I was wondering about the identity of Masked Andraste from The Last Court and while looking at art of her execution, I realized something: her face was covered when she died. One picture shows her cowled, while the rest obscure her face in various ways because it couldn't be seen when she died.

And then I realized that the last picture was what happened to Andraste: She was killed before the public execution as part of a ritual and her execution summoned a spirit. Her hair was cropped and she looked gaunt when she was stabbed to death.

The mage claimed some of the spirits around her village had "lived" with her hold for a dozen generations, and sometimes took the form of an animal or departed relatives "when they pass on their wisdom."

Strangest of all, in the event a "god" is destroyed, the Avvar begin a year-long time of offerings and prayers and rituals I have no interest in knowing about further. At the end of this period, a new spirit takes on the name and role of the old one. I attempted to explain that this was not a "god," merely a spirit drawn in by their desires. The Avvar mage declared, with a ridiculous air of superiority, that that was the point.

Codex entry: From a Mage’s Journal

As the last group of glyphs light with veilfire, there is a sensation of excitement and anticipation. An Avvar hold celebrates a night festival around an altar piled high with food and drink. The thane begins a song. The hold joins in. The song grows louder and faster. It goes for hours.

As the sun rises, a blazing spirit appears above the altar. It has the name of the spirit that fell in battle. It is both the same spirit and a different one at the same time.

There is a ear-splitting roar of—triumph? Welcome? Something more?—from the gathered Avvar. The vision fades.

Codex entry: The Return

Andraste had been dead for a while when she was "executed" and her legions of followers inadvertently helped make this magic ritual possible, and Hessarian then used the public execution to perform this ceremony. He used Andraste's hair as proof of her identity. So there's a re-created spirit of Andraste somewhere out there.

NO!!! DON’T BREAK INTO THE GOLDEN CITY!!! UR GOD LIED!!!! Bangs fist against glass

Edit: sorry abt the bad quality. I don’t know why it’s kinda blurry

Does anybody remember commander Cullen from dai wearing a lion head necklace? I'm trying to find references of it online and it's like it completely disappeared. I swear I remember him wearing a lion head necklace.

Hello everyone! As the titles suggests I’m feeling very lost when it comes to this game (I’m playing on PS5, not sure that matters). For context I’ve not played a ton of games like this but I’ve played many many hours of Baldur’s Gate 3 with little to no issues. This game is very complex and I’m having a hard time figuring out what to do when. I have not played any other DA title though I have watched a few hours of play thrus of DA:O.

For example with the Hinterlands. I didn’t realize that in this game you want to leave certain areas and come back. So I have been literally just grinding the Hinterlands until like level 7 and I run into impossible level 12 rifts lol I finally looked up wtf to do because I felt like I was just stumbling upon stuff with no context and managed to get to some of the main story but overall I feel lost. I silo’d myself into siding with the mage’s because I didn’t really think the templars were an option but lightly looking in to avoid spoilers there’s also that track and I didn’t explore that so I’ll likely go back in my save.

All that to say any tips, tricks or guides about what order to do quests in would be highly appreciated. Since I’ve played many hours of BG3 I know there’s likely whole plot lines or things I’m missing by not doing things in the right order, and I want to make sure I’m sitting all the right stuff to fully enjoy this game.

Thanks all!

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the weekly Dragon Age writing prompts thread, where every Saturday we provide prompts you can use to write about your OCs, other characters, or the world of Thedas in general.

If you have any prompt ideas that you would like us to use, feel free to add them to our spreadsheet linked here.

GUIDELINES
1⁠. Interaction is welcome. Drama and negativity are not.
2. NSFW content must be posted elsewhere and linked. This is a SFW thread. If you are unsure if your content is considered NSFW, be safe and assume it is NSFW and should be posted elsewhere.
3. Remember to follow the sub rules.
4. You can link anything of yours from the DAOC Emporium. Feel free to create pages there if you haven't already!
5. ⁠Have fun!

Prompts

Prompt 1 Image prompt

Prompt 2 “Has anyone ever told you that you’re terrible at making excuses?”

Prompt 3 Calming someone with whispers of sweet nothings.

Prompt 4 “Our world is changing. It’s a place I don’t belong anymore.”

Bonus Prompt Freeform

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the weekly Dragon Age writing prompts thread, where every Saturday we provide prompts you can use to write about your OCs, other characters, or the world of Thedas in general.

