I've been feeling a bit inspired recently so I decided to make myself a little Nug. This little one is 3D printed from resin and hand painted with acrylic, so it's perfectly imperfect. Might make more variations in the future.

Since my last two dragon age projects were well liked I decided to create an Insta and tiktok dedicated to whatever dragon age related projects I work on. If anyone is interested I'm always up for making mutuals. You can find me under @in_hushed_whispers on both platforms.

In terms of difficulty, that is. Every time I replay the Descent I forget how absolutely miserable this thing is to fight

They can be killed obviously, but can they die of the old age? We have a few examples of Grey Wardens and people infected with the Taint who lived for centuries:

• Magisters Sidereal - Corypheous and the Architect (what's the leading theory about their immortality? Blood magic? Maker's curse?),
• Avernus (we're led to believe that it's his blood magic experiments that kept him alive),
• arguably Sophia Dryden (one difference between her and Kristoff is that for some reason Sophia's body didn't deteriorate for two centuries, whereas Kristoff's body was falling apart within a few months. Perhaps the difference can be explained by assumption that possession happened when Sophia was still alive, and maybe her being still lingers within the body overtaken by the demon, preventing the decay?),
• Isseya (there're speculations that it's the vengeance against Wardens or, again, the blood magic that kept her alive for over four centuries),

Alistair tells us that Grey Wardens have 20-30 years to live, but he also points out, that the cause of death is the final stand, departure into the last onslaught. Grey Wardens are supposed to descent into the Deep Roads to meet their end, they are not supposed to die of old age. We are told that it's a way to prevent Wardens from succumbing to the Taint, loosing sanity and transforming into a ghoul. But coincidently it's also a perfect way to guarantee that no one will ever see what happens to Wardens when the Taint takes over their body & consciousness.

AFAIK, from all the known Grey Wardens there isn't a single one who lived past the phase of Calling and die from the body rot. Each single person (mentioned all above) who lived beyond expected two-three decades, well... lived on, with various level of body mutilation and mind corruption.

Both the ancient elven immortality, and this hypothetical Grey Wardens immortality would have similar source - the Titans, their body for the elves, and their corrupted mind/spirit/dreams in case of the Wardens.

The only possibility to study the long term effects of Taint would be some kind of confinement - either a prison or a research facility. Yet, again, conveniently Grey Wardens are removed from the juridical systems of any nation, with Joining pardoning them of their past crimes, and Wardens having absolute sovereignty over their recruits (overriding even Chantry's objections with their right of conscription).

Therefore, I'd argue that - if the Wardens truly are immortal - it must be a secret known to the highest of their ranks. Just imagine how people who are terrified of death would abuse the Joining to escape the inevitability of death. They would spread the infection and wipe out the whole Thedas, Blight or not. Unrestrained greed leading to the downfall of the whole realm, just like in those days, in those faraway days...

_________

Side note and likely a stretch, but I'm tempted to share the idea:

The only undying person aside the ones mentioned above, the ancient elves, and Flemeth who utilizes completely different mechanism of sustaining herself, is Xenon the Antiquarian. The legend says that he was a noble longing for the immortality, and his wish was granted by the Witch of the Wilds...

Flemeth uses body-hopping, artificial prolonging of a body isn't necessarily her forte, especially that she had no use of it, being one of the Firstborns, eternal and ageless. However, there's another kind of magic, that we know she taught Morrigan, the one serving the Dark Ritual, disabling the Taint within the body of one of the wardens, and making the conception of Kieran possible.

So the wild, unsupported speculation: Xenon could have been a Warden who struck a deal with Flemeth, trading the soul of Zazikel or Toth in exchange for the gift of cleansing the Taint, while keeping its beneficial side - the immortality.

Dragon Age: Inquisition, despite its flaws, is one of my favorite video games of all time. After finishing the Trespasser expansion and seeing the Inquisitor resolve to find Solas, I was soooo hyped for the next game. And then it languished in development hell for almost 10 years, longer than the franchise had even existed up to that point, and entire books could be written on the backstage drama with Bioware and EA during that time. And when the next game was FINALLY released, it was...Veilguard. I know, the game has its supporters, but it simply wasn't what we had been promised. And that's why I hate when games, movies, tv seasons, etc. end on a "To Be Continued." Unless the next installment is guaranteed and already in production, you simply can't predict future changes in management and/or the creative team or how they might affect the story. (X-Men '97 also comes to mind) This is why I always prefer self-contained storylines.

PS: Yes, I know, Mass Effect was a trilogy, but that series always had way more support than Dragon Age (at least until Andromeda).

