune listen to him? Taash: Yeah. He pays us a finder's fee on stuff that should stay with his people. Taash: He also gives us a heads up about which floor tiles will set off fire traps or something.

From that we learn that the Lords sell these artifacts back. Basically "we stole this thing that is important for you. You can have it back for x souvereigns", which is dark, which is definitely not rightheous or anything, though the game does not acknowledge this. Had this been an exchange in DAI, Bellara would have been livid about this aspect as it is the performance of justice while lining their own pockets in such a way.

No, the game prefers to pretend that the Lords are no thieves, they are not bad etc. And you can say that this is because Taash is young and has their idealized version of the Lords. You know what? That would be really good writing if this was something the game was actively interested in exploring and dismantling, like we did it with companions and their biases in previous games. But that would require Rook to be able to point out the obvious, to challenge their companions and their allied factions.

The Inquisitor for example can challenge and criticise the Templars and the rebel mages hard despite working with them. Rook kisses the foot of their allied factions, hence why this implied darkness simply does not work, as the game does not engage with it beyond this one implication, which is a shame. The potential is, as so often, right there.

Circling back to the Hall of Valor as a location again. It is the faction hub of the Lords of Fortune and the decor actually does drive that point home, as we see lots of gold and riches lying around, which at least shows us that they do hunt treasures and do it successfully so...but that's also the end of that already. Aside from that we have the arena, which only tells us what their favourite past times are. Fighting and drinking...interesting.

4. Taash

This is not a subsection for a complete character analysis of Taash, as I do have vague plans to dedicate a post to each of the companions due to the amount of things to unpack with each one of them. This subsection focuses on Taash in direct relation to Rivain, or more precisely their inner cultural conflict and the poorly written binary choice for the non-binary character at the end.

What even is rivaini culture? That is a fundamental question that should be answered, if the game wants us to encourage Taash one way or another to properly remember their mother after her death. Yet we don't get an answer to that.

We get a glimpse into Lord of Fortune culture as previously mentioned but that does not equal a proper deep dive into rivaini culture. I can tell you a lot about Orlais and Ferelden, even about Antiva and partly about Nevarra thanks to the previous games having done massive work to establish these nations and their cultures. But Rivain? No idea.

We know about the Seers, we know that the Chantry influence in limited and we know that they have been at peace with the Qunari for ages, it ends there. And that is not a lot. Take a short break from reading now please and go over what you know about the culture and society of Orlais please. It had establishment through third hand accounts via Loghain and some others in DAO, it had Prosper in DA2 and then it had DAI as the game where you visit it. That is not dissimilar from Rivain. DAO to DAI was third hand establishment, DAV is visiting it. So the comparison is fair.

Now just compare how much you know about each and you will come to the conclusion that you do not know much about Rivain and especially not from Veilguard. The game did nothing to establish this society properly.

And this unfortunate fact is also a huge detriment to Taash's cultural conflict. We have no notion about 50% of it. We can tell enough about the Qunari society as Shathann does a lot of heavy lifting and as we had three prior games that dealt very well with the Qun. Sten, the Arishok, the Iron Bull...good wordbuilding there.

We cannot make an informed choice here, it is purely vibes based on how much you like the Qunari society I guess. Even a Lord of Fortune Rook does not give much context on Rivain based on what I have heard and read (I did not play this origin myself). Not to mention that they barely have any faction based content...which is an issue for the Lords in general. In a game full of bad or non-existent worldbuilding, the Lords of Fortune have the least, which is next to nothing and which is very noticeable then.

With that I thank you all for reading and I will see you for the next part of the Investigative Journalism series.

Now this fine man in the picture above, that is Ashur Vesperian, the imperial Divine, a fact that is implied by several lines:

The Venatori found it "fitting" to execute him in the Temple of Andraste, a holy building that the Divine is closely linked to. After all, Andrastianism is the state religion in Tevinter too

A note right next to him during that quest points at the Vesperian heir being groomed to be Divine...coincidence? I think not.

I think that evidence should suffice already, as the picture is quite clear. So Ashur is the imperial Divine, quite the important position, no? Well no. In the Veilguard, the Chantry plays absolutely no role, despite its apparent leader heading an abolitionist movement.

