platitudes & plongitudes

so what are some signs to look for? let's use this very good example.

I am someone who WANTS to like Veilguard and does like a lot of it and I am really appreciative of your thoughtful posts

Can you help me reconcile the confusingness of The Prison 😭

Is Solas just lying about it being a prison he made for Ghil and El?

What does it mean that it’s locked with regret??? How come Emmrich is able to reach through the tear and pull Rook out?

I have absolute faith that the devs talked about this and argued about it and ironed it out- but I’m absolutely not seeing their vision.

Have you any insight???

Okay so, the fade and the veil are VERY emotion focused. Spirits are creatures of emotion, they are literal embodiments of it. Strong emotions draw spirits and shape the fade and the veil. I really love this feature of the world because it allows for some great use of metaphor without it getting overly pretentious. Solas is the literal embodiment of egotistical pride because this is a setting where some people are the literal embodiment of certain concepts and feelings.

So the prison made for Ghilan’nain and Elgar’nan is, like the rest of the fade and the rest of the veil, is very influenced by emotion and feelings. The feelings the prison is based on are ones of regret, specifically regret tied to guilt, i.e the horrible things a person has done that they say they regret but also they didn’t really try to do differently. The classifications of emotions are always a bit nebulous, these are words we have chosen to apply to concepts that are difficult to explain, so it is hard to directly pin down the exact nature of the concept that locks the prison, but that’s the sort of vibe.

This was chosen because the evanuris have done many horrible horrible things that they are not particularly sorry about. There’s a codex entry about how the callousness is part of their binding. They are never going to work through their emotions and come to terms with their crimes in a way that lets them out of the prison, because they always did these things with no care for how awful they were.

The trouble is, Solas has also done many horrible things that he is not particularly sorry about. And he’s never going to do the work needed to get him out of the prison, because that would mean owning up to the fact that he’s wrong and kinda knows it already. So he is trapped in there too.

Solas is not a very good person. He sees people as tools to be used, manipulated, and sacrificed as his goals require. He kills anyone who gets in his way, and will sacrifice his allies without a second thought if that helps him achieve his goal, lying to them in order to convince them to go to their deaths. He will kill or destroy entire civilisations because he has decided their deaths or destruction are worth it.

He is also the embodiment of egotistical pride, which means he is completely convinced that this is the correct way to go about things (and is more likely to think that the prison he made can lock anyone in than he is to realise that he’s a bit of a shit and has more in common with the evanuris than he wants to admit). This is what you must do if you want to save the world. So when Rook tries to save the world, he assumes that Rook will acquire similar regrets and guilts that will keep them locked in the prison. He encourages this, and swaps places with Rook. But he’s wrong in his assumption.

Rook actually tries their best. They don’t lie and manipulate. They don’t sacrifice allies because they’ve decided the death is worth it. They’re willing to sacrifice themselves if that’s what is needed, and they will fight for the lives of all of their allies as much as they can. They genuinely want to get the best result possible, and they genuinely try to find it. So when they end up in the regret prison, there’s nothing to keep them there. There’s no crimes to eat away at them. There’s no atrocities they’ve pretended are justifiable when they know that they aren’t.

When they escape it’s not because Emmrich ripped a hole in the fade (though Emmrich 100% is trying to do that), it’s because that prison was designed to hold evil gods who didn’t care about the people they hurt, and Rook is a good person who tries their absolute best and owns up to mistakes if they make them. All the things Solas isn’t, and to protect his ego has convinced himself that no one is.

This is why Rook is locked into being a good person. Not just because of the fade plot specifically, though that’s how they chose to show it, but because any variant of this story NEEDED a genuinely good person to tries their best to contrast against Solas. Because Solas thinks he is that, but the moment he’s compared to someone who actually is that that illusion shatters.

Dragon age origins: this is the story of flemeth. Except flemeths daughter is here and she says that’s wrong. The story has been altered over time and merged with another story about events that took place a century later. But also Flemeth could have lied to her daughter, so this story is likely not the whole truth either

Dragon age origins: here is our ancient lore. We have pieced it together from fragments that have survived repeated attempts to erase us from history. We know we don’t have it all right, but we’re trying our best

Dragon age veilguard: you know all those stories that we’ve been telling you are unreliable for 15 years? Well here’s some of the truths behind them that were lost to time. People got a lot of things wrong, but the reasons for that are realistic and make sense

Dragon Age II: I'm sorry Hawke, your sibling got in contact with the blight, they're blighted now.

Dragon Age Veilguard: Rook literally get a status called "blighted" and wades through rivers of blight. Is completely fine afterwards.

Dragon Age Origins: Antivan Crows buys orphans and put them through torture.

Dragon Age Veilguard: You're a fully fletched Antivan Crow now Jacobus? Congratulations! You're gonna make a new house that takes in orphans? I love that for you!

Dragon Age Inquisition: Children are raised collectively by the priestesses.

Dragon Age Veilguard: My mother left the Qun to protect me from military service. How old was I? Well, either newly born and instantly breathed fire. No one else noticed somehow and I was too young to have been taken by the priestesses yet. Or I was older so my fire breath could be hidden until mom left, I got special premission to stay with my mom you see.

Zevran was purchased about 37 years before the events of veilguard. For context, all the crows we meet in veilguard aside from the de Acutis siblings and Caterina are under 35, so had not even been born when Zevran was recruited. Zevran was recruited by house Arainai, in veilguard we meet House Cantori, House de Riva, and house Dellamorte. House Dellamorte is made up exclusively of biological relations of the Dellamorte family. House Cantori is lead by Teia, who is explicitly an idealist who wants the crows to be more like a family, and house de Riva is lead by Viago, who does whatever Teia says because he’s down bad.