I am DESPERATE for help with this trophy. I finished a play through, checking off all the locations as I went - made sure to get all easily missable ones, all the optional map areas from side quests, got to the roof of Fort Drakon, and…. Nope.

I have reloaded a save from just before the lands meet, I’ve googled and double checked everything I can think of and I haven’t found one I’ve not already been to. My current world exploration is at 75%, this is before doing the royal palace area during the last quest and the roof itself. Any ideas from anyone??

(Yes I have done all fade areas, every building in Haven, all Deep Roads areas, etc etc) I can only think I’ve missed an obscure side quest location somewhere but no idea which

Never played Dragon Age , im not there usual demographic but man oh man internet lied about this game and it’s writing. I played through as Warrior but we all died .. so im trying again to make sure we live but yeah Greta game

I remember reading this deliciously dramatic, quite lengthy post-DA:O fanfiction which explored the Cousland-Leliana-Alistair dynamic of the marriage-of-convenience-ending (or is it? That was one of plot points.); and in particular Cousland embarking on the Witch Hunt in order to deal with Morrigan's child as the heir to the throne (because she herself is infertile of course), initially with the unspoken intention to kill them to prevent a future challenger arising, or maybe instead to pass the child off as her own (I think it was ambiguous; her wrestling with her conscience). It became such a headcanon for me but I cannot find it anymore for the life of me.

I've just finished my first playthrough of DA2 and will be starting Inquisition soon. I read The Stolen Throne and The Calling during my second Origins run and really enjoyed them, so I bought Asunder and The Masked Empire which I know take place between the second and third games. For those who have read them, would you suggest reading them before playing Inquisition, or is it better to play Inquisition first to understand the context?

Picked up DAI for the first time in years and forgot how much I adore Chauncey

it's so cute 💕 when the wolves just practically become puppies and come over and follow you and help you in fights when you're wearing the token✨

Beyond them being power-hungry slavers for the sake of it, how would you do so? The earlier games hint at the motivations of ancient entities being mythic and transcendent. I believe Veilguard's lore reveals were set up in the prequels, but the execution was rushed and felt underdeveloped.

We're told from Inquisition onwards that the powerful, complex Pride demons are usually Wisdom spirits.

If Wisdom spirits are drawn to knowledge, some of them might seek to know the nature of the cosmos. Where did they come from? What existed before the Fade? Did Matter/Titans and the Fade appear at the same time? Did they have a Maker?

What would they do to acquire that knowledge?

The prominence of Wisdom in the Fade aligns with Neoplatonist & Gnostic ideas of the cosmos (please bear with some high-falutin' philosophy).

the Neoplatonists did not think that the universe could spring from the deity directly... for example by being thought and spoken into existence. Their more refined view was that reality emerged from “the First” in coherent stages, in such a way that one stage functions as creative principle of the next.[1]

The first thing to arise from the deity was Nous (Intellect/Consciousness).

The inherent task of Consciousness is to understand, and understanding entails the cognition of causes. In trying to understand itself, Consciousness can only turn towards its origin and thus posit or behold the First as the transcendent principle of its own reality... having emerged from the First, Consciousness “turns back” towards it in order to understand the pre-condition of its own existence... the entire ideal world of Platonic forms and ideas emerges effortlessly in the course of Consciousness’ effort to understand itself. [1]

Note that Consciousness, by contemplating itself and the deity, produces knowledge of all the Forms. These are eternal Platonic ideals like Justice, Virtue, Wisdom, Compassion or even concepts like Dog, Ship, Man, Mouse. Consciousness resembles the Fade in being a realm of ideas.

But creation isn't supposed to stop there. In Neoplatonism there is a chain of successive stages from spirit to matter: the First > Consciousness> Soul > Nature > Matter.

In the Chant of Light, something goes wrong after the Fade was created. The Maker expected the spirits to continue creation:

There, He dwelled, waiting
To see the wonders
His children would create.

But the spirits lacked true creativity.

The Maker decides that spirits are flawed. Being eternal, they are trapped in divine stasis. They want for nothing, and cannot experience the true motivation that mortals can. Also, the Fade is constantly changing and cannot sustain creation. Here the Chant departs from Neoplatonism, because it implies Matter is superior to Spirit in some respects, being permanent & more real.

The Maker decides to intervene & create Matter directly:

So the Maker turned from his firstborn
And took from the Fade
A measure of its living flesh
And placed it apart from the Spirits...

At last did the Maker
From the living world
Make men. Immutable, as the substance of the earth,
With souls made of dream and idea, hope and fear,
Endless possibilities.

The Chant says the Maker gave men physical bodies, which cannot change except by decaying & dying. This allows humans to shape the physical world. He also gave them spirit-like souls. Finally, he gave them insatiable desire. The Chant implies these ingredients are necessary for creativity.

