153434 réponses à ce sujet

[laurelinvanyar]

What does the back look like? I am strangely desperate to know if there's a butt-flap.

There absolutely is a butt flap.  

[Rhoxi]

More sketching. I'm torn between "yay, my art skills haven't completely vanished!" and "oh dear god, I hate it." Well, practice makes . . . marginally better, in time.

 

Spoiler

 

On the topic of tranquility. Ugh-ugh. *shudders* I never make anyone tranquil. I love that Minaeve takes the time to care for them. Especially since we learn in Asunder that even while tranquil, mages can still have wills of their own (like that one tranquil who ran into Evangeline, Wynne, and Shale when they were sneaking into the tower).

 

Edit: Oh hell, that cannot be a good top of the page Solas. Have an actual one:

 

Spoiler

[Delphine]

Welp, that's it, I'm gonna read The Masked Empire.

[nikki-tikki]

On the topic of tranquility. Ugh-ugh. *shudders* I never make anyone tranquil. I love that Minaeve takes the time to care for them. Especially since we learn in Asunder that even while tranquil, mages can still have wills of their own (like that one tranquil who ran into Evangeline, Wynne, and Shale when they were sneaking into the tower).

 

If making Anders tranquil was an option I would totally do it. 

[Armdin]

He's one of the main character in Weekes' The Masked Empire which is set just before the Orlasian civil war.  He acts as a mentor to Briala and teaches her a great deal about Fen'Harel (and even compares the two of them).  He's apparently a Dalish apostate but the end of the book hints that he's an ancient elf and is killed by an unknown party (thought at the time by many readers to be Fen'Harel, but that theory has got less popular after DAI).

 

He's very sarcastic and one of the few consistantly likeable characters in a book filled with morally grey people.

 

Ah, I have to read that. I'm slowly chiseling my way through Asunder right now, the writing style grates against me somewhat, but since Gaider wrote it I'm trying not to let it bother me, even so it's slow progress for me. Plus I do seem to have a bias against books based on games. x)

 

I'll have to pick up The Masked Empire. Does it give you a better perspective of Orlais and Wicked Hearts?

[Maria13]

If making Anders tranquil was an option I would totally do it. 

 

Anders is on record as saying he would rather die... Wasn't his friend Karl made tranquil?

[Illyria]

Ah, I have to read that. I'm slowly chiseling my way through Asunder right now, the writing style grates against me somewhat, but since Gaider wrote it I'm trying not to let it bother me, even so it's slow progress for me. Plus I do seem to have a bias against books based on games. x)

 

I'll have to pick up The Masked Empire. Does it give you a better perspective of Orlais and Wicked Hearts?

 

Very much so.  I was very disapointed with the way Bria came off in that quest.  She's actually a really great character who has fought for elves her entire life.  It also gives a lot more insight into her and Celene's complex relationship, and will make you both love and hate Celene and Gaspard.

[nikki-tikki]

Anders is on record as saying he would rather die... Wasn't his friend Karl made tranquil?

 

Yeah he was. And it is for that reason that I would do it. 

 

I'm evil yeah. 

[scintilla]

 

source

[NightSymphony]

More sketching. I'm torn between "yay, my art skills haven't completely vanished!" and "oh dear god, I hate it." Well, practice makes . . . marginally better, in time.

 

Spoiler

 

On the topic of tranquility. Ugh-ugh. *shudders* I never make anyone tranquil. I love that Minaeve takes the time to care for them. Especially since we learn in Asunder that even while tranquil, mages can still have wills of their own (like that one tranquil who ran into Evangeline, Wynne, and Shale when they were sneaking into the tower).

I personally think your art is great! You've captured him rather well, a lot better than some other art I have seen.

[Vorathrad]

Anders is on record as saying he would rather die... Wasn't his friend Karl made tranquil?

Yes, and he's horrified and goes into Justice-apeshit mode. As much as I missed Awakening Anders in DA2, I'd never do that to him.

[Colonelkillabee]

Yeah he was. And it is for that reason that I would do it. 

 

I'm evil yeah. 

*Evil snickering*

 

**** Anders, to be honest.

[nikki-tikki]

*Evil snickering*

 

**** Anders, to be honest.

[Armdin]

Very much so.  I was very disapointed with the way Bria came off in that quest.  She's actually a really great character who has fought for elves her entire life.  It also gives a lot more insight into her and Celene's complex relationship, and will make you both love and hate Celene and Gaspard.

