Just poring over some of the new images. ◕‿◕ DA:TV spoilers under cut.
Elf Warrior Rook, Bellara and Harding engaged in combat. The location looks to be Arlathan (not sure if it's the Arlathan Forest or Arlathan Crater area), outside the ruins of an ancient elvhen building, I guess the temple mentioned in the Game Informer cover story. Rook is mid-swing; Harding looks like she's doing that rogue archer move where they fire arrows then leap/flip backwards[?] and Bellara looks to have just fired a bolt or something of blue magic energy or electricity magic (her specialty) using the gauntlet. blue light emanates from it, there are blue sparks in the air and the orb on the stairs looks like it's crackling with energy. the orb is also surrounded by the golden triangles, something connected to the use of the gauntlet and ancient elven magic/artifacts/tech in general I assume. To Bellara's left are some blue butterflies btw! how pretty!
I have highlighted some things in this image. over Bellara's shoulder, you can see the ears of one of the classic Fen'Harel statues. in the background, in central, priiide of place above the archway/temple door, is the Fen'Harel mosaic from DA:I. (I wonder now, are the concentric circles/repeating rings above his head in that mosaic the Veil motif..?) to his right is the DA:I mosaic of Sylaise. to his left, I can't make out which mosaic it is - if anyone is able to pls let me know? :D and, are these wolf-ear patterns on either side of the door, or am I simply squinting too hard at unremarkable archy shapes hh?
the arch/doorway is the same shape as here (ancient elven architecture feature). on either side of it is a blue lamp-looking thing that to me resemble the ones here (another location with ancient elven ruins). the pattern on buildings that I think looks like wolf ears (...lol) can also be seen on the ruins across the lake in Arlathan Crater.
the focal point of this image is the creature that the team are fighting. I assume it is a demon-infested suit of mechanized armor known as a Sentinel (which are weak to Bellara's electricity magic), as detailed in the Game Informer cover story. gold in color, elfy in design and guarding an ancient elvhen ruin, it's clearly of ancient elven make. the mask of its head extends on either side in two pointed elven ears. its headpiece reminds me of the Evanuris head-shapes, though I'm not sure which one. I wonder if the green light in the gaps between the armor pieces is the energy of the demon animating it, and I wonder what type of demon has inhabited it. in DA:O, we fought suits of Fereldan armor that had been possessed by demons, so it's a phenomenon we have encountered before.
the Sentinel's name, armor design and protective function at a temple remind me of the DA:I Sentinel Elves (concepts one, two, three, showing the similar aesthetics), whom protected the Temple of Mythal. did one derive the name from the other? in ancient Elvhenan, did mechanized suits of armor assist the actual-elf Sentinel guards of temples? did the Sentinel suits actually once encase elves who passed away long ago after the elves lost their immortality (and the armor persisted through the ages but their organic remains have crumbled away to dust with time)? or maybe once upon a time the Evanuris sometimes used the spirits/souls of willing/unwilling elves to power/'possess' the suits in a process similar to the dwarves, golems, and the Anvil of the Void? and if so, could June have been involved in the creation or use of this process..? Master of Crafts, gods of crafts and building. the Sentinel Elves, and the Sentinel armors. like.. you could serve out of love/fear/faith, or willingly at least, or.. not?
the Sentinel's disembodied gold hand reminds me of these elven gold hands. at this point, if you were an Evanuris.. hell, why not make a giant 'statue' of [in this case golden metal rather than stone] armor like the sort the Dead Hand DA:I landmark implies once existed..? (more on the hands here). ancient elven and huge, and very dangerous. it would be a powerful weapon if powered to move by magic. remember in the final battle for Kirkwall, Meredith used her red lyrium-acquired powers to animate the giant golden statues to fight Hawke?
lastly, the war-axe that the Sentinel holds aloft. the negative space in its head creates a triaaangle shape. the non-cutting edge of the axe reminds me of the Evanuris head on the left here (Graphic Design is my passion). and idk, something about the axe reminds me of the new axe-wielding axe-headed red lyrium darkspawn guys. even the branches winding up it from being overgrown remind me of the darkspawn's veiny axe with the different branch-like parts curling into making up the axehead. and like, we know from the Game Informer article that sentinel armors and darkspawn are both found in Arlathan, and darkspawn can be found inside the temple itself.