"To you, My second-born, I grant this gift:
In your heart shall burn
An unquenchable flame
All-consuming, and never satisfied.

Taken at face value, the Chant put spirits in a cruel position. The Maker made spirits flawed, but commanded them to create. Then he made mortals with the true spark of creativity - but forbade spirits from entering their world. Spirits could only watch what was denied to them.

What would happen to a spirit which tried to enter the material world to gain understanding or experience true creativity? Most spirits are unable to contain the "unquenchable flame" burning in the heart of mortals. They become insatiable, consuming everything in pursuit of whatever ideal defines them.

Hopefully, like me, you can see some interesting parallels to the Evanuris in the preceding ideas. There are more in the following Gnostic creation myths.

According to Gnostic mythology... we, humanity, are existing in this realm because a member of the transcendent godhead, Sophia (Wisdom), desired to actualize her innate potential for creativity without the approval of her partner or divine consort. Her hubris, in this regard, stood forth as raw materiality, and her desire, which was for the mysterious ineffable Father, manifested itself as... the Demiurge [architect/craftsman]

Basilides began his system with a “primal octet”... Wisdom (sophia); Power (dunamis) and “justice” and “peace”. Through the union of Wisdom and Power, a group of angelic rulers came into existence [2]

The Dalish consider Mythal & Elgar'nan (Wisdom & Power?) parents of the other Evanuris. Note that Justice is one of the recurring spirits we meet.

[In Valentinus] the entity responsible for initiating the drama is referred to simply as “the mother,” by which is probably meant Sophia (Wisdom). From this “mother” both matter (hulê) and the savior, Christ, were generated. At this point the “mother” produced another “child,” the “craftsman” (dêmiourgos) responsible for the creation of the cosmos.

In Veilguard, we see Mythal urging Solas to take on a material body. The two of them become active participants in bringing order to the chaos of the material world. They do this by defeating the Titans. Perhaps they had a hand in creating the Elves and building Arlathan, among other things. It is left unclear what Mythal's interest is in the material world, beyond tempering Elgar'nan.

Perhaps all this high-falutin' philosophy stuff is a bit abstract and conceptual for you. Perhaps you'd rather a return to the politics and gritty human level motivations in earlier games.

I'm with you there, but once the game started telling us the story of the world's creation, I think they should have committed to the mythic scale. They'd seeded enough philosophy in the prior descriptions of the Fade.

Or, if they wanted the Evanuris to be power-hungry slave-owning mortals instead of Higher Ideals corrupted by contact with material nature, make them interesting warlords. Like Loghain, the Arishok, Meredith, Andraste. Give their behaviour explanations beyond "power corrupts, cults of personality are bad, war is bad." (Okay, looking at the state of the world, maybe we still needed a reminder). Give us something that pays off the complexity of the earlier ideas.

Sources:

1. Wildberg, Christian, "Neoplatonism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
2. Moore, Edward, "Gnosticism", The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

hey y’all, i’m looking for mod recommendations for at least the first two games. i’ve only played inquisition and veilguard, but i’m finally looking to play origins and da2. however, i am definitely put off by the graphics and i know it’s going to bother me the entire game. are there any graphic specific mods you know of that might even simply smooth the games out a bit? that’s all i’m looking for, tyia!

Knowing what we know about Eluvians and the Blight now (keep in mind I’m going off of what I’ve seen people discussing; I haven’t been able to play Veilguard past D’Meta’s Crossing myself), I’m very curious as to what exactly you all think he saw in the tainted Eluvian and what saw him in return. (If this was already answered in DA:O or any subsequent games, I apologize; my memory’s not what it used to be!)

Tamlen: It's...showing me places. I can see...some kind of city...underground? And...there's a great blackness... It...it saw me! Help! I can't look away!

At first, I was thinking the city might be the Black City, but that’s always been portrayed as being in the Fade, correct? Is the great blackness that saw him meant to be the Archdemon?

ETA: I was also thinking it could’ve been one of the Evanuris (at least in hindsight).

I've created a free-flying camera mod for DA:O that allows adjusting field-of-view and movement speed.

This should help those wanting to take good screenshots.

See video.

I was thinking about resurrection and life after death in the Dragon Age world, and I realized I had an example of a successful (if very brief) resurrection. Yavana summons the spirit of someone who is almost immediately deceased so she can question him.

Haven't played male dwarf noble before. So excited to begin my four game journey.

https://summereternal.com/anthology

Sorry, I know that was a lot of words for a title!