The Chantry

When the leader of the abolitionist movement is the Black Divine, the leader of the imperial Chantry, one would expect the Chantry to work in tandem with that goal, meaning anti-establishment messaging (not too obvious but still), helping the poor with charity, helping freed slaves find safe jobs, housing etc. All of the work to support the movement as every movement will require institutional backing at some point, especially in a society that is as deeply conservative as Tevinter.

But no, we see nothing of the Chantry in that regard. We visit one (well, the courtyard of one) but we never see the institution at work. We never see their policies, their version of the faith, their interactions with the faithful (and there will be many faithful among the lower classes too)...only a mourning ritual of Neve reactivating a light, which is actually the deepest look we get into the Chantry of Tevinter. To reactivate a light (or activate it in the first place) you require a mage, which is expensive and near unaffordable for the commoners of Tevinter.

So we can infer that charity is not too high on the Chantry's list. But that's also it. We do not learn more about the imperial faith itself or the institution in the Veilguard. We do in Inquisition from Dorian but that is not the point of this post. So the density of the information provided in Veilguard remains very scarce and near non-existent.

2. The Evanuris, The Venatori, Fascism

One might wonder why I bring them up in a post dedicated to Tevinter politics now. Well it is quite simple, the Evanuris are elven "Gods", which would inevitably lead to a steep increase in racial prejudice and even violence against the elves, as it is their "Gods" that are blighting the world right now. It would be a tool to unite the rest of Tevinter against the scapegoat, which is not a novelty in Thedas.

Tevinter is going through it already by the time we start the game. The Venatori are rising and with this scapegoat they would rise hard. I will illustrate it as best as I can. Imagine that the Venatori are popular with 20% of Minrathous, with the Evanuris running amok that would shoot up hard as the Venatori would position themselves as the once to tackle the threat, to reign in the problem and protect Tevinter.

Epler wanted an analogy to fascism? Well, the tools to do it better were right there. But instead they were reduced to cartoon villains, despite history and all showing us that fascists are not just the cackling evil kind but also intelligent and charismatic people who can rally the masses, who can sell a utopic vision that can be realised once the scapegoat is dealt with (very very simplified but you get it. I trust my audience here lol, unlike Weekes and Epler).

The writing could have and should have leaned into that. Right now the Venatori don't just feel flattened compared to the depth Calpernia brought to them in DAI, by joining to end slavery and all - a dream that was sold to her - they feel unrealistic as a faction. They do not make sense in the setting the way Veilguard writes them.

The Venatori, notorious nationalists and Tevinter supremacists with a love for blood magic and slavery, would not follow the Evanuris. At least not like that. The writing is too simplistic there. Elgar'nan too is not stupid, so he would have had to work in far more subtle ways to hijack them like that. And even then it would be nonsensical still. The Venatori would not work for the Evanuris, plain and simple. Some few perhaps, who would see the Old Gods there and would thus follow them for religious reason and some for power. But by far not the majority. By far not. 10% max.

The Venatori would do sympathetic appearances, especially in Dock Town among the poor and downtrodden. They have been neglected by the establishment, so the Venatori should use that. Gain their supporters there by selling them a dream, hope etc. They would not use Dock Town as their playground immediately. They need backing and they get it by exploiting desperation. That is how it would work, not in their cartoon villain way that DAV decided on.

With these changes, especially the second bullet point, the rise of the Venatori would feel so much more natural as we have already seen these strategies working. Calpernia is the key example for that once again. She is a woman who fundamentally believed in a restoration and reformation of Tevinter but in a far more idealised fashion. The Venatori (Corypheus) played to her desires in a skillful manner, turning her loyal in the process. And with such tactics being employed in Dock Town, it would make sense that the Venatori reach the power they do in Veilguard and thus also that they are able to conduct their coup to take charge of the Tevinter Empire.

Now what would they do next? They would most likely crush the opposition first as fascist governments do not let those exist. The newspapers (that make no sense in their existence in Dock Town) would be gone from the map and replaced with carefully curated propaganda - one source of information that the state controls. We would see executions of the oppositions still with the Venatori framing it as necessary for the good of Tevinter. Yet they would also oppose the Evanuris as they are the biggest threats to them, the state and everything the Venatori stand for.

