Second issue should be out January 20. Issues 3 and 4 should be February 17 and March 16.
Woot, nice b-day present for me. Thanks for the info.
Other than that, I think someone may have messed up the timeline. If I am not wrong, this was supposed to start before DAI and later issues would coincide with it?
And yet, Marius is given an issue of Swords and Shields. Now, either Varric uses the same cover for all of the issues of this particular serial, or this happens after Corypheus destroys Haven, at the very least.
The dialogue in the DAI quest says she's waiting for the latest issue of Swords and Shields, which Varric had not planned on finishing. It can certainly be a previous issue, or even the first one.
The answer to the Swords and Shields problem is that probably Varric did use the same cover for the copy he gave to Cassandra as for the previous issue. There wouldn't have been any artwork for a new cover because he says he wasn't going to continue writing the series, because the earlier issues had made so little money. The edition he did for Cassandra was a one off and Varric is an author, not an artist.
While this is accurate, the DAI cover was also probably just a fun thing thrown in by the devs, since it clearly depicts Avaline. I don't think we need to read too much into details like this. I mean, you could even go farther and say that he likely would not have had time to get it professionally printed and bound, as we see it in the game.
The devs do like their little easter-eggy, fan-servicey bits, in addition to things they throw in for their own amusement, like the copious cheeses all throughout DAI.
That elven slave, Flavius, is interesting.
He is a slave but he is better dressed than many of the free commoners we see, appears content and even has enough pride to look down on Tessa, a free human.
With regards to slave dress, I'd imagine that it depends on the position of the slave within the household, and their job. If he is basically the magister's (well, we now know the Archon's) chief of staff, it makes sense that he would be dressed in such a manner. It's reflective of his master's station, as well as his own within his master's household.