 

Excellent. I look forward to it! While I loved Wicked Hearts (admittedly only for the party banter and tipsy!Solas and dancing!), I always come away from that whole quest thinking, "...Why should I care about any of these people?" No one seemed nice. xD

[Mims]

Very much so.  I was very disapointed with the way Bria came off in that quest.  She's actually a really great character who has fought for elves her entire life.  It also gives a lot more insight into her and Celene's complex relationship, and will make you both love and hate Celene and Gaspard.

 

If you go just by how she seems in the game, it feels she's just another person grabbing for power. :[ Very unfortunate. 

[Zarro-Morningstar]

*Evil snickering*

 

**** Anders, to be honest.

Need I start to be one of the few who defends Anders and likes him? Lol, I totally will.

 

In other news: I finished my Cullen 5k fic so I can now get back to my Solavellan story! You guys should expect to see chapter 2 in a week and a half...all depends on my available time and my beta.

[Maria13]

Yes, and he's horrified and goes into Justice-apeshit mode. As much as I missed Awakening Anders in DA2, I'd never do that to him.

 

Yes. I would give him the option of choosing death before that, and I've no doubt he'd take it... As it was, I let him live...

[Vorathrad]

Very much so.  I was very disapointed with the way Bria came off in that quest.  She's actually a really great character who has fought for elves her entire life.  It also gives a lot more insight into her and Celene's complex relationship, and will make you both love and hate Celene and Gaspard.

I'm wary of Bioware writers novels (sorry I love your games, but ME novels were... well let's leave it there) But you guys have really made me want to read The Masked Empire. I would have liked to learn much more about Briala ingame, and Felassan seems a fascinating character.

[Illyria]

If you go just by how she seems in the game, it feels she's just another person grabbing for power. :[ Very unfortunate. 

 

Yeah.  I was left thinking 'this is the woman Felassan compared to Fen'Harel?'  Eveything I loved about her from the book was gone.

[Avejajed]

Very much so. I was very disapointed with the way Bria came off in that quest. She's actually a really great character who has fought for elves her entire life. It also gives a lot more insight into her and Celene's complex relationship, and will make you both love and hate Celene and Gaspard.

Made me hate Briala too. I thought Gaspard came off the best of the three.

[Mims]

Felassan is amazing. I do not refer to him as bestelf lightly!

 

Honestly, the dragon age novels are leagues above the mass effect ones. I've read most of both, and ME is technically my preferred franchise. But those novels were just wholly uninteresting. 

[Colonelkillabee]

Need I start to be one of the few who defends Anders and likes him? Lol, I totally will.

Knock yourself out, I already heard all the arguments for it on Tumblr.

 

I let him live for some of those reasons, along with my chantry hate. I still really hate the guy. Especially since he was so cool in Awakening. So I'm admittedly resentful for the changes they made to him.

[Caddius]

As much as I love him, Alexander the Great did kinda border on alcoholic psychopathic man-child at times...

It's like The Hangover film, but waking up with Persepolis in ashes instead of a tiger in the bathroom. (Though gods know he probably went on a bender during the Indus campaign and woke up in bed with Hephaestion, Porus, and a tiger.  )

But I hesitate, dear Colonel, at the idea of you calling the man who took down the Achaemenid Iranian Empire, from Asia Minor to the Indus River, who was held up as the pinnacle of manliness and conquerors in all the millennia since, with any new world-class general being referred to as 'the new Alexander, a pansy who couldn't handle his drink. 

(If I had Olympias and Phillip as parents, and had to deal with conquering Afghanistan when really it was time to party on in Babylon, I'd certainly be an alcoholic.)

Now, Attila, I'm willing to make fun of for not being able to handle his drink. One of the great hilarious anti-climaxes in history. The Huns rampage throughout Europe, exacting tribute from the Roman Empire, creating an army of Goths and nomads and gunslingers and Methodists, and charges into Gaul to ravage the-

Oh, wait. Chalons. Well, then, he'll just swing for the soft core of Rome and sack Italy-

Eh, the Pope has kindly pointed out the logistical problems with conquering Italy, and it's getting kinda late. So Attila takes his army and heads home, gets married again, and apparently go so drunk he fell unconscious and choked to death on his own nose-bleed. (According to rumor, anyhow.)