The file name of this screenshot iirc on Game Informer was "Solas ritual". at the top of a flight of stairs, surrounded by ancient elven statues with the Evanuris head-shapes, Solas holds the knife aloft, using it to wield green Fadey magic or cut a tear in the Veil. do you think this is concept art/storyboarding art of this moment (two) from the DA:TV gameplay reveal video and opening cinematic, or a look back in time to when he created the Veil and sealed the Evanuris away in the first place? on the right hand side of the picture is the statue with Ghil's head-shape. on Solas' left is one which has Elgar'nan's (though interestingly, to me the body of that statue looks animal-like and to have four legs. draconic? dragons were the "shape reserved for the divine" in the Evanuris days..). other Evanuris statue shapes can also be seen in the image.
the big black mass Solas is focusing on in this shot is really interesting.. it reminds me of an asteroid hh. it's black and ominous with an oily-looking surface, pitted, rocky. idk, it gives the impression of something corrupted or something, like a giant Tainted pustule. what it this? the literal outer encasement of the Evanuris' prison? the Game Informer article told us that at the point Rook encounters Solas in the gameplay video, Solas was trying to move Ghil and Elgar'nan to a new prison, as the one he had previously constructed was failing. the 'rock' in this image doesn't look stable. the dents give the impression of holes forming in it and the small pieces of rock flying through the air around it make it look like little chunks of it are crumbling away. it leaves me with the impression that the floating rocks in all the DA:TV key arts and branding/banners etc aren't just representative of 'Fadey stuff, reality as we know it and the Veil are cracking, magic is coming back' but also 'oh no. the prison they were in was failing and cracking'. as an aside I am really curious about what specifically Solas did when he constructed the prison.
Lovely crisp screenshot of Bellara. She's so beautiful, I just love her design sm. it looks like she's in Arlathan here, not sure if it's the Forest or the Crater. I would guess this is from early on in the game when Rook meets Bellara in Arlathan, as detailed in Game Informer. the detailing on her clothing, the patterns and folds of the cloth and everything, is just :D the triangle theme runs through everything, on the bag strap, dotted on her scarf/kerchief, even in the shape of her layered sleeves and things. in this shot we can see that the stone set in the 'shoulder' of the gauntlet has cut, polished surfaces, jewel-like. and the greenish scarf reminds me of Merrill's fashion.. 🥺
curled under the 'lid' of her backpack it looks like a sleeping mat-type thing that you'd take with you when you're camping or hiking, right? like her bedroll. ^^ As with Taash, I really like Bellara's earring and I hope Rook can have earrings/piercings in CC or from items they find in the world. also it looks like the thing I thought was an arrow in a blurrier shot totally isn't, it's a hair accessory (cute!!) in the shape of a halla, you can see the branching horns. I really like that it's golden and not white or silver - it brings to mind the golden halla, Hanal'ghilan, a legendary creature said to visit the Dalish in times of great need. Hanal'ghilan translates as pathfinder, which seems apt for a Veil Jumper who is an explorer that goes on expeditions!
the other thing I loved about this screenshot was that we got to see a clear, front-on look at the design of Bellara's vallaslin. it's so lovely! pretty and intricate. and it makes me really curious and excited to see the designs that will be available to Rook in CC. I wonder which Creator Bellara's pertain to, if any?
Arlathan. Looks like concept art[?]. Super beautiful, Final Fantasy vibes, a high fantastical feel, a bit of whimsy. Reality warping, the telltale golden-orange trees (I feel like Harding in the gameplay video now when she's like "I know these trees" LOL same tho. like, from the days of 'mysterious triangle guys concept art' and the vinyl cover those trees were soo. KNOWABLE hhh). Lakes and waterfalls, ancient elvhen architecture in ruins, the towers with their distinctive curves and tops, floating rocks and chunks of buildings as reality breaks and magic seeps in - look at how the tree in the foreground is all streaky and blurred as everything warps, like it's been half-phased out of existence on this plane. (looks like a silver birch tree btw). in the background, the curved iridescent wall of bright light around one of the ruined buildings looks like the edge of a soap bubble, reminding me of how there are "Veil Bubbles" (pockets of reality or unreality?)
Arlathan. Looks like concept art. Bellara explores ancient elven ruins, and the ruins of reality. with what we're seeing and hearing of Arlathan so far, they're doing the Ruins of Reality and the warping of space-time that we saw in the Veil Jumper issue of DA: The Missing justice. Things in this spot seem to be in particular disarray in this image. some of the floating chunks in this image have the same 'blurring' thing going on as the birch tree in the previous image. in this image there is also a lot of energy and magical power, coalescing around or emanating from what look like a set of gold rings sat atop a tower. I get the sense of motion, that they are spinning rapidly (like helicopter blades). the light is Green, like Veil-fire or Fade-magicky stuff. (in this image, I also got the sense that the gold semicircles floating near the top of the picture are actually part of gold rings, and that these too were mid-motion. that image also has a green glow of something magical.)