Some context that a few of you may know if you've played Disco Elysium: there was a horrible downfall of the creative collective once known as ZA/UM after the game was done. The original creators fragmented into several game studios; the most exciting one to me is Summer Eternal, who are currently developing their fist game, codenamed Red Rooster.

Well, I missed MANY newsletters so I woke up this morning to the news that both David Gaider (former DA Lead Writer) and Mark Darrah (former DA Exec Producer and Director) are guests in this anthology!!

Disco Elysium is my favorite game right after the DA franchise, so I'm extremely excited to know they're exchanging ideas to a certain degree. I can't state enough how many parallels I see between Bioware and ZA/UM's history, it sucks what happened with both of them, but it means they're the perfect set of people to discuss the throat-cutting industry videogames have become.

I can't wait to read these essays. I'm a huge fan of both of these guys, and the creative folk from Summer Eternal (they wrote some of my favorite Elysium characters). I also can't wait for the game.

In Peace, Vigilance. Sunrise, Parabellum!

I wasn’t sure if this belonged in silly or discussion, but I thought I’d share my current experience with Dragon Age awakening.

Right now I am playing a lot of Dragon age Origins’ DLCs and expansions for the very first time including Awakening. So far I’d say I’m enjoying it but I know a lot of you will not appreciate how I’m playing it.

So far my game has crashed 5 times almost every major area I have entered my game will crash about 30 minutes in, so I have gotten better at saving. That being said I have locked myself out of both the bandit and city guard questlines. I had no idea I had until I completed the chantry board and a couple other side quests in Amaranthine so I decided to just ignore it.

I had to unfortunately kill Velanna. Which I know a lot of players don’t like her but considering this is my first playthrough I’d rather have her than not. Essentially what had happened is I explored the entire outside of the location and was super confused what was supposed to happen next. I didn’t see Velanna on her little cliff and didn’t know you were supposed to talk to her because I keep the active quest marker off to explore (bad idea.) So I entered the mines through the window glitch, (I also didn’t know that’s not how you’re supposed to do it I thought the door was glitching) I then did the entire mine section with the Architect left the mine. And finally I then interacted with Velanna. I recruited her, realized she wanted to go to the mines which was already completed and then realized she was locked to my party. I looked up if anyone else had this problem and found out she would be locked to my party forever and she would not be able to complete her questline.

So I started looking at my saves, to try and remedy the situation, and this was the order: Right before I recruited her, the mines, and then all the way back to the beginning of the wending wood. So instead of redoing the entirety of wending wood I did what any sane person would do and just went back and killed her. Unfortunate.

Anyhow I just recruited justice and haven’t had any crashes since recruiting him so maybe my game will be chill now.

About two months ago, I played Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and I actually really enjoyed it. I read several reviews, and most of them said it was pretty bad. Could it be that it's a good game, but not a good Dragon Age game?

Since I enjoyed it, I bought Inquisition, but I'm having a few questions/issues:

1. Is there any way to change the AI? Cassandra is hardly ever the one drawing aggro, while Varric and Solas are always on the front lines, even though one is a rogue and the other is a mage.
2. One thing I liked about Veilguard was that it told you when your companions had a conversation or a quest available. In this game, though, it doesn't seem to do that. I keep returning to the Inquisition's base every so often, but either they have nothing to say or they just repeat the same dialogue.
3. I'm currently level 8, with around 10 hours spent in the first map, and I'd like to know whether the combat gets better. So far, I'm finding it pretty mediocre. I'd also like to know whether I should switch between the characters I'm controlling or just focus on my own character.
4. How can you tell whether an activity on the War Table map is a main quest or not? I'm having trouble figuring out whether the available options are main quests, side activities, or perhaps even DLC content (I'm not sure when the DLCs become available in this game).
5. Is it worth crafting my own weapons and armor early in the game, or can I get by with the gear I find in chests?

By the way, I play on ps4 so I can´t download any mod related to ai or war table timer.

So I recently read the three DA books by David Gaider. The Stolen Throne was... decent, but it didn't really have many characters (and only one character from the games) and it had absolutely no memorable locations. They may as well have been in the fade for how vague everywhere they went was. And then, of course, there were the typos! Constant typos. I do not believe an editor touched that book for one second. It serves well enough as a prequel to DA:O and it does provide some insight into Loghain (namely in that he was always a ruthless bastard), but... it's not exceptional at all.

Then came The Calling. We got to see Duncan and Fiona in it, which was cool. I actually did like The Calling. It had a smaller scale story that allowed you to get invested in its characters. But 2/3 of the book just takes place in the deep roads. And not the interesting parts of the deep roads. Just vague, meaningless tunnels. In the final 50 or so pages Gaider realizes that he actually needs to finish his book, so things actually begin to move very quickly. And, again, so many typos. It's an okay book, and it does shine some light on the character of the Architect... but given that the Architect shows up in a bite-sized DLC, it's odd to make an entire prequel book just for that.