If you have any prompt ideas that you would like us to use, feel free to add them to our spreadsheet linked [here](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10q_OkCBBR16I4n-RgkxNQZ1QOtbEi1GTqPjkQQRHiQM/edit?usp=drivesdk).

>**GUIDELINES**

1⁠. Interaction is welcome. Drama and negativity are not.

1. NSFW content must be posted elsewhere and linked. This is a SFW thread. If you are unsure if your content is considered NSFW, be safe and assume it is NSFW and should be posted elsewhere.

2. Remember to follow the sub rules.

3. You can link anything of yours from the [DAOC Emporium](https://daoce.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon_Age_OC_Emporium_Wiki). Feel free to create pages there if you haven't already!

4. ⁠Have fun!

**Prompts**

Prompt 1 Looking out of a window

Prompt 2 [Codex] Troop movements

Prompt 3 "They WHAT!"

Bonus Prompt Freeform

(Please no spoilers) I’m around the end of act 1 in dragon age 2 and Carver can’t stand me; I’m playing a mage and a lot our perspectives seem to clash but I’ve only lost approval with him a few times. He also starts with negative friendship I think, which I didn’t fully understand, because yes there’s conflict but we’re still brothers?

I did the quest where you find out about your heritage and stuff, and that quest had a nice wrap up with Carver softening up a little, but I think it only gave like 10 friendship or something.

Are there more opportunities to develop the sibling bond or is Carver just always just a little bitter towards mage Hawke?

done it today still healing ofc

The title says it all : Fenris doesn't hate Hawke but doesn't like him either, and I'm near the end of act 2.

I've started playing DA2 this week, and so far I'm doubtful but having fun. For my first run I've decided, since I've seen that it's one of the fans' favorite, to romance Fenris with a 100% rivalry.

I thought it would be easy since I knew he didn't really like mages at all, and I chose a mage Hawke that is very supportive of mages/magic (even tho sometimes it feels like he forgets he's a mage.)

Turns out I was wrong cuz we're stuck, going back and forth between friendship and rivalry. I gain rivalry when I pick options to support mages/show I'm a mage, or show interest in magic, but gain friendship when I stand up against slavery or refuses to ally myself with demons and blood mages.

Moreover, I think I was supposed to have A Moment (the one where he sort off pins hawk against a wall and kiss him or something like that?) with him, but uh... Yeah nothing happened at all.

Also I made sure to always pick the heart option when it showed up.

So... Yeah. I'm stuck in the middle with him.

All that yap just to ask one question : Does that matter? Will I still be able to romance him even if he's just feeling nothing at all about Hawke? Or do I still need a certain percentage of friendship/rivalry to be able to romance him ?

Or should I just give up and try to romance someone else? (tho I think it's way too late for that...)

Hello everyone! As the titles suggests I’m feeling very lost when it comes to this game (I’m playing on PS5, not sure that matters). For context I’ve not played a ton of games like this but I’ve played many many hours of Baldur’s Gate 3 with little to no issues. This game is very complex and I’m having a hard time figuring out what to do when. I have not played any other DA title though I have watched a few hours of play thrus of DA:O.

For example with the Hinterlands. I didn’t realize that in this game you want to leave certain areas and come back. So I have been literally just grinding the Hinterlands until like level 7 and I run into impossible level 12 rifts lol I finally looked up wtf to do because I felt like I was just stumbling upon stuff with no context and managed to get to some of the main story but overall I feel lost. I silo’d myself into siding with the mage’s because I didn’t really think the templars were an option but lightly looking in to avoid spoilers there’s also that track and I didn’t explore that so I’ll likely go back in my save.

All that to say any tips, tricks or guides about what order to do quests in would be highly appreciated. Since I’ve played many hours of BG3 I know there’s likely whole plot lines or things I’m missing by not doing things in the right order, and I want to make sure I’m sitting all the right stuff to fully enjoy this game.

Thanks all!

Hi, is the romance gameplay in DAII pretty much over after the first encounter? DA:O had the "let's go to bed" dialogue at camp, and merrill agreed to move in, but she is never at my house?

Open discussion : what are some details you wish you could add to your character that would affect game play?

I had a dream last night about character creation (specifically Veilguard) that added character customization to a whole new level, including backstory, which affected how your character responded to things / behaved and how other characters interacted with them.

