Dragon Age Meta Nexus

So one of the terrifically fascinating parts of World of Thedas: Volume 2 is the inclusion of more of the Chant of Light than we have previously seen. And unless I miss my guess (having not been in the habit of reading the Chant codices), we never saw very much of the Canticle of Silence.

Lemme talk a little about the Avvar, because this here is some very interesting shit.First, a little bit of timeline:~-4000 Ancient: Elves first make contact with the dwarves.~-3100 Ancient: Neromenians (first humans) arrive from the north.-2580 Ancient: The veil goes up. Elves stop being immortal. (Backed up @ https://web.archive.org/save/http://stardevil653.tumblr.com/post/131612405495/mythal-is-up-to-some-shit-the-avvar )

this is one of those pedantic things that makes me second guess myself whenever i write fic but how long do you guys figure it actually takes to get from Skyhold to... well, anywhere? is it a relatively quick two day ride to the Hinterlands? is getting to the Hissing Wastes a two week commitment?

Tell the tale of Tyrdda Bright-Axe, mountain maker, spirit's bride: Free, her people, forged in fastness, made in mountains, hardy hide. Wise in wisdom, calm in counsel, great in gifts her grateful guests, Sacrificed she did to spirits, took their teachings, followed quests. Bright her axe, unbreaking crystal, stirred to flame when temper flies, Gifted from her leaf-eared lover, laughing lady of the skies. Bested blades of all who tried, Maiden, spurning all requests, Tyrdda Bright-Axe, Dreamer's Eyes.

Rivers of Thedas aka wtf geography is this (subtitle: is it magic? we just don't know) (There's some more fantastic meta in the reblogs, but no reblog chain contains enough of it to be worth adding instead of the original post.)

This is a growing compilation of fan-made Elvish words, intended to fit in with the Elvish language in the Dragon Age series. Because holy hell, the canon vocabulary is small.

See, that's the thing: for all it plays at being benign, Kinloch Hold is a toxic environment. All that paranoia, all that anger and worry and fear - is it any wonder that the Veil was so thin, that there was eventually a rebellion? If it hadn't been Uldred, it would've been someone else. And there must have been so many Circles like this. Here we see the first seeds of the rebellion Anders starts.

The one major issue with the Magi origin is that, because the player is dropped into the middle of a brand new world that the character has inhabited all their life, Amell or Surana will spend the entire time wandering around like "new brain who dis?"

> Apparently Cullen is an LI for DA:I, but I don't know how I'm going to get over his mage bashing in order to try that story line. >> Yeah, he is. I've romanced him because I'm the type of person who likes to go through every possible option, and IMO it was kind of… boring? I'll admit the adorkable levels were high and that was cute, (there's one scene where the inquisitor and him go for a walk and they both just kind of beat around the bush talking about the weather and shit,) but out of all the LIs I've done so far he's my least favourite. Nothing really happens of importance. I understand people headcanon things to fill it up, and that's all fine of course. I do that myself with a lot of stuff.

So, Justice talks about how the lyrium 'sings'. Bartrand goes mad from the 'song' of the red lyrium idol. The call of the archdemon is referred to as a song, IIRC, when the Architect talks to the Mother. The Carta dwarves in Legacy talk about hearing 'the song', which is Corypheus's half-asleep intentions.BUT!

Anders is sometimes accused of being a terrorist, which is interesting, since the game provides multiple examples of actual terrorists as a counterpoint. I don't think the idea is entirely the fault of the audience, as Bioware is clearly aware of the current cultural association between exploding buildings and terrorism, and I know some of the writers made comments in that direction.

There are actually some pretty unnervingly direct parallels between the characters of Anders and Andraste, especially if you take the interpretation that Andraste was an avatar of a spirit of Hope. Both rising from oppressed underclass, nourishing and becoming a symbol of hope to the despairing masses, taking up the sword to kick the asses of the tyrants, and (potentially) being betrayed by a love one and martyred.

You know the single thing that bothered me most about DA:2 (besides Ali and Zev's hideous mutant faces)?The Enigma of Kirkwall-not its existence, but the fact that this thing, this seemingly REALLY VITAL piece of information was all but abandoned, thrown in as a really difficult little side treasure hunt with no quest marker and no incentive.

What are your thoughts on Meredith? She's easy to demonise, but I think more complicated than often painted. She rejected the "tranquil solution," and I suspect she keeps tranquil around in the Gallows not as trophies so much as to ensure that they are gainfully employed and not cast out into the world.

I think it's fairly clear that she resents Hawke for a number of reasons: knowing Malcolm better than she does (implied at the end of Legacy), failing to save him/acting as the head of the family despite the fact that she's clearly not stepping into the role or even trying, the dead twin, etc. Moreover, I think it's fairly obvious that Leandra and Malcolm were very much what would have happened if Romeo and Juliet hadn't had a typically tragic ending: they were young, impulsive, and in "love," but once you've given up everything, what does that really leave you with? A partner you barely know, who you've put all your trust into despite that, and despite however much Leandra says she puts love above all-else, we see even in her conversations with Gamlen that this very much isn't necessarily the case, and she carries a lot of her bitterness with her. She wasn't ready for what running away really meant, she was young enough to have very likely acted impulsively on a romantic ideal that didn't pan out in any way she'd actually hoped.

A point. Anders says that even the wisest sage could not say where he ends and Justice begins, but he still speaks of Justice as someone else, at times - someone other than himself. It's because there's not a line. There's a gradient.

Furthermore, Cullen's aversion to going belowdecks is mentioned multiple times in his section:"He disliked the confined spaces belowdecks, complaining to the ship's herbalist that he found it difficult to breathe. In the ship's logs, the captain mused on his unusual passenger: 'The templar won't go below at all now.

Tbh I've been wondering ever since I noticed Dispel Magic was an ability mages could learn, why was it never suggested by anyone in the games to have self governing mages teaching new mages, with fellow mages standing by to dispel spells that get out of control?

Right from the beginning, Cullen wants you to go to the Templars, because the mages power might destroy us all. So Cullen rants about going to the templars and when Leliana shuts him down, he almost proudly states that he was a templar and knows what they are capable of.

Okay, not all of us, but those of us who imported an Old God Baby.Check it out. When you run into the eluvian after Morrigan and Kieran, no matter how far you run or which direction you look, the sky is uncluttered.