Arlathan. Not sure if it's Arlathan Forest or Arlathan Crater specifically. In-game screenshot, another beautiful one at that. Qunari mage Rook, Bellara and Harding explore ancient elven ruins. Bellara looks around all curious. :) the lighting effects and particles are so lovely, everything is suffused in this pretty, soft golden light. on the crumbling archway in the foreground, we can see a repeating triangle pattern as decoration. in this image we can see at least three halla wandering around, two just in front of the party and one on a ledge a bit father back. I'm really curious about the little blue lights that are floating around (Bellara looks to be watching them). they look kinda like pixies or something. 🥺 maybe they are firefly-like bugs or, they seem benign and this is an area where the Veil is thin and there's a lot of magical energy - so maybe they are wisps, two, or something like that? wisps are the weakest spirits, in some cases benign and even aiding mages. they're described as being shimmering orbs of light that are too simple and impressionable to be good or evil.
(For these menu screenshots, to compliment your understanding of what we're looking at, this article is a great read to refresh on. these are the "gigantic spider web-like visuals" Corinne mentioned in that article.)
^ Screenshot showing the skill tree of a Warrior Rook. This Rook is Level 30. The Level cap is 50, so this is a skill tree of a Rook who is about mid-game. I wonder if "Thorne" is this Rook's custom first name, or if it is the set last name of one of the factions Rook can be from? for the skill tree, it looks like we start in the center and then spec outwards as we wish right? at the very center is the core of the Warrior kit. this Rook has invested some of their points in the Slayer specialization. it looks like they are not far from dipping into Reaper too - I wonder if it's possible to sort of multi-spec by dipping into more than one spec 'bubble' like that? we can see that the other spec for Warrior is Champion, that each spec has the symbol for the faction it is tied to next to it, and that there are the same amount of 'points' in the same pattern available to choose from in each spec. there are also places on the skill tree where it looks like Rook can choose to focus on Weapons, Survival and Abilities. these are the three sections that Corinne described the skill grid as being divided into in addition to the specializations in the article. for Warriors, Weapons is weapons-oriented, Abilities is ability-oriented, and Survival is defense-oriented. "So what you might do trying to get to, say, the Reaper specialization is go… Rather than going up through defense into Reaper, I’m going to go down through Ability into Reaper."
I like the art for each of the specs, it's cool!! (see a compilation of them here).
overall I like the skill tree. :) it's pretty/aesthetically-pleasing (constellation-like), and it looks like it's very extensive, with lots of different options and different choices to 'plot' your own 'route' through it depending on what sort of build you're trying to create. there are different shapes of points: small circles, large circles, diamonds, hexagons and some more star-like ones. I'd guess each one corresponds to a different type of ability or boost? and I'm curious to find out more about what those are. :)** from the interview with Corinne, we know that there are abilities, passives, and "traits". (I wonder what the "traits" could be? maybe stuff like "Persuasive", "Charismatic" or "lock-picker"?) we also know that these skills are unique per class, that every level you get a new skill point, and that there are other "side activities" in the game to get skill points from.
(** edit: @morganzephyr reminded me that we do know what these each correspond to, as detailed in this previous article:
"Large circle: Class
Diamonds: Abilities
Medium circle: Major Passives and Ability Upgrades
Small hexagon: Traits
Small circle: Minor Passives and Stat Boosts")
we can also compare these final skill trees to the prototype skill tree frame/wire diagram that we were shown at an earlier stage of development in a BioWare blog post and see how the concept has been realized since then. if the color coding on the prototype is still the same, it looks like the points on the tree are arranged in groups/clouds of related ones like this:
so like, some 'Champion-ish' or related ones are part of the main ring of the grid, and then there are some in-between each 'cloud' that correspond to neither side.
in the bottom left, we can see that this Rook has zero points left available at the moment to invest in the skill tree, and that they can refund their points to reset the tree by pressing 'F'. makes sense, in this article they talked about how the skill points can all be refunded. in the top left, under 'Level 30', I wonder if that bar is the exp progress bar that would record how much progress Rook makes to the next level? along the top, we can see that there are tabs for Map, Character (I wonder if this is where we view our inventory?), Companions, Skills and Library (Library is the codexes). Skills of course is the one that is currently highlighted and that we're currently looking at, with two triangles pointing at it in a pattern that looks like an hourglass.
Also evident in the skill tree menu is the purple-and-bronze key color theme of the game. I think the whole thing looks cool and aesthetically pleasing. around the 'Level 30' is some eight-pointed star designs, which is neat to me as we have 7 companions+Rook=8. curving past "Points Available"/"Refund Points", those lines look like the edge of the concentric circles motif. also, it looks like the design of Rook's skill tree takes inspiration from the DA:TV Veil keyart, with the layers, cracks, crumbling pieces and floating rocks, only in this case it's hexagonal rather than circular.
