Dragon Age Veilguard, Doodles 4

UHM EXCUSE ME but did any of you know that the elven woman from that Gaatlok barrel scene in Trespasser who turns out to be one of Solas’ agents is present in that very last cutscene at the Winter Palace when the Inquisitor declares the future of the Inquisition, standing all by herself behind a pillar in the back corner of the room eavesdropping without anyone noticing….. or was I supposed to discover this with the flycam just now???

Var lath Vir Suledin....!! And so it did, vhenan -- I just imagine that at some point laughter returns to the two of them as the weight of their lives becomes easier to shoulder together.

Warning: Some dav criticism ahead

Why is Tevinter so shallow? It isn't just about the lack of slavery (that, whatever else it is, however it was handled before, has been a pillar of Tevinter identity and inevitably leaves a hole in the narrative by being pratically missing). Why does the magisterium, the caste system, the Antaam invasion outside of Minrathous and the Black Divine play no role at all in its storyline?

Why the atrocities of the Crows (buying children, for example?) never come up during their faction quests?

Why do we hear nothing about the political side of the mortalitasi, how they control Nevarra from the shadows?

Why do we never even hear about Kont-aar even though we are in Rivain? Why there is no counterpoint to the (metaphorically, by qunari standards, mindless and souless) Antaam? Why is the qun completely missing from the game and the qunari reduced to cannon fodder the player has to cut down?

Why are the questions about magic that permeate every previous game absent here, especially when veilguard being set in the north could have given us such a unique viewpoint?

And, more importantly:

Why am I supposed to believe that no dalish elves would worship the gods they have already been worshipping their whole lives? That they wouldn't follow out of naivety, out of misplaced hope for a better future, out of fear, seeking to placate them?

Why am I supposed to believe that the gods would not even try to seek the dalish, when we are told by the previous games about the dalish hunters of legend, about how they are a mighty force to be reckoned with when united? Why do they only show up at the Blood of Arlathan quest, to play damsel in distress?

Why am I supposed to believe that no elves from the alienages would want to join the gods, because of every reason mentioned above, or out of spite or disdain for an uncaring world?

And yes, I know everyone learned the gods were evil off-screen. Why was it off-screen?

Also, where are the agents of Fen'Harel? Where are the people that vanished by the end of Trespasser?

Obviously, you can't expand on all of this in a single game, but why is all of it absent?

Why is bioware so afraid to engage with the world they created?

Solas and Varric inaudible argument dialogue...

I managed to clean up the dialogue audio of Solas and Varric "arguing inaudibly" in the background during ritual while you're running to break scaffolding.. I wanted to know exactly what they were saying! :) If anyone else is interested and couldn't hear it in the game... 😊

felassan things that kept me awake last night:

the 4,000 year time span between the veil and the masked empire during which felassan could only ever have spoken to solas in dreams when at all.

the years solas spent in the lighthouse with all those fucking notes from felassan around. "don't cause too much trouble before i get there."

the only time anyone says felassan's name out loud in the video games is when solas says it in an ancient arlathan memory

solas not painting felassan a mural in the lighthouse and only referring to him as "my agent," once, but still regretting what happened with him so much that it's one of the three big revenants powered by his regret, after the titans and mythal???? sir your repression

the ambiguity of "the betrayal of felassan" as the name of that revenant. whose betrayal of whom.

the heart of corruption/revenant dragon residing in the same place felassan used to go to get away from everything.

felassan calling it "our rebellion."

felassan being aware that he would die if he reported back to solas, seeing a plausible way he could run instead, and reporting back anyway.

the tone he takes during his death scene being so friendly and nonchalant, "what's the harm really" and "i suspect you'll hate this," like he's still trying to talk to solas like they are friends and equals even while he is aware solas is about to kill him.

felassan isn't even his real/original name and in one of his veilguard notes he refers to being felassan at all as being "solas's friend felassan" like that identity is inextricably tied to his friendship with solas, he cannot be felassan without also being solas's friend.

"and you are the slow arrow?" / "i hope so."

in conclusion,

Art by The Unclean

did I spend merely an hour just doing nothing during the fights just to take screenshots of Solas?

yes.

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Things Tranquility does:

Cuts you off from the Fade

Prevents you from doing magic

Sunders you from your emotions

Things Tranquility does not do:

Affect your intelligence

Render you incapable of reasoning

Turn you into a subservient, mindless drone

Cause lapses in judgement

Get rid of your morals and beliefs

Cleanse you of opinions, prejudice, or preconceptions

Make you immune to posession

Make you less of a person

Hi I was wondering if it’s bad to use ai like not for posting just for myself like character ai? I kinda low-key got bullied out of a fandom and haven’t been able to write in a long time that I feel like I have forgotten how to because of how traumatic and depressed I got from it so I’m trying to get back into it again. Anything I’ve wrote on my own just isn’t working so trying to use a character to kinda help I guess is what I’ve been trying to do. I know it’s a big discussion right now but I’m not posting anything to claim it’s mine I know that’s wrong to do

character AI still has a lot of the same ethical issues as any other generative AI in that it is still stealing other people's work to function, and is still as bad for environment as any other generative AI.

however, I understand that these tools exist and are not going away, and I can't tell you what to do or not do in your own time for your own private use. that's a decision you have to make for yourself according to your own values and principles!

if you wind up creating any work based on these prompts or use these chats as the basis for any creative work that you DO ultimately share, you should definitely disclose that, however.

I also want to add that writer's block and feeling too depressed to write are things that creatives have dealt with since the dawn of humanity, and there are other ways to move through these things besides resorting to tools like generative AI. I've been there, so I understand how awful it feels to be in that place, but once again, I really want to stress that anything YOU make, even if it's messy, unpolished, rough, etc. is still going to be infinitely more valuable because it came from YOU and your brain and your imagination and that will always be better than something generated by a robot that steals from other people's work. I know it can feel bleak, but trust yourself and your creative instincts!!! you have a unique brain and a unique voice, don't outsource those gifts to a robot!!!! I believe in you!!!!

solas, elven apostate, fen'harel, dreadwolf