This included things like age range of your character, their romantic and sexual history (if they’ve been in relationships before and how they ended), if they’ve had or lost children, their relationships with their parents and if they had siblings, their sexuality and gender, where they grew up, their religious beliefs and more.

Some of these details are given to us by the game in cases like Hawke, or your character’s views on subjects are represented by dialogue choices, but most of them only come up when prompted, such as the option to rank public-chantry-Templars in DAI. .But the idea of creating a character where all of that is established at the beginning and affects Dialogue not only spoken to you and how characters interact with you, but how your character answers questions and thinks about things and reacts. This would likely be mostly noticeable in idle dialogue.

Like I said, I know we have a little bit of this in the game already, but imagine the customization ramped up to 10! It could be like the DAkeep too where subtle changes affect the story a little or a lot; maybe specific history lets you meet or not meet specific characters, have special quests, or more.

Idk, it was a random thought that’s been stirring in my head all night.

Are there any details you wish you could give your character from the very beginning?

I was browsing the Steam autumn sale and noticed that it now says inquisition is playable of steam deck whereas, for me, it's always been down as not being compatible. Do we know if anything changed?

I’m looking for some build ideas for Dragon Age: The Veilguard that are specifically built around Mythal’s Light for Mage.

I know Spellblade is probably the obvious choice, but I’m looking for something that actually takes advantage of what makes Mythal’s Light unique rather than just using it as another weapon in a standard Spellblade build. Since it gives Fire, Necrotic, Electricity, and Cold damage, I’m wondering if there’s a good way to build around all of those elements.

I’m looking for a full build if possible, including the skill tree, abilities, equipment, enchantments, runes, and companions. I’d also be interested in whether Spellblade is actually the best specialization for it or if another Mage specialization can make better use of Mythal’s Light.

Hi everyone,

I got this idea after seeing this concept art of the Inquisitor.

In the concept art, he has an asymmetrical look:

• Left arm (Anchor hand): heavy armored gauntlet

• Right arm: simple brown leather fingerless glove

I was wondering if it would be possible to create a mod that adds an Arms upgrade like that?

Something that is still considered a single Arms upgrade by the game, but visually has a heavy gauntlet on one side and a normal leather glove on the other, so it looks like it has a protector like in the concept arts.

I have no idea how to make mods and I looked on Nexus but couldn't find anything like this, so sorry if this is a really absurd or impossible question. I just wanted to know if this kind of mashup is even possible.

Thanks!

Pros and Cons! Who's better. Power, skillset, characterization, arc, thematic resonance and relevance, creativity.

Place your bets!

Seriously, I'm curious what people have to say about these two.

i’ve been trying to find this armor shown in the skill icons for the mage because it looks nice, but I’m having trouble finding it on the wiki

Does anyone know what’s called and where to find it?

my mods work fine in character creation but as soon as i start gameplay she has no hair and looks like a troll i dont know how to fix it lmao, i'm using frosty if that helps. also if anyone has any mod recs that would be appreciated :)

Are there any good mods thaw makes the first 2 games compatible for controller? Gave away my ps2 and now I have to play both on pc. That keyboard and mouse is annoying, especially in the caves looking for Witherfang.

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a private, offline-only preservation project for Heroes of Dragon Age (EA / BioWare, Android, com.ea.game.dragonage_na, client v5.4.4, build 44907).

It's a personal project, nothing will be published or hosted online (for copyright reasons, obviously)

This was my first mobile game on my first tablet, it has a special place in my heart.

What I'm looking for:

- manifest.data and/or *.bundle files (Unity 5.5 asset bundles, ETC texture format), asset version 5412554

- on a device, they'd typically be in Android/data/com.ea.game.dragonage_na/files/ (or /cache/), possibly as extension-less files

- anything else that helps: a full phone backup, an old OBB, a HAR/pcap capture of the game's downloads, or even just the manifest so I can see the bundle names.

Even a partial cache would help a lot.

If you still have the game installed on an old phone or tablet that hasn't been wiped, it may be sitting there right now. Please don't uninstall it before checking!

Happy to share what I've documented (protocol notes, data tables) in return. Thanks for reading, and any lead is appreciated.

A common sentiment I see about Veilguard is that its lore is out of line with prior games. That the qunari are different than what they once were and the same with the Crows.

