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rustic-obsessive · 1 year

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I'm going to go feral about the da:d leaks for a second look away if you don't want spoilers

1) i'm positively frothing at the mouth at the prospect of going to Weisshaupt. the way they describe it in The Last Flight sounds so fuckin cool

2) mayhaps we'll get to be a warden again??? i wonder if this means another warden protagonist (unlikely in my opinion) or that we're getting dao style origins (more likely based on the fact that tevinter nights focuses on so many different factions i think we might get to pick a faction to start as)

3) i know it's extremely far fetched but a group of junior wardens from Weisshaupt do find a bunch of griffon eggs hidden away nearish Weisshaupt in the last flight which takes place just before inqusition so mayhaps griffons??? (i will cry if bioware gives me a baby griffon i want one so bad)

4) based on what the reddit thread was saying one of the two companions they saw had a female dwarf model though the models weren't finished. we might have a female dwarf companion and potentially (really crossing my fingers here) a female dwarf romance option!

5) the combat didn't seem that different to inqusition combat to me personally so i'm not too worried about that though i am slightly sad that it seems like the thread is supporting the earlier insider gaming article saying that we won't be able to control party members. it's not essential to me because i prefer story to combat but i did kinda like that aspect of micromanaging you could do in DA games

6) you! can! see! the! hair! moving!!! it's clipping through the helmet but it's moving!!! (it's hard to see in the gif cos it's so dark but you can see it!!)

7) finally based on the whole focus on red lyrium we've seen in concept art, the focus on the red lyrium idol, meredith being some kind of talking red lyrium statue, and the red lyrium in these leaks i think there's a strong chance we're going to be finding out more about the origins of the blight. in the leaks the protagonist is fighting darkspawn corrupted by red lyrium (this could indicate a playable grey warden origin or it could be something related to fighting off red lyrium corrupted beings in general idk) which to me seems to further support the idea that we might be delving further into the origins of the blight, especially since Solas seemed to know something about the blight the grey wardens didn't in inqusition also the whole "black city corrupted the magisters and brought the blight down to thedas" thing

One slight worry i have is that they're going to pull a Corypheus on us and hype up the whole Solas confrontation and the bringing down the veil but then pivot to the red lyrium and blighted titans thing half way through. i hope they don't do that but my worry is they may be tempted to because it's a fresh plotline less connected to the previous games and it would make da:d more newbie friendly

#da:d #da4 #da4 spoilers #dragon age #da:d spoilers #dragon age spoilers

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juniemoe · 1 year

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i wonder if the 'rook' in the leaks is us the player 🧐

#i could never in my life imagine mithra being someone whose surname or nickname or title or whatever is rook #if it turns out to be true i will have to make some adjustments 😐#da:d spoilers #dreadwolf spoilers #dadw spoilers #dragon age spoilers #<- just in case

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brekkie-e · 2 years

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Varric once again confirmed as an unreliable narrator.

"I knew him as Solas." Bitch be honest you knew him as Chuckles stfu

#dragon age #dragon age day #da:d #dragon age dreadwolf spoilers #varric tethras #dragon age inquisition #dai #solas #brekkie thoughts

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felassan · 28 days

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this post is under a cut in case anyone would consider it to be DA:D spoilers, as the things it mentions came from the leak a year ago (spoiler warning for link) that included screenshots and a gif of the game. (the things this post mentions are therefore not new information and this does not reference a new leak)

I'm just thinking again about Rook (which seems to be the PC's name or title) and the imagery conjured by the name. ◕‿◕ this post is just speculation and overanalyzing for fun. also this post is a now-finished draft from my draft section from a while back.

I think it would work as a surname (like "Hawke") or a codename (think Leliana's spies and contacts such as "Butler", "Farrier", "Butcher", "Charter", etc although these are all professions that end in "-er" or "or" iirc). it could also be a title (like Warden, Hero, Champion, Inquisitor, Herald) or a nickname - like maybe it's short for "Rookie", it's a Varric-assigned nickname and it references how the DA:D PC is the newest member of the team after he recruits them?

