Given How Much Of The Immediate Backstory To Dragon Age: Inquisition Was Found In Asunder And The Masked

Given how much of the immediate backstory to Dragon Age: Inquisition was found in Asunder and the Masked Empire, I think some people might be wondering if any of the short stories, anthologies, or comics are also "homework" for The Veilguard. Obviously, the game's not out yet, so I can't be 100% sure, but here's my best recommendations based on what we know about the characters (done in alphabetical order because why not).

Bellara: She's new! The Veil-jumpers are in a single issue of the Missing, but she's not any of the ones named there. They investigate magical disturbances around Arlathan forest, and that's kind of all we know.

Davrin: Also new! The reason he seems to have a juvenile griffon (or at least, why there's a griffon at all!) is covered in the events of the novel The Last Flight, but it's hard to say how much any of those specifics are relevant to Davrin.

Emmrich: Emmrich (and Manfred!) is in Down Among the Dead Men in Tevinter Nights, and another, The Eternal Flame released during a Dragon Age Day and archived on the wiki. We learn he's a senior member of the Mourn Watchers, somewhat eccentric, and capable of talking to the dead. Also he's got a last name, Volkarin, so that's neat. All of that seems pretty easy to catch people up on in-game. (Down Among the Dead Men is really good though).

Harding: Harding is in the Missing, accompanying Varric on his hunt for Solas. Her buddy-cop-comedy-ing it with Varric is apparent from the trailer. Her apparent magic powers are completely new though!

Lucanis: He and Neve probably have the most backstory in Tevinter Nights of the bunch. Lucanis's story is found in the Wigmaker Job and he's mentioned in Eight Little Talons, both in Tevinter Nights. A Dragon Age Day short story called the Wake seems to have implied that he died, so mayhaps he faked his death? To hopefully set some people at ease, even though he's advertised as "The Magekiller," the mages he's killing are Venatori, so it's all good. I doubt he'd have beef with Neve or Emmrich or a mage PC JUST because they're mages. Also he's got a last name, Dellamorte.

Neve: Neve has a last name too! It's Gallus. Neve is the viewpoint character of the Streets of Minrathous, where she stops a Venatori plot to unleash a giant sealed demon underneath Minrathous. Her story is very Noir-vibes in a fantasy setting. She's also in the Missing for an issue, where she meets Varric and Harding and they work together to help escaped slaves avoid recapture by the Venatori. The giant sealed demon business did feel very "preview of a boss battle" but who can say if it actually is.

Taash: Like with Bellara, Taash herself is new, but the Lords of Fortune have featured elsewhere. They're in a number of stories in Tevinter Nights, as well as in Dragon Age: Absolution. The group doesn't seem to have a formal role, they seem to be sort of "adventurers for hire." Side note though, Ataashi is Qunlat for dragon, so I wonder if that's where Taash got her name.

You know, in terms of mage companions I feel like on we haven't had yet is a rivaini seer or an avvar mage. So on one hand, I'll love to see both of them as a companion but then Bioware would find a way to villanize or both-sides the them. Instead of just presenting them as they are and letting us come to our own conclusions they employ these manipulative writing techniques to steer you away from having TOO much sympathy for mages, so I'd rather Rivain just remained in the background. Much safer

It would be so cool to have a Rivaini seer or Avvar mage companion. Bonus points if they were benignly possessed by a Spirit (two-in-one deal! 😆) and it would shed so much light on the lore on Spirit possession.

On the topic of Spirit possession: Jaws of Hakkon kind of gave us a glimpse into what benign Spirit possession among the Avvar looks like; it might be likely the next game will take us to Rivain and we'll get to see practices among the seers there, too. I think it also might be likely we'll get to visit Nevarra, and might either get to play as a Mortalitasi or have a Mortalitasi companion, which might also shed more light on Spirits inhabiting (dead) bodies.

But you do have point about BioWare's disappointing track record when it comes to portraying mages. The next game will bring us to Tevinter; I'm just dreading they'll try to convince players "magic bad, mages evil!" 😐 I'm not keeping my hopes up.