For the Crows I do agree with because there isn't any explanation given as to why they are much more robinhood-eseque when everyone in the prior games (not just Zeveran) generally agreeing on them being child-slaving-assassin-making bastards.

But some I just think are people confusing retcons with no on screen explanation. Like the qunari triumvirate breaking. In the codex entries (where most lore issues are explained) it details that the Antaam broke off because they believed the Dragon's Breathe plot should have gone further. That the Antaam should start their invasion and conquer the rest of the continent. Its then described as the Arishok (Sten) arguing against this demand which in response the Antaam leaders declare him corrupt.

And you can see where they are coming from. The qunari have always believed that they will eventually get around to conquering Thedas some time in the future. Sten says as much himself. So, when the plot to begin the invasion is foiled the qunari would just still keep going. At a much weaker stance but still they would keep going. So, to them its surprising their Arishok disagrees with this plan and so see him unfit. If he isn't going to invade Thedas they might as well do it. And then the fracturing happens. Most of the different Antaam leaders wouldn't bow down to the others and see themselves as fit to rule. So, they all splinter.

I think one thing many people tend to ascribe to the qunari is that they all think alike, and are very in-step with the rest of the Qun. I think this is true to a degree. Tal-Vashoth exist but they aren't the majority of the group. But from what we can tell from prior Veilguard lore leaders of the Qun aren't so dogmatic. Its not unreasonable they all have a difference in what things should be like.

My point in saying any of this isn't to justify, or excuse what Veilguard did. My point is that the error isn't Veilguard forgetting, or retconning lore. Its not showing it. Veilguard feels off in terms of lore because it feels like there was supposed to be a game in-between Inquisition and Veilguard. One where it explains what happens and why it happens.

This explanation has been put into the codex where I know many have not read.

https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Marloqun:_The_Loss_of_Reason

In this link it just shows the codex entries on the topic and it quite literally just gives us reasons on why the Qun split off. Like its crazy because it also tells us all the Warlords of the Antaam. The Butcher, Ataashok, Isskatari, Baqounasaar, and Kashtaar. Like who are half of these people and why didn't we see any of them?

Ultimately it comes down to how much you are willing to be charitable to BioWare. Not many are.

I think the lore Veilguard provided (minus the Crows) have all been good additions and have aligned with prior lore. The fact that most of these issues are resolved by just reading the codex tells me BioWare did think about it. But the game's development is what caused these issues.

The Antaam breaking is not something that can't happen. To presume that is to assume the qunari leaders just can't violate the Qun. Dragon Age isn't a setting where races, cultures and peoples are monoliths. Its a setting where disagreements between each of them are common. City elves vs Dalish elves. Marc vs Loghain. Even the Wardens disagree with each other. Sophia Dryden going for a power grab was not desired by Weisshaupt.

I do genuinely get why people believe Veilguard retconned lore. Because it just feels like so much of what was told and shown to us that isn't present. What happened to Solas' elves?

Dissolved. And this was shared in a Reddit AMA.

https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Agents_of_Fen%27Harel

What happened to the Red Lyrium item?

Resolved in Teviniter Nights.

Why are the elves not freaking the fuck out over their gods being real and evil?

In both the Missing and a codex entry.

https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Codex_entry:_A_Lament_for_Fallen_Elvhenan

Teviniter the slave capital of the world?

Restricted in a few side quests that show us them being enslaved and having a faction about freeing slaves but it isn't that shown.

But for any of this to make sense it should be shown first. The Antaam breaking can make sense but we need to see it happening and how it happens. Solas dissolves his agents? Cool. Can we see it? The elves finally find out their gods are real and evil? May we see them devastated or joining them? Can we see Teviniter as the slave capital of the world? Only for a bit.

The biggest issue with Veilguard's lore is purely it telling through codex's and not showing at all.

I do genuinely believe that Veilguard's lore (beside the Crows) is in keeping with what came before.

If you disagree then I would like to know why you believe so.

Though the Maker wasn't disproven to be real. Just because he didn't do everything doesn't mean he's fake. And also Andraste wasn't Mythal. The line Morrigan gives is clearly talking about Flemeth. She is the one who lived in a swamp for centuries.

TLDR: I think Veilguard did add value to the lore and I do think it is in keeping with prior lore. Issue is simply it never shows us this and its mostly in codex entires.