Additionally, we would see state sanctioned purges against the elves. History taught us that this can very well happen, destroy the scapegoated group. And as I said earlier, those scapegoats would be the elves thanks to the Evanuris. So the Shadow Dragon questline would and should involve us helping the elves, us saving slaves etc, which the Venatori would take more, not less.

And yes, I think that the Venatori should always take control of Tevinter, if we stick with the canon that the Lucerni got shattered already. They were the only real opposition to that, the rest of the non-Venatori establishment played the center there and we have also historically seen that they might enable such a government for a variety of reasons.

Not to mention the war against the Qunari that the current government (the current Archon and his loyalists) are unable to win. They are being pushed back, the Antaam are advancing further and further, while at the same time the Evanuris also threaten Tevinter's borders. There can barely be any better socio-political realities for the Venatori to really rise. It would be unavoidable that they take over in that state, so I would focus the SD questline on getting them out of government again by working with Maevaris, Dorian, the Viper etc. You would have to make uncomfortable alliances, you would have to play the political game well and you would have to really lead a rebellion there. Both in the literal sense on the street (freeing slaves, pushing back against the Venatori influences) but also in politics. Rook is supposed to be a Solas parallel? Well this state would have really explored that as Rook would be doing a similar job then.

Solas had to make a lot of uncomfortable decisions in his rebellion against the Evanuris, a lot of morally grey stuff. Rook would have had to do this too in this rebellion. It would have turned the mirror from a joke into reality and thus not only improved Tevinter but also Rook as a protagonist.

Unfortunately Veilguard does none of that, choosing to stick to the very surface level of writing. And I will say, what I wrote here is not the full extend of complexity and depth either. There is so much more potential to take this even deeper. Tevinter is the richest nation when it comes to the potential of writing interesting politics and none of it was used...it is a damn shame.

3. The Archon choice

What did they do to Dorian...he looks dreadful. Anyway, that is not the topic though it would surely make for an entertaining post.

The Archon choice is another important piece of writing to analyse when talking about the writing of Tevinter politics in the Veilguard.

First the setup:

Rook, We heard the wonderful news coming out of Arlathan. Your doing, we're told. The Venatori are still reeling from their failure, and Dorian's caught wind of some of their most recent plans. Drop by the Shop when you can. —Maevaris

Well those plans are to blight the city...which is fucking stupid writing for a variety of reasons and also bc it makes no sense for the Venatori agenda. No sense at all. But we will roll with it now as I already explained the issues with the Venatori writing in the previous subsection.

So, Knight-Commander Lenos plans to blight the city for whatever nonsensical reasoning he has and we go to stop him as Dorian figured him out just in time.

We do so and get a list of names of Venatori Magisters that Mae wants to use for some exposition to show the people who was corrupt etc and then reform the Empire...which is somehow the entire plan. But the best part still comes: Maevaris Tilani, one of the most seasoned Magisters, is offended by Dorian wanting to play the game the way it has to be played in places like Tevinter in Orzammar - ruthlessly. She decries it as southern influences bc she is stupid, ngl.

Like, the entire setup for this Archon choice is bad already but the choice is harmed even more by this bad portrayal of Maevaris. She knows that you cannot reform Tevinter democratically. You really need to kick the system where it counts and play ruthless, as the establishment will play just as ruthless. Not that VG Maevaris gets that bc she somehow lost her teeth just as much as Bioware's writing did.

And if we look at all of that, this really dogshit foundation that one cannot work with. Mischaracterised characters, a failure to portray Tevinter politics and systemic issues properly, a really bad writing of the Venatori and the downright nonsensical plan of the Knight-Commander...well it becomes clear why the choice is so poorly done. You cannot execute it well with such a foundation, you simply cannot. It fails to recognise Tevinter for what it is and instead treats it like the US (as Weekes either stated outright or implied strongly).

And to be very very clear. The US is not Tevinter. I don't live there but it is not Tevinter.