Thanks for the ask! 😃

I don't want to be too excited about Dragon Age Dreadwolf but. What if in one of the origins you get to be a human Avvar. A MAGE Avvar. Someone who hasn't grown up under the Chantry's rule and who learnt magic through being what the rest of Thedas call an "abomination." That's would be so freaking rad and be a nice follow-up to the Jaws of Hakkon DLC. I wouldn't know what to choose between that and being an elf for sure (because fighting against Solas as an elf would also be Great for Prime Drama)

Codex entry: A Good Marriage

“In a hold past our own, a man named Virmik Torsen was to wed a woman named Seddra Yildsdotten. They were young, and in love, and made large offerings to the gods asking for happiness. The night before their wedding, Seddra had a dream. The Lady of the Skies came to her and told her to tie her rope-knots so tightly that she and Torsen would only wed a year. She awoke troubled, but did as the Lady asked. Virmik untied only one knot, and they married a year.

The year was hard. Their bows missed game and the winter wind howled through their huts. Virmik and Seddra grew thinner. When their marriage was up, they made large offerings to the gods, this time asking for mercy. The night before the wedding, the Lady of the Skies came to Virmik in a dream and told him to untie a single knot, so he and Seddra would wed only a year. Virmik awoke sorrowing, but did as the Lady asked. He and Seddra married again for a year.

The year was long. The weather was foul and the crops were poor. Virmik and Seddra grew thinner still. When their marriage time was up, Seddra and Virmik both had a dream from the Lady of the Skies. “You asked for happiness,” she said, “but I cannot give that to you. You asked for mercy, but the land will not show it. Think carefully what you ask tomorrow.”

Seddra and Virmik spoke long into the night and in the morning made an offering to the gods. They asked for strength to hunt and harvest when life was good, and patience, when life was not. The year was good in some places and hard in others, but they grew to know themselves and what they could bear. They became happy, not from the gift of the gods, but from their own deeds, and lived the rest of their lives as one.”

—From Stories of the Wild South: A Collection of Tales of the Barbarian Nations of Ferelden by Lady Susanna Ashwell of Ansburg

There are notes at the bottom margin of this page, in different handwritings:

“How’s a rope tell you how long you marry?”

“An Avvar groom unties knots on a rope that the bride ties for him. He’s got until the end of the wedding-chant. Number of knots he unties is the number of years they’re married.”

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

“Sounds like a good deal to me. See if you like living with your handsome new husband or wife once the bloom’s worn off. Maybe you only untie one knot or tie them tight, like in the story, if you’re not sure.”

“I think it’s daft.”

“I think you two nitwits should stop scribbling in the book I’ve got to return to the library.”

i know the inquisitor is SICK about that look harding gave rook though oh my god. years of flirting and some loser pulls a chandelier down on themself and it’s immediately over for you

The thing I’m actually worried about writing wise with Dragon Age: The Veilgurad, is how unaddressed or back tracks they’re going to be about the Crows.

This is an organization that bought children, stored them in the attic of an abandoned factory stuffed with children, made those children fight eachother for scraps to earn their way into the organization that bought them, and then literally tortured them as young adults to teach them how not to reveal crow secrets if they were captured and tortured on the missions later.

Origins draws very strong comparisons to how the MO of both the templars and the crows is most often buying and indoctrinating small children as young as they can find them to become on demand killers for their own purposes. Zevran is hunted and almost killed were it not for a befriended warden when he shows the slightest signs of being something other than obedient crow property.

But here a teaser with an antivan crow saying that the crows “fight for everyone and we always will” and Lucanis is over here being like “Oh I’m a crow and I kill Venatori slavers as my fav target, hate them,” kinda thing, while being the closest thing the crows have to a prince being the favourite grandson of one of the talons.

I just have a feeling like they’re going to heavily sanitize the crows and try to make us go “they’re cool heroic freedom fighters” rather than. Not, they bought Zevran as a child, tortured him, kept him in cramped, crowded, dirty conditions, made him fight for scraps to stay alive, and taught him to murder targets given to him on pain of death and use his sexuality as a tool to do so to the degree that he has a trauma response in origins where he snaps about feeling like a sex object.

Like, no doubt I’m gonna love Lucanis. Loved him in the stories too. A mage whose magic manifests as “the fade makes my eyes itchy and I prefer to stab” and also targets imperialists and slavers specifically? Yeah. Awesome premise! Bit if there’s no moment of “you love the crows because you were in the extremely privelege position of being born into a high power family within the leadership while other members were bought and indoctrinated as child soldiers and it’s not all freedom fighting and cool assassin fun times” I’m gonna be very disappointed