#dragon age inquisition
comic I drew for my graphics exam this year, illustrating cole’s personal quest because he’s precious to me :’)
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1 - Meeting Abelas at the Well of sorrows
2 - Putting on a vallaslin.
While Solas was taking vallaslin off from elven slaves, other evanuris put it on.(based on DA:I and SofM screenshots)
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another long rambling meta on dragon age inquisition, i’m sure it comes as a shock that i am, once again, yelling into the void about characters
#i would have to say that sera is just about as much of a mystery#you get a story about cookies#thats it
except that you learn that sera is a notorious kill-stealer, didn’t always have a lot to eat growing up, is a natural with a bow, has traveled to minrathous at least once, joined the jennies really young and learned how to pick locks, doesn’t like thinkingabout hurting people - she just shoots arrows, plays pranks but has ‘lines’ she doesn’t cross even for a joke (even if those lines are different than everyone else’s), she sketches & draws really well and tries to keep little mementos of things she considers important, probably cuts her hair with arrow tips, has a natural talent for sensing the fade that she refers to a ‘weird deja-vu’ and refuses to acknowledge, and thinks dwarves are adorable & qunari are hot.
you actually learn more about sera than you do vivienne.
Okay, is this because you only get to know him if you romance him or…? Genuinely asking because most of those things you think we know about Sera comes from banter, which is ooh so easy to miss, considering you get one every 15 minutes. And most of it is from Cole revealing shit, and he does that with Solas as well. If you just try to ask Sera, she will reveal shit, and even gets mad for asking too many questions. Even if you romance her, you don’t get a lot, but you do get a lot of info if you romance Solas. He even says after you confront him after he broke your heart in Crestwood. “You have seen more then most.”
Like yeah, do we enough to actually actually know him, probably no. But we do know he hates tea, likes frilly cakes, is friends with spirits, likes to watch movies about angels in the fade, think memories are solid gold, likes to visit old places to see what memories they hold, has been hurt in the past so badly he doesnt trust anybody anymore, but cares still so much, dislikes waking up early, has known more war then we can possibly understand, wonders about how qunari put on shirts, is a master in chess, and is a pretty aggressive player who is more then happy to sacrifice key pieces if it means he gets to win an unwinnable game, cares enough to distract an Iron Bull with said game, read all of Varrics books, tries to help Sera by giving her tactical advice, and is a master painter with a deep understanding of symbolism.
Are all these things he actually tells you true? Perhaps not, but he let his guard down long enough to paint a pretty terrifying picture of who he can be if you want to stop him at all costs.
…i keep forgetting that not everyone hyperfixates and triggers all the banter naturally through multiple playthroughs and an embarrassing amount of hours logged in-game.
you’re right! most of that information is easy to miss since it’s not cutscened and some of it comes from reading the codex entries. none of it is cole exclusive though, but the fade-stuff sera-banter does only come up with him & solas.
you do learn all those things about solas! the romance does glean more information (it’s my absolute favorite heart-breaker) and it seems like you learn a lot but it’s- hm. how to put it. it’s less personal? not quite that. less….useful? not quite that either. it’s minutia. scraps. tidbits. it’s the stories he tells on purpose and the brief slip ups behind his masks. like you said, it’s enough to paint a terrifying picture, but it’s still only glimpses.
the others feel like you get to know them, and then know them behind their public projections. josephine turns out to be actively choosing her kindness, dorian gains depth beyond the sass, cassandra is a human being behind being a scary seeker, etc etc & they all feel like fleshed out actual people that you’ve gotten familiar with. solas is familiar too…but then it turns there’s so much more and now he’s not talking.
the trick is that you feel like you know him! look at all those things written above, he’s not some random stranger! but you don’t realize that you don’t really know him until after. because if you go into it blind, no bright red flags pop up in-game until the reveal.
andthat’s the scary part.
another long rambling meta on dragon age inquisition, i’m sure it comes as a shock that i am, once again, yelling into the void about characters
#i would have to say that sera is just about as much of a mystery#you get a story about cookies#thats it
except that you learn that sera is a notorious kill-stealer, didn’t always have a lot to eat growing up, is a natural with a bow, has traveled to minrathous at least once, joined the jennies really young and learned how to pick locks, doesn’t like thinkingabout hurting people - she just shoots arrows, plays pranks but has ‘lines’ she doesn’t cross even for a joke (even if those lines are different than everyone else’s), she sketches & draws really well and tries to keep little mementos of things she considers important, probably cuts her hair with arrow tips, has a natural talent for sensing the fade that she refers to a ‘weird deja-vu’ and refuses to acknowledge, and thinks dwarves are adorable & qunari are hot.
you actually learn more about sera than you do vivienne.