The Romans took a moment to realize that they weren't so different at heart after all. 

Then again, it's kind of like saying Andre the Giant can't handle his drink. He may have died of alcohol poisoning, but sweet Andraste the man chugged barrels of the stuff without getting buzzed. 

 

As for the Dalish=Native Americans/Celts.

I'd actually argue that DA is unusual in that its dwarves, elves, and human nations take more cues from history than they do typical fantasy. The dwarves are superficially similar to the dwarves of Tolkien's work, which is the mythological canon most Western fiction takes its cues from. They're short, heavily bearded, stoic, and love coin.

However, the dwarves are also in a government shockingly similar to parts of Rome and even Colonial America, with various families competing for 'honor' or dignitas, competing viciously in economic measures, having politicians walking around with gladiator bodyguards and murdering their rivals in the street. While they've lost cities to the underground enemy, darkspawn/goblins, the dwarves in DA are a lot grimmer than the ones in Tolkien. They ferociously hold onto their traditions and caste system, while the empire lays in waste around them. Their only cousins despise them and are likely corrupted, humanity ignores their plight, and the dwarves border on extinction everytime the darkspawn win a victory near the Deep Roads entrance. Their economy and food supplies depend on them acting as drug dealers for the surface and even accepting organized crime like the Carta in order to make a profit while skirting by their own laws and traditions.

They have a tight-knit alliance with the humans of Tevinter, and seem to have once been big participants in the slave trade. They taught the Roman analogue civilization how to have gladiator fights.

Tolkien's Vikings were based off the Nordic mythology vision of dwarves, with some Jewish aspects to their language added as well. The popular image of the Vikings became mixed with this, resulting in generations of dwarven berserkers in horned helmets. (Vikings did not wear horned helmets like that, by the way. I think it was opera that brought that into popular culture.)

The elves were part of a glorious empire that has degenerated into slavery, second-class citizens in ghettos, and nomads thrown to the four winds that are often seen as terrorists. This reminds me of The Witcher, except that the Dalish seem to be less violent and driven than the Scoia'tael, preferring isolation to vengeance.

The City Elves, from their set-up in ghettos, the occasional purges, their music, and so on, remind me of Diaspora Jews. They hold onto their traditions in strange lands as best they can.

The Dalish reminded me of the Bretons just in the specific Orlesian jokes making fun of Delphine. In CKII, for the territories I had with Orlais, Brittanny was renamed 'Kingdom of the Dales' for that very reason, and only the prettiest of Occitan nobles get to rule there.   However, they do remind me of the Celts, in the sense of once having covered most of Europe, and been driven to the corners of civilization.

Like Scotland and Cornwall.

If I remember correctly, the Picts had several clashes with the Romans. Some were victories, many were defeats. Their technology was, I think, inferior to the Celts of the mainland or even of modern-day England and Wales, and the Romans were able to trounce them. However, their ambush tactics and stubbornness prevented the Romans from exerting the effort to take control of modern-day Scotland.

Some centuries later, the Scots invaded Scotland from Ireland, and killed off or assimilated most of the Picts.

The Dalish are nomadic and have lots of oral traditions. They lack horses, it seems, preferring halla. They are spat upon by most organized human settlements.

The Romani and Irish Travelers all come to mind. It seems Tevinter destroyed much of their language. Welsh and Gaelic have been restarted as major languages relatively recently. As is typical, trying to override a subdued culture's language with your own is excellent for subjugation and assimilation. My SO actually speaks Gaelic fluently and only goes with a stereotypical American accent to avoid irritating and constant questions, thanks to her Irish grandfather helping teach her to talk as a child.

There's also the fact that the Dalish tend to speak with Irish or Welsh accents. At least in 2. I quite enjoyed that. 

If ever a Total War: Dragon Age game or mod is made, halla-riding Dalish archers are a must. 

[MoonDrummer]

Lol masked empire was by far my least favourite of the books. Dono too many Orlaisians made it toxic maybe.

[Armdin]

Felassan is amazing. I do not refer to him as bestelf lightly!

 

Honestly, the dragon age novels are leagues above the mass effect ones. I've read most of both, and ME is technically my preferred franchise. But those novels were just wholly uninteresting. 

 

I wasn't even aware there were ME novels. What're they about? (Any Garrus? )