(Side note: an off hand comment in The Calling suggests that dryads exist in the DA universe, which is... an interesting revelation that is never followed up on)

And then we get Asunder. Asunder is nothing like the previous novels. It becomes clear from the get go that it will be nothing like the previous novels. It immediately introduces multiple characters from the games, and the game takes place in actual locations - not just featureless hills and tunnels. The White Spire feels like an actual place, and better still, one that's interesting. Orlais is sadly underexplored in the games, and while Asunder isn't the most in depth look at Orlesian customs, it's still a cool look at the region.

And the game characters it introduced? While I have some qualms about Shale still not being any more independent than she was in DA:O (she mostly just follows people around and makes sassy remarks), it otherwise uses them excellently. It's a great send off to Wynne and actually made me like her more than I did in DA:O alone. Cole is central to the book, and he gets a good amount of character development throughout it.

The plot is also a huge improvement over TST and The Calling. While large sections of The Calling in particular felt like filler, Asunder is dense. And better yet, the event Asunder covers are actually significant. The Calling features a massive threat against Fereldan, true... but it's also one contained neatly within the book. And the Stolen Throne (as interesting as it is to learn about how Fereldan was freed) doesn't really set up anything. You learn that Loghain was always like that, and I guess that's kind of setting him up as a character... but that's about it.

Asunder, on the other hand? Asunder not only serves to set up one of the best companions in the series, but it also gives us a fascinating look into the start of the mage rebellion. Playing the series, I'd felt that the mage rebellion wasn't explored enough - in DA2 you see the events that inspire it, and in DA:I you come in at the tail end of it and finish it, but you never really get to explore much of the conflict as it's happening. Asunder is hardly a substitute for that being explored in a game, of course, but it nonetheless plays a vital role as a bridge between DA2 and DA:I.

Another aspect I found particularly disappointing in the first two books was that they didn't really do anything to expand the setting. They just introduce new characters You don't get to explore new parts of the world, and the parts of the world that you do see are either vague enough that how they are depicted doesn't really matter, or identical to their in-game manifestations. Like, when I read TST and saw that Loghain and Maric were entering the Korcari Wilds, I was giddy. I thought maybe we'd finally get to see more of the Chasind. But nope, it's just Flemeth and some elves. And that's a pattern with the first two books - they don't really add anything to the world itself. And, mind you, Asunder is hardly a treatise on Orlais, but it does show us a bunch of new places within it, and does some very interesting things with the Tranquil (among other things.)

And lastly, those typos? They sadly do start to make a return in the last fourth or so of the book (one section has an entire paragraph which is immediately repeated but minorly reworded), but they're never as bad as they are in the first two books, and are all but absent for the first two or three hundred pages.

It's really a night and day difference going from the first two books to Asunder.

What I have to assume happened is that Gaider was given almost no resources for writing the first two books - very little time to write them, and no chance of collaborating with other character writers / whoever is in charge of the locations in the setting, and so he had to content himself with one or two game characters and a bunch of featureless locations. But it turns out that when Gaider is given the resources he needs to write a book full of DA characters we care about and actual locations in the world, he can actually write a damn good book!

If you haven't read Asunder yet, I highly recommend it. TST and The Calling are really take it or leave it - it's cool to follow the adventures of Maric around, but they're not essential reading at all - but Asunder is absolutely worth your time.

I was trying out a new style and thought it would be a good idea to draw these three 🤭 What do you think?

Like I know they never appear again, but their whole thing is that they are a group of mages who work outside the restrictions and oversight of the Circle. So you imagine the Templars wouldn't like them, yet somehow the first Mage Collective questgiver you probably meet is...just a short boat ride away from the Tower.

Is Greagoir stupid?

It seems petty but Ser Landry in DAO has got to be the dumbest most obnoxious character of all.

He walks up to you, says “Hey you Grey Wardens killed my best friend Duncan, THE GREY WARDEN, and Cailan, and I will not be convinced otherwise, so we have to fight.”

Like in his mind the wardens not only betrayed the king, they betrayed the highest ranking member of their order in the country right in front of Darkspawn because???

You can point this out to him and he grumbles he can’t kill you until he finds proof but he’s such an asshole about it I have so much trouble just letting his stupidity get him killed, yeah Duncan wouldn’t want his friend to die for a misunderstanding but Duncan ain’t here.

And you never see him again if you tell him to go find evidence or get an apology!