another long rambling meta on dragon age inquisition, i’m sure it comes as a shock that i am, once again, yelling into the void about characters
the thing is…
the thing is that the game devs do it so sneakily you don’t notice
because there’s vivienne, who if you take the time and hear all the side conversations, and actually actively work on her relationship, she tells you a bit about herself. she’s orlesian and plays the game so it’s normal for you to not know much about her, but you can learn about her circle, her harrowing fears, her fashion sense, the love of her life, her regard for you (depending, of course, on your relationship), her position in court, all sorts of things! …so maybe vivienne is a bad example
because there’s the iron bull, who if you take the time and hear all the side conversations and put some effort into seeing past his ‘big mercenary who just happens to write letters’ veneer you can learn a lot about him. his childhood, his deployment, his burnout, his chargers, his favorite color and weapon and how well he ‘peoples’ people (in a subtle way so you don’t usually pick up on the fact that everyone thinks he’s a pretty great, agreeable guy which is damn near impossible for YOU, the MAIN CHARACTER, to pull of so it has to be an impression he actively works for), his love/hate relationship with control & the lack thereof, and his terrifying new forays into being a romantic person and not just a sexual one….aaaand now iron bull is a bad example
there’s blackwall? but he’s also a terrible example because while he lies almost all the time he’s just changed names and locations; at the core it’s personal life experience and he’ll tell you that himself
…maybe cole?
okay, cole!
cole is a ‘hard’ character to get a read on, his vague and straightforward but sideways thinking isn’t the easiest to follow but all that Makes Sense In Context because he’s like, what, a year old? ish? and not human? so there just straight up isn’t a background to go digging very far into because he’s that new
it’s rather telling, isn’t it, that cole is the next ‘sneakiest’ character to solas
because yes, this entire post is about solas!
unlike vivienne or bull or blackwall or cole, at the end of the base game you know JACK SHIT about this guy. he hates tea. he likes history. he enjoys dreaming. his grasp on magical theory and usage makes both vivienne and dorian raise an eyebrow at least once.
anything else? his first career? his childhood friends? his favorite color, his hopes and dreams, where he learned to art Like That, other little personal information?
nope.
you learn more about leliana, your closed off spy master, than you do one of your inner circle companions
and here’s the thing
you don’t notice
solas is an expert level infiltrator because you don’t feel like he’s a mystery any more than any of the others, but at the end of the day solas walks away with a lot more information about you & the inquisition while you’re left staring after his retreating back with scraps and tidbits and theories and the sinking realization that you’ve been tricked
and then years later solas comes waltzing back and explains
heexplains
because if you spend the time and put in the effort you can guess -and it’s a good guess! he even compliments it!- but he’s just as unknown as he was before
but now-
now you know he’s a LOT more dangerous than you thought
and what do we know? for certain, actual in-game text, know?
Not
Very
Much
it’s awfully well done, i’m left sorting through snips and scraps and realizing that for such a big important character, there’s just not much about him
he’s done that on purpose
he’s done it so well that it doesn’t seem odd
the game devs really outdid themselves! also i want to shake them until all the information about solas falls out!!
Some Cullen for the weekend? I think so.
“I’ve been sitting, watching life pass from the sidelines
Been waiting for a dream to seep in through my blinds
I wondered what might happen if I left this all behind
Would the wind be at my back?
Could I get you off my mind
This time?”
Jonathan Rhys Meyers-This Time
“525,600 minutes
525,000 moments so dear
525,600 minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife
In 525,600 minutes
How do you measure a year in the life?”
Rent-Seasons Of Love
A while ago I promised I’ll post some Modern AU Cassandra and never got to it, so here’s some. :)
“Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten”
Natasha Bedingfield-Unwritten
“I think about the years I spent just passing through
I’d like to have the time I lost and give it back to you
But you just smile and take my hand
You’ve been there you understand
It’s all part of a grander plan that is coming true”
Rascal Flatts-Bless The Broken Road
“Well don’t you know that time is a broken glass
That splinters against the wall?
But the picture is coming back now, baby
And I want to take it all”
Savage Garden-Promises
“And scars are souvenirs you never lose
The past is never far
Did you lose yourself somewhere out there?
Did you get to be a star?
And don’t it make you sad to know that life
Is more than who we are?”
Goo Goo Dolls-Name
Artist self-rec, because yes
Not tagged in anything, just wanted to do it because I love the fics rec one, so why not post some of my works that I really like.
I originally planned to write something for each one, but then I noticed it’s quite similar for each one of them and in the end, it’s just a few pieces that I personally really like and think deserve some loving.
Also, I noticed that all five I posted with song lyrics that means a lot to me, and while it wasn’t intentional, it probably means something.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
“So long you been running in circles, around whats at stake
But now the times come for your feet to stand still in one place
You wanna reach out, you wanna give in
Your heads wrapped around but whats around the next bin
You wish you can find something warm ‘cause your shivering cold
It’s the first thing you see as you open your eyes
The last thing you say as you’re saying goodbye
Something inside you is crying, driving you on”
Jonathan Rhys Meyers-Something Inside
“But I’ll start over again
And put every color in
Find that love and take it back
I’m coming home
I’m here to stay
I’ve got the wind at my back
And now I’m wide awake
In this moment
I am finally
Living for today”
Alex Band-Coming Home
“Keep moving way up high
You see the light
It shines forever
Sail through the crimson skies
The purest light
The light that sets you free
If time will set you free”
Savage Garden-You Can Still Be Free
“Will the darkness fall upon me
When the air is growing thin
Will the light begin to pull me
To its everlasting will
I can hear the voices haunting
There is nothing left to fear
And I am still calling
I am still calling to you”
Breaking Benjamin-Ashes Of Eden
