It really is crazy that Bioware came out with the friendship/rivalry system in DA2 and not only did it never revisit it, no one else did either?? Like a system that lays out and explicitly incentivizes roleplaying as a character with real principles and explores how butting heads with a character might actually play out? And I know that you can have different dynamics with party members in other DA games but I feel like what was so special about 2’s system is it explicitly didn’t frame making a character mad as a loss of progress but a different kind of progress.
yeah sorry im the annoying strawman leftist who you cant watch fantasy with because when they introduce a kingdom and expect you to sympathize with the ruling family i roll my eyes and make an exaggerated jerk off motion
red mages are called that because they derive their power from the immortal science of marxist-leninism, and are strictly speaking a kind of cleric, but traditionally not classified as such due to the USSR’s policy of state atheism
i’ve been obsessed with the forgotten ones for YEARS now, ever since alexis kennedy dropped the best writing in the da setting since origins in a random text-based side game and dipped without further explanation. the last court just teed it all up so beautifully, and instead of retconning, da:i expands on it! geldauran’s claim teases out more of the logical conclusions of the clues in tlc: these forgotten ones represented dissent against the evanuris, driven by goals and clearly-defined philosophies that could never be made compatible with the aims of arlathan’s ruling elite or the state faith they’d created. they complicate solas’ revolt by serving as a rival faction on the same side of an insurrection, a faction that apparently had ideological, programmatic, or strategic differences with solas so severe that a one-time ally eventually sealed them away in the void.
and finally, we meet anaris, the first forgotten one we’ve ever encountered in person… and it turns out he is, as mythal describes him, just a “selfish fool” who wants to bust out of the void by covering the world in demons. no expressed convictions, no cause, no alternate vision for the future of his people, nothing like the hard philosophical stance taken by geldauran in a random codex entry ten years ago. he is simply demonmaxxing. fuck my stupid chungus life
and what little we learned about the clan in the tirashan that still venerates the forgotten ones was so full of potential. like dalish clans, they’re only attacking because the neighboring human settlement’s fucking them over, but they treat violent conflict with their oppressors as a form of worship, something that makes their “gods”/founders/leaders stronger. despite knowing what the evanuris were, they still wear vallaslin; why? reclamation? to commemorate the slave revolt that became their clan? a reminder that the revolt isn’t over, that they still have shackles to cast off, that the tirashan isn’t free? and why is the blood writing always red — to honor the blood spilt by their ancestors, as a warning to any enemies who’d make them slaves again? how do they feel about the dalish, who might be descendants of their enemies but might be descendants of their enemies’ thralls, the people they fought a war to free? how do they feel about solas, the guy who trapped their leaders in the void but at one point struggled alongside them? what’s their perspective on the veil? what does their inclusion say about historiography, warring narratives, memory, mourning, transformation, justice, all the key themes of the setting at large?
or they can be a featureless cult. not like we had enough of those
i’ve been obsessed with the forgotten ones for YEARS now, ever since alexis kennedy dropped the best writing in the da setting since origins in a random text-based side game and dipped without further explanation. the last court just teed it all up so beautifully, and instead of retconning, da:i expands on it! geldauran’s claim teases out more of the logical conclusions of the clues in tlc: these forgotten ones represented dissent against the evanuris, driven by goals and clearly-defined philosophies that could never be made compatible with the aims of arlathan’s ruling elite or the state faith they’d created. they complicate solas’ revolt by serving as a rival faction on the same side of an insurrection, a faction that apparently had ideological, programmatic, or strategic differences with solas so severe that a one-time ally eventually sealed them away in the void.
and finally, we meet anaris, the first forgotten one we’ve ever encountered in person… and it turns out he is, as mythal describes him, just a “selfish fool” who wants to bust out of the void by covering the world in demons. no expressed convictions, no cause, no alternate vision for the future of his people, nothing like the hard philosophical stance taken by geldauran in a random codex entry ten years ago. he is simply demonmaxxing. fuck my stupid chungus life