The crows have also been targeted for 20 years by Zevran, who is actively choosing targets with the explicit goal of changing the ways the crows work so they no longer purchase and exploit orphans.

On top of that, about half the talons were just murdered, leading to a stronger alliance between the remaining talons, half of which are explicitly the more idealist talons, including Teia (who sees Caterina as an adoptive grandmother, and Caterina appears to at least somewhat see her as family in return) who, due to her experiences, wants the crows to be more like a family and not at each others throats.

All of these events have contributed to the crows we see today, 37 years after the purchase and training of Zevran. A crows that is shifting towards a newer, more cohesive organisation, but where the remnants of the previous attitude are still very much present in the older talons and those trained by them (one of the de Acutis siblings talks about killing family, Lucanis and a crow rook both describe their training as torture, all of caterinas children, their spouses, and several of her grandchildren were murdered by rival houses). The crows aren’t retconned, they’ve just changed over the last several decades. Would you rather the world remained stagnant forever? Would you rather Zevrans efforts have no effect whatsoever?

As for Jacobus’ new house, not all the houses are houses of talons. He was trained by one of the idealist houses, and the talons in charge describe him as a prodigy and seem to want the best for him. It is with their permission he starts a house, which is lead by him but lower in command than the fifth and seventh houses. It’s a bit idealist, but it’s implied he was trained by house Cantori and Teia specifically is explicitly very idealist, and also the youngest talon, who herself came from absolutely nothing. She’s literally trying to give him the opportunities she had and treasured. Are they good opportunities? Objectively no, but from the perspective of Teia and Jacobus, yeah.

Taash specifically says that their mother left the qun when they were a baby. They have many health issues as a direct result of being a fire breather, and their descriptions of being a fire breather indicate it’s a physical feature rather than a magical ability, so it is not a stretch to imagine that it was obvious at birth that they were a fire breather. While children under the qun are raised by tamassarans, they are not the only individuals who can get pregnant. Since children need to breast feed, it’s not a stretch to imagine that children born to non tamassaran birth parents stay with their birth parent until they’re on solids. At the very least, it’s not said otherwise anywhere so it cannot be a retcon that Shathaan was able to tell what taash was at birth and had a chance to sneak them away.

The Fifty Year Sword, of fall braid and pale pearl 🦋🪡

Commissioned by @worldbuilding-tomfoolery , this sword is from the story “The Fifty Year Sword” by Mark Z. Danielewski, a very weird and wonderful tale

If you’re interested in getting a commission done yourself, DM me!

I just think Bellara is pretty neat ✨💚

And also staff sued for fairer severance deals last Fall when negotiations fell through, plus a lot of the crew responsible for making this release possible are gone

FACE & FEATURES

glance: At first glance, what stands out most about your OC's appearance? What's their distinguishing feature?

face: Describe your OC's face. What's their smile like? Are their orbs cerulean? What would someone notice first when looking at them?

stature: What's your OC's body type? How tall are they? Do they wear clothing to accentuate their look or do they try to mask it?

motion: How does your OC move? How does their clothing help or hinder their range of motion? Are they flexible, coordinated, clumsy?

stillness: How does your OC act while still? Are they fidgety? Do they have any common gestures or tics? Does their clothing affect how they hold themselves while at rest?

canvas: Does your OC have any scars, piercings, tattoos, or other markings? Do they display or cover them up at all?

CUT & CLOTHES

night: What does your OC wear to sleep? Do they have a favorite pair of PJs, or are they more the birthday suit type?

day: What does your OC wear on a normal day? Why do they default to those clothes? Do they wear similar things, or do they change it up?

formal: What's your OC's formal look? Do they like dressing up? Do they have different looks for different occasions?

informal: What's your OC's lazy-day look? How do they like to dress when they're winding down?

outerwear: What's your OC's outerwear situation? Jacket, sweater, cloak? What sort of weather do they deal with most and how do they protect themselves?

footwear: What does your OC wear on their feet?

road: What does your OC wear while traveling? Do they have high-quality equipment, or are they making do? What does their gear look like?

armor: What kind of armor does your OC wear? Is it well kept? Bonus: where does it come from? Is there a story behind it?

arms: Does your OC have any weapons? What weapons do they carry, and how do they wear them when they're not fighting?

roots: Is your OC's look inspired by any specific style of clothing or fashion trend? What are the roots and/or inspiration for their look?

texture: Does your OC favor any specific kinds of cloth or textures? Is there anything they can't wear or don't like? What sort of fabrics do they prefer?

wardrobe: How big is your character's wardrobe? Do they wear things threadbare, or can they afford new clothes often? Are they any good at mending and repairing their own clothing?

ACCESSORIES & ACCENTS

bling: What jewelry does your OC wear? Does it have any meaning?

hair: How does your OC wear their hair? Does it have some kind of meaning?

makeup: Does your OC wear makeup? How often? What kind? Why do they wear makeup, and do they like it?

favorite: Does your OC have a favorite article of clothing or accessory? What is it? What's the meaning behind it? Do they wear it all the time or do they wear it sparingly to keep it safe?

change: Has your OC ever drastically changed their appearance? Significant haircuts, big tattoos, complete wardrobe swap, etc? Why? How do they feel about the change?