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exhausted-archivist · 4 hours

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Consider that you don’t tell anyone the truth. After you recover from your own shock and grief, you manage to slap on some mask of joy. And while it’s short lived because the Inquisitor hands down judgement on all of you, you accept it.

If the Inquisitor recruits the remaining wardens:

You spend your remaining time mending what the Order failed to do, the harm it did. You fight darkspawn, you help hunt down corruption and red lyrium. You put yourself at risk before your comrades because your time is up anyways. Then the Breach is sealed, your group starts rebuilding and keeps aiding as needed, until you know it’s time and you quietly slip away with or without a note.

When you reach the entrance to the Deep Roads, you take a moment to appreciate how it wasn’t too long ago you, and every warden in Orlais that remained were ready to march into the Deep Roads with a demon army. But now, as you stare down the entrance, as the freezing blackness stretches endlessly in front of you; you don’t find an ounce of fear you once held. You are no longer drowning in the face of fear for the future, instead you are welcoming the abyss with an odd sense of relief. Relief that this unending, haunting song will finally come to an end. That you can stop this pantomime of a dance, and finally rest.

If the Inquisitor exiles the remaining wardens:

You are among those who don’t protest. You help the others gather their things. Help burn the dead and sacrificed. You write letters to those who had family and were now gone. Perhaps writing one to your own or to a comrade. There isn’t really much left for you to do.

As the remaining wardens begin the long journey to Weisshaupt, somewhere along the way you slip away, make your way to a lesser known entrance to the Deep Roads or to Kal-Sharok itself. Either way, you split off, and you’re confronted with the irony of it. It wasn’t too long ago you were preparing to march into the Deep Roads with an army of demons, fear of the future gripping you tightly. Now, all you have is grief. Mourning the fools you all were, mourning that you don’t have time, that you cannot do what you meant to do. All you have is grief as you let the Deep Roads welcome you with its frigid, pitch black embrace.

Can you imagine, you’re a warden. You’re hearing what you now know is the Calling and then the Inquisitor comes out of the rift, sealing it. Your companions are relieved, the Inquisitor defeated the demon and ended the false Calling. They celebrate the end of it. But you can’t celebrate with them.

Because you still hear that sweet, haunting song. The song everyone told you was fake. The song everyone had said was because of Corypheus. You still hear it, you still have it lingering in your ear.

#dragon age #grey wardens #dragon age inquisition #dai #I’m still on my angsty feels #still thinking about this rando who sprung to life from an errant thought.#I write tragedies sorry

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exhausted-archivist · 14 hours

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#dragon age art #dragon age fanart #dragon age 2 #da2 #meredith stannard #meredith #templar #she looks so great #you did so well op

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exhausted-archivist · 4 days

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This is the first time EVER I paint Oghren. I wonder if he’s still alive after he joined the Gray Wardens..

#dragon age art #dragon age fanart #dragon age origins #dao #awakening #oghren

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exhausted-archivist · 4 days

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Can you imagine, you’re a warden. You’re hearing what you now know is the Calling and then the Inquisitor comes out of the rift, sealing it. Your companions are relieved, the Inquisitor defeated the demon and ended the false Calling. They celebrate the end of it. But you can’t celebrate with them.

Because you still hear that sweet, haunting song. The song everyone told you was fake. The song everyone had said was because of Corypheus. You still hear it, you still have it lingering in your ear.

#dragon age #dragon age inquistion #dai #grey wardens #angsty thoughts #angst #have I just come up with some poor sod imma write a little ficlet or something for? yes.

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exhausted-archivist · 6 days

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Evolution of DAI

I was going back through some news posts made by BioWare back during the marketing and launch of DAI and found some interesting things. In post of Exploring the Dales,

Emprise du Lion, the Exalted Plains, and the Emerald Graves used to ve one continuous map that they broke up to allow for more variation ad drastic environmental differences like what we ended up with. Dean Roskell, a senior level designer, explains that it wouldn't have felt natural to transition from a lush forest to frozen highlands, and that they needed more separation. Additionally, due to the three separate story arcs they had to consider, they split them up to allow you to play them in any order or even skip one. It aided in bringing balance to the levels in the game.

At one point, Emprise du Lion had a version where the villagers had more freedom. Meaning they had farms up and running, merchants trading; but this was changed because it didn't communicate that they were a group of people near the point of accepting death at the hands of the red templars. Making it a frozen landscape improved the narrative that it was an area on the brink of death, combining the red templar threat with the freak blizzard.

Ser Michel and Imshael being added to the area of Emprise du Lion was a decision made by the level design team as they wanted to bring in links from The Masked Empire novel that Patrick Weekes wrote.

The original starting point of the level of Emprise du Lion was actually where the three high dragons roost. When they moved the village down by the lake they had a large area they wanted to do something with and landed on three high dragons. Reportedly, it was three dragons instead of one really difficult one due to someone saying they couldn't do it.

Andrew Farrell was the level artist for all three Dales levels and came up with the idea of old coliseums surrounded by hot springs.

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition #dai #behind the scenes #dev interview #level design #dev: dean roskell #emprise du lion #the dales #exalted plains

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exhausted-archivist · 7 days

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#dragon age #tevinter nights #may the dreadwolf take you #solas #video

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exhausted-archivist · 7 days

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Heights Based off Official Model Scales, Dev Words, or Lore specified

Updated: 05/2024

I find it delightful and fits into the feral and desperate need I have for Thedas to be experiencing mega fauna and flora. Important note, the only height that is canon is Bull's as it is mentioned in the lore books World of Thedas vol. 2. The rest are based off scaled models and dev words; the latter up to personal preference on how canon that is.

