Now A Side Blog I Guess

The Haircut

My biggest issue with this is not a quibble over whether or not these things are true (like all platitudes they are trivially true, whether or not they're appropriate or correct things to say in the context the characters say them), but that they are a style of placeholder dialogue that exists to avoid having to give specific details or actual development. They could only be interesting if they were argued against, demonstrated, or interrogated for meaning in some way. Instead, the characters often take these things as read, and so nothing comes of it.

Like the line "How many exceptions 'til tyranny?"--a one-off sentiment expressed by a Lich at the end of Emmrich's questline. It doesn't exist to provide meaning or create a conversation. It exists to provide a cheap explanation as to why Emmrich is not allowed to both become a lich and to revive Manfred. There is no impassioned argument on behalf of a grieving Emmrich, torn between the protege that he loved and the life's work that he is about to give up, spurred on by the phobia that defines his motives. Nobody thinks to argue that as a wisp Manfred wasn't a "mortal" who is "supposed" to die to begin with (but then, it's either canon-breaking that they can resurrect Manfred at all, or it's no big deal and they don't need lich approval to do it, and there is no in-between on this one I'm afraid). There is no exploration of what it looks like when a Lich has "exceptions", whether in the past or during the course of the story (since Johanna was obviously not trying to resurrect people in terms of what made her a bad lich). And are there circumstances where "no exceptions" can also be a form of tyranny? How would that work? Could Rook argue that on Emmrich's behalf?

Of course not, this is cheap glue holding the scene together, we can't interrogate it or it'll fall apart.

All of Veilguard's platitudes are like that. Neve says "The gods were people, and people can let you down"--no one wants to challenge her on this? No one wants to argue that "let you down" is a MILD phrase to use for "the people you selected to protect you decided to enslave and torture you instead"? No one wants to argue that they SHOULD have been better, they were practically gods! No one wants to push their basic faith that sometimes people DON'T let you down? If someone were to push back on this line, then it might have told us something about Neve or the character arguing with her. It might have given us actual specifics in terms of what is going on--in what way were the gods "people" and what made them tyrants? Could someone else have done better? Is there no other way this could have gone? But this is filler dialogue. You're not supposed to think about it. It is supposed to paper over the scene in your head so the writers don't have to tell you any more than that. You are expected to nod your head at this aphorism and keep going.

This is, incidentally, why so much of the dialogue comes across as blandly lecturing the player.

And it's not a SURPRISE that the game with the amateur writer as narrative head where they spent the majority of the development time with no idea what the hell they were doing with the story is chock full of filler dialogue, but it is, you know, irritating when it's the sequel that was supposed to explain shit to us. What is Tevinter like? Oh, you know. Like any place with people living in it. What were the ancient elves like? They were people trying to live their lives, of course.

The reason we’ve never heard of them in-game is quite simply that a bunch of mages, travelling alone or in tiny groups, who act as the backbone of Dalish society are really vulnerable to Templars. The Dalish would rather let humans continue believing that exile nonsense than risk the Chantry completely crippling their communications network in a single generation - which it could do, if it tried. Lavellan’s ‘We gave them to other clans, or…’ line is them nearly breaking silence, catching themself, and stopping just in time.

They carry news between clans - everything from ‘So-and-so has had a baby’ to ‘The Grey Wardens request our help to fight the Blight; the army meets at Redcliffe in four months’. They also ferry clan members between clans, if a swap is taking place, and valuable artefacts between clans, if somebody wants to borrow somebody else’s arulin’holm.

They act as independent judges during times when a clan’s Keeper is too involved to be neutral, or when there is a dispute between two clans who can’t reach an amicable settlement on their own.

Some of the braver (or perhaps stupider) ones will venture into alienages periodically to perform marriage, birth and death rites. Needless to say, they’ve been avoiding Kirkwall in recent years.

Also, you know, sometimes Dalish kids elope and need a priest.

They take on apprentices, when there are children in need of training. Some of the really brave/stupid ones will even smuggle mage kids out of alienages before the Templars come down on their heads. (These kids, in turn, often grow up to be the ones who’ll wander back into alienages…)

They also take on clans in the case of a Keeper, First and Second all dying, or if the only clan mage left standing is too young to take on full responsibilities…

…on which note, yes, they can do vallaslin too.

There are Dalish myths about them - both the normal kind of myths, in which they are usually total badasses, and the urban legend kind, the ‘I hear they have somewhere secret to go to commune with the gods’ kind. They actually don’t, but hey, a little mystique is good for the image.

Wandering Keepers organizing Arlathvhens, passing word between clans like “Hey, so the big meeting’s gonna take place in the Brecilian forest exactly in five months, you in?”, and then acting as mediators and repositories of knowledge for the those who can’t make it. Cause you know that a Keeper up in the Anderfels isn’t gonna drag their clan on some three month journey to the Kokari Wilds, just to spend two weeks arguing over whether or this chamberpot was dedicated to June, or Syliase. They’ll still want to know what went down, of course, which is where these guys come in.

Wandering Keepers who act as walking libraries, who transcribe books and scrolls and maps that have weathered the ages to the point of near illegibility, and make sure every clan has written copies of their legends and histories - because they know better than anyone else that oral tradition alone isn’t going to keep after one hundred, two hundred, five hundred years. 

They’re also census takers for the clans. No one really knows for sure how many Dalish elves are wandering around Thedas, but these guys will be able to give you a damn good estimate. And if it looks like a clan has shrunk past the point sustainability, they’ll step in and negotiate with other clans who’ve got too many mouths to feed, or too many orphans after their run-in with that asshole Lord So-and-So’s hunting party. 

Maybe some even act as rudimentary genealogists, who can tell you which family line is most likely to produce a mage child, or whether there’s any risk of inbreeding in inter-clan marriages, because this guy’s grandmother’s half-brother is actually her father’s father, who ran away and married into the clan two generations ago.

The only problem is what to do with the Eluvian while she’s travelling. Hmm.

Well, in some of the endings she gives up on the Eluvian, right? I don’t particularly like that for her, but it could open up this possibility at least.

#this is A Lot #is it corruption? that sex will make him a bad person? #OH its because he thinks his father manipulated his mother #or that his father had this insane power dynamic imbalance w his mother #which is alluded in game by goldanna as being predatory at the very least #bet THAT conversation stuck with him #so he’s scared of becoming that? am i reading too much into this? is alistair afraid of becoming his father? #is alistair afraid of himself?

And now here’s the actual interaction:

Warden: I was expecting you to be more of a man Alistair: [audibly angry] More of a man? Meaning what? Someone who paws and drools all over you? Is that what you want? Alistair: I care about you. I do. I just... I can't take something like this lightly. I wasn't raised that way, I'm sorry.

....which is somehow both more & less insane than what I was misremembering. Like so....  Being A Man During Sex = being gross? Violating maybe? Definitely aggressive? Certainly the exact opposite of this chivalrous chaste gentleman bit that he’s doing when he flirts? Jeez.

This works to varying degrees with some of the other origins, but playing Tabris, I always wonder when Jory starts having the first inklings of regret.