I think it sounds catchy, and cool - it's snappy and short, Hawke-like in this way. and it sounds like the kind of name a spy or secret agent might have in a fantasy, superhero or sci-fi-type setting.

a rook is a black bird, Corvus frugilegus, a member of the corvid family. rooks have been perceived as vermin and nuisances by people in the past, and persecuted due to this. they bear a resemblance to their crow and raven relatives, both birds which have a large cultural footprint and lots of symbolism in areas such as folklore and art. Hawke obviously also had a bird motif going on from their surname and associated art pieces. corvids also bring to mind the Antivan Crows (assassins, thieves, & spies), reminding of the stuff about how in this game the PC may be trying to operate under the radar, and the reporting on a previous iteration of DA:D which had the game concept as being focused on spies and heists. rook plumage is inky black, bringing to mind darkness and shadow.

from the bird angle, a "rook" sounds neat opposite a "wolf" imo. wolves are obviously another animal that have large footprints in culture, myth and folklore. in the natural world there is symbiosis sometimes between wolves and corvids when hunting/feeding. there are lots of photos of wolves and corvids together.

a colony of rooks is called a rookery. of course, the fortress of Skyhold has a rookery. it's from there that Inquisition Spymaster Leliana operates (operated) sending her black birds on missions with letters and messages to her many agents and spies throughout Thedas. what if Rook is one of Leliana's... "rooks"? a spy or agent of the remnants of the Inquisition.

A rook is also defined as "A cheat or swindler; someone who betrays" [noun], "mist, fog" [noun] and "to cheat or swindle" [verb]. it's also a type of trick-taking card game. these sorts of things bring to mind a rogueish, stealthy aspect, and the shady, shadowy dealings and card-game played in Minrathous Shadows.

a rook is also a chess piece. they're castle-like (since "rook" can also mean a castle or fortification) and usually have their top in the shape of a battlement. they can move in any direction along a rank or file on a chessboard on which they stand (horizontal/vertical, not diagonal). they can also do the "castling" move. in history, rooks have also been called towers, castles, rectors and marquesses. in chess, each player starts the game with two rooks at opposite ends of the first rank. chess itself is a game of strategy and tactics. "the chessmaster" as a trope is a character type who manipulates events, tugging on strings and moving 'pieces' into place on a metaphorical chessboard. [Solas' DA:I dialogue about his past, like the one he has with Sera about cells of spies/agents, hark to this]

in the castling move,

"Castling is a move in chess. It consists of moving the king two squares toward a rook on the same rank and then moving the rook to the square that the king passed over. Castling is permitted only if neither the king nor the rook has previously moved; the squares between the king and the rook are vacant; and the king does not leave, cross over, or finish on a square attacked by an enemy piece. Castling is the only move in chess in which two pieces are moved at once."

castling rules often cause confusion, even occasionally among high-level players. historically the move has its roots in the "king's leap", of which there were two forms and which arose in part it seems due to increasing importance of king safety as other pieces were given increased powers through time as the game developed. "the king would move once like a knight, or the king would move two squares on its first move. The knight move might be used early in the game to get the king to safety or later in the game to escape a threat." basically it moves the king away to safety and the rook to a more active position. there is also kingside castling and queenside castling. I wonder, symbolically.. is Rook more the king's rook, or the queen's rook? (reminds me of the Left Hand and Right Hands of the Divine hh). who or what is the king in this hypothetical analogy? the World of Thedas itself? as a castle or fortress.. Rook is the bulwark against what's to come? [over-thinking ik ik, tis just for fun hh].

