I had meant to post this back in March. I know I haven't been here for a while. Life has been rather difficult lately and I rarely have had time to work on art. I need to do more art...it's therapeutic.
"The Herald & The Wolf"
© Jacqueline E. McNeese (me!)
Dragon Age Inquisition/Inquisitor/Solas © Bioware & Electronic Arts
I hope everybody likes this! It worked really hard on it & because there was a lot of detail, it took quite a while to ink & then colour in. Drawn with sepia Sakura Micron Pigma pens, then mostly coloured in with Copic Markers & Ohuhu Markers, with some coloured pencils, white gel pen, & metallic gold paint. Sadly, the scanner doesn't show the true sparkly & shiny that the gold is in real life. The outfits I drew them in were custom-made schematic armour. The flowers are Dawn Lotus and other wildflowers seen in the game.
"I was trying to determine some way to whow you what you mean to me..."
Takes away Inquisitor Lavellan's vallaslin...
"You are so beautiful..." - Solas
Then he breaks up with Lavellan. (My Lavellan was named Zephyra.)
Damn it, Solas!
I was incredibly angry with Solas the first time I had played Inquisition a long time ago. How dare he break Lavellan's heart! Darn tragic so-called romance! I was still annoyed with him when I beat Inquisition for the 4th time this past March.
Let me tell you...Inquisition really felt different my 4th time around. Why did I decide to play Inquisition again? Well, for many reasons. The first time I had played it, I was Lavellan romancing Solas, but I didn't have the DLC's. The 2nd time I was a human warrior - Bryony Trevelyan - who romanced Cullen (I love Cullen! He's hot for a video game character. Ha ha!) and the 3rd time I was a human rogue - Cedric Trevelyan - who romanced Dorian Pavus, and I got to play all 3 DLC's and see the true ending.
Fast forward to last year in May, when I played Veilguard for the 1st time. I didn't know that I could re-create the Inquisitor, so the Lavellen I saw in the game was not MY Lavellan. Plus I had a bad ending the 1st time in Veilguard. 2nd playthrough I could not even finish, as I made bad choices (bye-bye to Davrin, Assan, & Manfred...noooooo!). 3rd time was an okay ending for Solas since I had Inquisitor Cedric convince him to do the roght choice. However, I wanted the ending to be the one where my Lavellan reunites with Solas. That's when I wanted to play Inquisition again (after all, it's my ultimate comfort game) and to play as Zephyra Lavellan again but with all the DLC's. I am still mad at Solas for wounding her. Damn egg-head! Ha ha.
So now, I am on my 4th Veilguard run (I will make a separate post about that) with my proper Lavellen as the Inquisitor making her appearance.
Having played Inquisition after Veilguard made me see the game in a whole other way. Prior to Veilguard, I didn't think much when Nevarra/Mortalitasi/Necropolis, Rivain, Tevinter, and Weisshaupt were mentioned. They were just names. Same with the Elven "gods". Just mythology. Post-Veilguard, all those names truly meant something. They were familiar...no longer random foreign names and places. This whole time they were mentioned...and we all got to experience them in Veilguard! The Elven gods/Evanuris had always seemed so mysterious and made to be good, but the truth was revealed in Veilguard that they in fact, were not good. Any time I came across a place or a Codex that mentioned Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain, I thought, "Oh, that did it!" The narrative/storyline had more depth this time. Benign things that suddenly had more importance than ever.
I looked at Solas a bit differently. He still annoyed me a bit because I knew he was going to the inevitable by breaking Lavellan's heart, but I also had a bit of...sympathy...knowing why he made certain hurtful choices. (But still...damn it, Solas!) I wanted to see if he had any dialogue that gave away hints of his past, especially in the Deep Roads/The Descent and coming across lyrium. Nope, he was silent about that. Same when it came to the Heart of the Titan boss fight, to which Solas was conveniently silent, feigning ignorance. I felt so guilty of killing the Heart this time, since we learned about the fate of the Titans in Veilguard (which still makes me sad). Knowing that Valta became the Oracle...I wish we had seen her in Veilguard. How much had she changed? I understand why Solas did what he had to (especially seeing the truth in Veilguard) but he went about it the wrong way & I can't forgive what he did to Varric, even though that was quite the shocking plot twist. (Then again, if he did everything the "right way", we'd have no antagonist and no Veilguard.) I want the good ending in Veilguard with my Lavellan...to see how Solas reacts.
Honestly, it's a bit difficult to put into words how I felt when playing Inquisition for the 4th time...the range of emotions I felt. Knowing what was going to happen in their (the world of Thedas) future. What would happen to Varric. And realizing that Thedas has to be in the southern hemisphere of whatever planet they are on, since the farther north one goes, it warmer it is (like Rivain).
