Screenshot showing the skill tree of a Mage Rook, again with the very core of the mage kit in the center. this Rook has invested in the Death Caller spec. we can see the other two specs for mages, Evoker and Spellblade. (it looks like "Spellblade" is one word rather than two like "Death Caller"). like with the differing arts for the different specs, it seems that the art piece for the 'central core' of each kit is also different, which is a cool touch. For mage, for the other 3 'non-spec areas' of the skill tree, where for Warrior they are Weapons, Survival and Abilities, here they are Control, Burst, and Sustain. this Rook is also called "Thorne".
Screenshot showing the skill tree of a Rogue Rook. this Rook has invested in the Saboteur spec. we can see that the three non-spec areas for Rogue Rooks in their skill trees are Sustain, Burst and Control, like mages. that's an interesting choice, I thought they would be 3 different ones for each class. this Rook is also called "Thorne".
In this screenshot we are still looking at a Rook's skill tree. Specifically this is a close-up view of part of a mage Rook's skill tree. So it seems like we can zoom in to the different parts of the skill trees to see them in more detail. In this image, an ability called Wall of Fire is highlighted. Wall of Fire was a mage skill in DA:I.
In the pop-up ‘info card’ looking section for it, we can see all the stats, numbers and relevant information for this skill. We can that it’s a skill of type ‘Duration’ and ‘Control’, ‘Control’ being one of the three non-spec sections on a mage Rook’s Skill Tree. It deals 50 Fire Damage (in the RPGsite article, Corinne confirmed that Elemental damage is a big part of the combat in this game) and has a cooldown time of 60 seconds. The description reads that the skill involves summoning a flaming barrier that burns those enemies who are foolish enough to cross it. We’re also told that enemies incur damage and Burning [damage over time effect or condition?], presumably upon doing so. A scroll bar at the right allows you to scroll down and read the rest of this information. (compare these numbers and descriptions to Wall of Fire in its DA:I incarnation out of interest) We know which symbol on the tree is Wall of Fire as it's highlighted in a purple design around it (I highlighted this below in yellow). We can see that the symbol for Wall of Fire is some burning purple flames.
We can also see some more detail on other, unhighlighted skill points, even though their 'info cards' aren't opened. For example, I think the one I circled above in orange is the new Meteor skill, and maybe the one with three 'bolts' to the right of the Wall of Fire 'card' is a sort of Arcane Bolt[s]-type attack spell? this image also gives us a bit more insight into what each of the different shapes of skills represents. for instance, both Wall of Fire and Meteor are the same diamond shape, so maybe it's like the diamond shape is for specific attacks/spells, as opposed to something like e.g. a passive. Some of the symbols also repeat, like the several different smaller ones around some of the main skills like Meteor (with swords on them). maybe these are optional upgrades for those, like you could invest a point in those to do something like increase the damage done by Meteor or something like that?
There is also this new screenshot of this scene of Emmrich from the character reveal trailer, as noticed by @sandetigerrr here (it's a slightly different version of that shot, one you can't get from slowing the character trailer and pausing it due to the splash text of his name that pops up in that). from the distinctive tall skeleton-pillars in the background, we can see that this scene takes place in Necropolis Halls. (more on that discussed here). a fire burns in the foreground as Emmrich does necromancy, looking all distinguished as he does so. the banners blowing around in the background on the 'wind' created by Emmrich's magic is a nice touch. in this scene we also get a good look at Emmrich's full outfit from the front. it looks like Emmrich is strong/skilled enough to command at least nine undead without breaking a sweat.
the adornments on each skeleton are interesting - are these pieces of armor that never rotted away like flesh, being metal, or are they post-death accoutrements that are added as part of Nevarran funeral/burial customs or something? the headpieces in particular, along with the missing top half of their skulls, make it look like upon death, the top half of the skulls were removed and the brains scooped out, maybe to then be stored in those canopic jar-looking things, Ancient Egypt-style? other parts of these metal pieces look to be at joints like knees, elbows, wrists - maybe after the flesh rots away, these metal parts help to keep the skeleton from falling apart, so that they can wander around successfully in the Grand Necropolis when possessed? lastly, this scene is quite similar to this DA4 concept art in style, vibe, content, setting etc, which makes me wonder if 'Flaming Skellington', who appeared in several pieces of concept art, is actually Emmrich himself.
and finally, that's all the screenshots we've seen so far (unless I've forgotten to include one somewhere along way, in which case pls let me know!), which concludes this post series. I think I will compile the links to all of them into one other post for ease of browsing, and for anyone who read all of these rambling over-analyses, I hope there was at least some stuff in there you found interesting or something. ◕‿◕