by now we're all familiar with the chess game Solas plays in banter dialogue with Iron Bull during DA:I. in the in-world chess game, rooks are called towers. Solas moves his right-hand tower once. at a later point in the game, Iron Bull's "Arishok" piece takes Solas' left-hand tower, getting a check and leaving him feeling triumphant. Bull asks Solas wth he is doing as Bull takes Solas' remaining tower. "Your last tower, by the way". Bull, a spy and liar himself, bears down on Solas' pieces "with his full army", thinking a win is in sight. Undeterred, Solas executes a few moves in a sneaky plan and entraps Bull in a checkmate, winning the game after sacrificing various pieces to enact his plan.

rook also brings to mind the Tower tarot card and its meanings. it's associated with sudden, disruptive revelation and potentially destructive change. it connotes danger, crisis, sudden change, destruction, higher learning, and liberation, as well as adversity, calamity, deception, ruin and unforeseen catastrophe. reversed, it connotes things such as negligence, carelessness, apathy and vanity (vanity.. pride). in this depiction of the Tower tarot, lightning strikes from the sky, striking a crown (hubris) off the top of a tower and setting it alight as people fall from the tower to their doom. this imagery and the upright meanings of the card bring to mind the sudden massive change Solas seeks to bring about (destroying the Veil), the revelations and liberation for some that it might bring, his identity as Fen'Harel Lord of Tricksters (deception) as well as the destruction he seems to think the Veil destroying action will cause ("as the world burns in the raw chaos"...). the 'Tower scene' has also already played out once before in Thedosian history, when Solas created the Veil and sealed the Evanuris away, leading to the fall of Arlathan and its wonders. in modern Thedas, Morrigan and Flemeth (as well as possibly some side 'prophecy' type things) both allude to a big change coming to the world.

in DA:I, the Tower tarot card is ofc none other than Solas' ending card, if he is not romanced. in the DA:I version of the card, we see Solas, cloaked in a dark robe and holding a mage staff under a half-moon or eclipse. darkness seeps from his shadow, stark against the orange sky, and blends with the giant black Dread Wolf, looming ominously and open-mouthed above him with its many eyes. (the Tower tarot card Solas scene is later referenced in DA:D promotional art and DA:D-era in-world murals). it makes sense to have assigned this to Solas given the above discussed meanings of the Tower tarot card, but it's a verrry inchresting choice imo to then give "Rook" as a name/title for the DA:D PC.

and most inchrestingly, there's the symbol from the front of Mark Darrah's mysterious Red Book. this mysterious red book shows "a flaming rook" on the cover. the book was an internal guide for developer and publisher eyes only that summarized the vision for DA:D, in its Joplin iteration. we know that the Joplin project has since been revised to an extent that it was the newly codenamed Morrison instead, but the red book is known to still contain plenty of ideas likely to appear in DA:D. most pages of the book remain highly classified. it's the symbol on the front that's of most interest to us though for the purposes of this post. there is a castle, tower, or rook, like a fortress or the chess piece. above the tower, a fire burns, reminding us of the burning tower from the Tower tarot card imagery and what that symbolizes, as well as Solas' "world burning in the raw chaos" line from Trespasser. inside the fire is a wolf, the Dread Wolf, in a now very-familiar and repeated motif in DA:D art, merch, murals, teasers etc. whatever else "rook" may connote, it feels like it's not an accident at all that the PC's name is apparently "Rook", given this depiction of a fiery rook and the Dread Wolf together.

what do you think? ^^

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ziskandra · 1 year

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listen, listen

I know this is gonna be a controversial take, but the more I think about it, the more obsessed I am with the idea of Varric voluntarily helping The Crimson Knight (especially in a worldstate where Hawke was left in the Fade).

I’ve talked before about how I view Meredith as the type of person who is motivated by her desire to protect her own at all costs, and how this leads her down the path of Well-Intentioned Extremism, and culminating in becoming the embodiment of the uh, Knight Templar trope.

And Varric is obviously motivated by his motivation to protect Hawke: he shielded them from the Inquisition, and when push came to shove and he was forced to expose Hawke to the Inquisition anyway, it can result in Hawke’s death. The Inquisition fails Hawke, who is basically Varric’s moral compass — without Hawke’s influence, he defaults to siding with the templars at the end of DA2.

Most of the Inquisitor’s inner circle scatters over Thedas and Varric returns to Kirkwall. Varric loves Kirkwall; he’s a Kirkwaller through and through: even though he’s never envisioned nor wanted a life of politics, he becomes the fucking viscount, because there’s nobody else left who wants one drop of the poisoned chalice of that role.

And Kirkwall is a city that has always been dependent on its templars for protection. They are the city’s military force, and the city is noticeably weaker once the templars abandon it — depending on world state, it can lose a significant portion of its territory to one of Varric’s former companions. If someone he knew and trusted can do that to Kirkwall, who else might take advantage of Kirkwall in its weakened state?

Varric is isolated and alone, away from anyone who might be able to help him see the situation in a different light: his main support network is Aveline and Seneschal Bran, neither of whom are known for their ardent support of mage rights. They’re doing their best to clear Kirkwall of the impacts of the war, of the red lyrium, and even though they’re doing their best to avoid exposure, being around that much red lyrium cannot be healthy. Slowly, the paranoia and increased penchant for violence settle in. It becomes impossible to resist spending more time around the substance — and sometimes, it talks! And it sounds like Meredith Stannard.

Varric is desperate and scared and has lost everyone he has ever loved. The Inquisition has been downsized or disbanded, and his only purpose is to serve his city: the same intention with which Meredith started, the same intention and fears that the red lyrium feeds upon in them both.

Varric fears becoming his parents: people who failed to protect him because they were too caught up in their past mistakes.

But sometimes, as people, in our attempts to avoid our fears, we end up barreling into them headfirst instead.

#do i actually think bioware is gonna give us a varric tethras corruption arc? no #but the narrative parallels are there and i just think they’re neat!#and like i never expected in my wildest dreams that meredith stannard would have actual plot relevance in 2022 so!!#and back when dragon age exodus the da2 expansion was still being considered #varric was meant to die at the end 🤔🤔🤔#tbh i don’t expect this to crop up in da:d bc there is SO much to cover and doing the writing for a world state with alive pro-mage hawke #would be tricky #but that’s why we have fanfiction #bless transformative fiction for letting us explore endless possibilities outside of the limitations of commercial interests!!#also emo about how both varric and meredith carry so much GRIEF about their families #and grief can cause people to do dangerous things #and when that’s coupled with positions of power …!#this is also tangentially a meta about the intersection of trauma and how power corrupts #thedas is not an environment conducive to healing lol #anyway i will continue to spin these thoughts around like a plate in a microwave #da absolution spoilers #dragon age #meredith stannard #knight commander meredith #varric tethras #dragon age meta #asha meta #asha’s villain manifesto #also warning that the trope links lead to tv tropes lol #bc I’m tired of people acting like fictional characters (vehicles for a narrative) are real people (capable of causing real world harm)

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selfpossesedghost · 1 year

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The Wellspring

Pt. 2

The Deep Roads, The Uncharted Abyss - Dragon Age Inquisition [The Descent DLC]

#dragon age dreadwolf #dragon age inquisition #dragon age 2 #dragon age origins #dragon age #da2 #dao #dai #da:d #the descent #the descent dlc #deep roads #the deep roads #dai spoilers

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hellisdex · 2 years

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ok, i have to put my dragon age: dreadwolf theories down somewhere for posterity, so my thoughts on dreadwolf and the origin of the blight:

what if dreadwolf is the blight?

theory + supporting evidence:

the dreadwolf title announce page says that "dreadwolf" is solas' namesake

solas himself says that "the dread wolf" is a misnomer

solas leading the dreadwolf into the fade, potentially as a weapon to use against the evanuris. i take the former picture as his own interpretation of his actions (freeing, leading, liberating) and the latter as the potential truth (the wolf is a dangerous weapon). it also looks tainted

solas could have tricked the evanuris into believing the blight made them stronger, when it only made them mad and evil.

this would explain why he is the dread wolf - named after the dreadwolf, the trick he pulled to defeat the evanuris, the cloak in which he wrapped himself.

the evanuris are locked away; each god a key in the black city, protecting thedas from the blight. he has to create the veil to do this. binding them into the fade itself prevents anyone from reaching them - or so he thinks.

the black city is breached; the magisters let the blight into thedas; gradually, the gods find their way into the archdemons, and the death of each one is another chain falling off the black city. when all are killed, the blight's full force will invade the fade and thedas

ever since, it has been growing more powerful - infecting even lyrium, now. desperate to stop it, solas must turn around and face the weapon he used, stand between it and the world. there are two gods that remain (the ones we see in da4 concept art). when they are dead, the blight will ravage everything in its path.

this would explain why he loathes the wardens, why he tells them they're messing with things they can't understand. they're killing his keys. not that they have any choice - but they are, and it will eventually unleash the true power of the blight.

#head full many thoughts #i wanted to put it somewhere in case i'm right #hope this interests some of u tho #dragon age #dragon age spoilers #dragon age meta #dragon age theories #the blight #solas #trespasser #da4 #da:d #da:dw #da: dreadwolf #dreadwolf meta #grey warden #evanuris

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mako-designated-driver · 1 year

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Spoilers: Dragon Age The Missing #3

If you wanna know what happens but aren't going to read it, I got you

Varric and Harding are at Arlathan forest, following the lead they got in the previous issue

If you read the short story about Strife and Irelin, you know the forest was plunged into chaos by an unknown force (unknown to them, at least)

And talking about those two, they are back, alongside a human named Binde and an elf named Tist. They are veil jumpers!

By the way, veil jumpers are an alliance between the best of the dalish and other non-elves willing and able to contain the threat the warped veil poses.

Varric explains the situation (they're looking for the Crucious Stone and wanna take it before the Venatori). Our veil jumper crew jumps in to help, but leave Binde and Tist so they can go back and warn the others.

Strife and Irelin inform them they have to go through some trials to get to the stone:

The Gauntlet, where spirits trade places with the living

A place where time runs out of order

An area where up is down and down is up

A Varterral (you didn't think it would be easy, did you?)

That said, they managed it, more or less

During their journey, time gets twisted around Varric for a moment and he sees a Venatori assassin

They get to the temple and boy, let me tell you, Varterrals look amazing in this comic

Irelin tricks the Varterral with insects and they run past it without incidents

Inside the temple where the stone is located, there are some murals. One in particular is very similar to, if not the mural behind Solas in the trailers. I advise looking up pictures because I can see hundreds of theories coming up already

Unfortunately, they arrived too late: someone already got the stone

Strife suggests it could be the Venatori assassin from earlier, but Varric now recalls that thr assassin saved him

It was the egg guys

Harding says it was Solas, and they find a letter with the dread wolf seal. When Irelin asks who is Solas and why he is using that seal, Varric answers that Solas is the dread wolf, but not a god.

The letter is from Solas to Varric. He says the Crucious Stone was never in danger of falling in Venatori hands and that they should abandon pursuit to keep themselves safe.

Irelin says that if and elven god walks among them and wields the Crucious Stone, it would explain what's happening to Arlathan forest. Harding replies that it will happen everywhere soon.

Varric ends the comic by saying that whatever Solas thinks of their interference, they aren't going to back away.

Just one more issue to go guys!

#da4 #dragon age #dragon age the missing #dragon age the missing issue 3 #dragon age the missing spoilers #dragon age spoilers #varric you arent going to die are you #dragon age dreadwolf #da:d #varric #harding #scout harding #solas #strife #irelin #varric thetras

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knife-eared-jan · 2 years

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DA mini-theory: Giants, Dwarves and Titans

So this is just a small pet-theory of mine, but I feel super convinced it’s true. Maybe this is even an obvious given, but I’ve not seen it talked about anywhere so far:

At first I was pretty annoyed at giants suddenly being a thing in Thedas in DAI, like all the weird new animals are bad enough but a new humanoid race?? Also, "Haha, giants are super stupid” - like, what an original take on the trope /s... except then I realised just HOW “stupid” they were. This is not just your random GoT Wun Wun. And then I found some very intriguing bits of information in the codex entries.

In the “Giant” codex:

“[...] never did I see any sense in its eye, and never did it appear to plan beyond its immediate surroundings. But I remain intrigued, for they have hands, and that means the potential to raise them in praise. “

and to a lesser extent this part:

“ Food is seemingly their only motivator, and I have observed them eating meat, grains, leaves—nearly anything digestible, with no care or joy for taste or texture. “

So they literally just eat to keep on existing and generally just do stuff to exist, without even the emotions or intelligence any animal would display? I found this hella sus... Like does this not remind you very much of something?

obviously the Tranquil kinda seem to react similarly to the world, but even more importantly,

we hear dwarves talked about this way in ancient times

So, the giants seem to behave like other humanoid races when disconnected from their race’s source of magic (and thereby also emotions). Interesting...

Then I played Jaws of Hakkon and they basically spelled it out for us TWICE in the codex entry “ Tale of Hryngnar, Ice-Troll “:

“ Dead to dreams as dwarves below us “

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I screm

My theory is that the giants are essentially a type of big dwarf that didn’t get the Mythal treatment. They are “mindless, soulless” as the dwarves were.

That’s why they are humanoid and have hands, because they used to have a function as part of the titans’ hiveminds. Probably as extra tough fighters or for extra heavy labour or whatever. They are really kind of compareable to the ogres’ position as part of the darkspawn (and btw it would have made so much more sense for ogres to come from giants, but that’s just my personal opinion...) They probably did raise their hands in worship, along with the dwarves, for the Titans or the Stone or whatever it was back then.

We know that in ancient times, to the outside world (the elves), the dwarves connected to titans seemed mindless, like they had no will of their own. It seems like this wasn’t actually true, based on Valta’s experiences, and it was more like a hive-mind situation probably. In any case, the dwarves seem to really only have become “mindless” after their connection to the titans, their actual minds, was severed. Solas, in dialogue with Varric (which btw has some other really interesting lore hints that I'm thinking a LOT about) says, in his usual culturally sensitive way:

“Dwarves are the severed arm of a once mighty hero, lying in a pool of blood. Undirected. Whatever skill of arms it had, gone forever. Although it might twitch to give the appearance of life, it will never dream.“

And there is this codex entry, that imo strongly implies that Mythal somehow gave the dwarves some form of individual souls and intelligence.

“I am empty, filled with nothing(?), Mythal gives you dreams. It fills you, within you(?), Making our leaders proud. My little stones, Never yours the sun. Forever, forever. “

I can’t currently remember if there were other codex entries about Mythal and dwarves, but I feel like maybe there were? Obviously the dwarves can’t dream in their current form (which the games are very good at forgetting), but they do have individuality, especially the surface dwarves.

That theory is already floating around, so I won’t go into detail because that would definitely be over the top for this post... (I think what exactly Mythal and Solas were doing with the dwarves will be a major lore reveal in DA:D, but they definitely seem to believe to have acted in the dwarves best interest. Solas is actually surprised not to find more trickster figures in dwarven lore. But that’s it’s own whole thing.)

ANWAYS! TL;DR: My theory is that giants are mindless because they used to be connected to the titans, same as the dwarves, but didn’t have individual souls bestowed upon them by Mythal and Solas like the dwarves. So they are just these empty giant husks walking and existing about the place in the form we see them.

#dragon age theories #da theory #dragon age #dai #dai theories #dai spoilers #my theories #da lore #dragon age lore #da4 #da:d #dwarves #titans #da titans

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