I've also updated these since the last post as wonderful people reached out and gave me their numbers as well as updating Dorian's height to what his character model height is based on Gaider's tweet.

Going from shortest to tallest we have this:

Varric - 5' - 5'3 / 152.4-160.02cm [Source]

Morrigan - 5'8 / 172.72cm (Sans heels) [Source]*

Alistair - 6' / 182.88cm [Source]

Dorian - 6' / 183cm *

Solas - 6' / 182.88.cm [Source]

The Iron Bull - 8' / 243.84cm*

Elaboration (Below the Cut)

Varric:

Varric's statute details included below. I used the range because when I previously posted about heights there were disagreements on his height. But it also led to several people giving me their measurements on the statue! Which thank you so much for sharing! Measurements can vary wildly, so the more data is always better.

Additionally, the 153cm / 5' height is echoed by his in-game model, so I think that is a definite minimum for his height.

Morrigan:

Morrigan's statue details and the help of a friend who has her statue, gave us the numbers for Morrigan's height with and without heels. These numbers are also echoed in her in-game model of 173.81cm / 5'8 sans heels and 178.44cm / 5'10 with heels. (Please excuse the lack of a face on her. For some reason my blender says it is an invalid file and I can't figure out how to fix it.)

Alistair:

The Sideshow listing and the manufacturer Three Zero listing give two numbers 12.5" and 12", with the latter being the one repeated the most.

I will note that there are some issues with the provided numbers as 12" is 30.62cm and the listing states he is 32cm which is 12.5". But considering previous conversation on the matter and that cm in scaling of these items seem a bit more unreliable in the actual size of the product (they are approximates after all) I chose to stick with the provided measurements in inches due to it matching up with his in-game model height of 183.5cm / 6' (technically its 6' and 1/16 of an inch but rounding down here).

If you want to choose to stick with the cm measurements, on 1:6 scale, 32 cm would be 190.5cm / 6'3 for Alistair.

Dorian:

When asked about Dorian's height, David Gaider specified that: "He is as tall as the character artists made him." [Source]

Originally, I had put Dorian's height at a range due to the fact he is the ideal proportions at 8 heads tall which by modern industry standard means he's 6'2, but by earlier standards means he's 6'. But now that I have access to the character models used in-game and blender, we know for certain his height is supposed to be 6' / 183cm.

Solas:

So the listing images gave off a very incorrect estimate of height, but kind of to be expected when they photoshop soda cans in. Thanks to the many people who sent me numbers, here and on other places. Solas from front foot to head is 18" / 46.5cm of his 20" / 51cm statue.

This height of 6' is also echoed by an old tweet from Trick Weekes saying Solas was 6'-ish ft.

The Iron Bull:

In World of Thedas vol. 2 p. 255 they have the description that he is 8' tall.

Everyone in the Chargers is someone who can look at an eight-foot horned giant and say, 'Yes, I trust that man with my life.'

If you're wondering if that includes the horns? Up to you, it's not specified. If you want to do sans horns, according to the scaling of his statue, they math out to adding roughly 5". Which would make him 7'5 (226.06cm).

It took a lot of math on my part, measuring his calf, thigh, and then up from there. But he does measure to 8' / 243.84cm when you scale the number of 62cm / 24".

Additional Notes:

For transparency, as noted in this post on in-game character model heights for Inquisition, Solas is noted to be 5'10 / 179cm and Iron Bull is 6'9 / 204cm. These are at odds with the dev word and lore notes, so they aren't used for comparison here. As there are likely game reasons/limitations they do not have wholly unique character models in terms of height. (Such as doorways, animation differences, armor, ect.)

#dragon age #meta #gaming heads #alistair #alistair therin #dorian #dorian pavus #morriagan #iron bull #the iron bull #solas #varric #varric tethras #To reiterate #the only canon height is Bull's #The rest are just assumptions based on official merch and game models

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exhausted-archivist · 7 days

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The Dread Wolf Take You (Part 1)

~~Link to the complete 31 page comic here~~

"Imagine that, overlooking the god in your mids!"

May I present, my attempt at illustrating the last four pages of Tevinter Nights. 😁 (Also, the first time I'm posting art on here!)

As the whole thing was quite literally too long to post on tumblr, I uploaded the full version on a customized site made for reading webcomics (via ComicFury). Feel free to check out the link above if you like to read the rest! Also, if you're on mobile, there's a "Scroll View" option for easier navigation. :)

And, obviously, HUGE spoilers for those who haven't read Tevinter Nights!!

On a personal note though, I can't believe I actually finished it... As it had been a *very* long time since I drew (and finished) anything, let alone a 31 page comic and reading Tevinter Nights again finally sparked my motivation (and the courage to post it lol). So I want to thank Patrick Weekes for helping me overcome this massive art block and over two decades of Case Closed mangas for inspiring me how to draw an overly dramatic "exposing the imposter" moment. 😂 I tried my best to be as faithful to the book as possible and it took me forever, so... hope you like it! :D

#dragon age art #dragon age fanart #comic #tevinter nights #may the dreadwolf take you #dreadwolf #solas #charter #you did so so so good with this op #gorgeous

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exhausted-archivist · 7 days

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Amazing! Thank you so much!

TLDR:

On a 1:4 scale, Solas is 182.88 cm / 6' tall. In contrast to his in-game model (not in-engine) where he is 177.8cm / 5'10.

So for those who want to know the break down, which is pretty brief but this post is long so cut.

Solas is on a 1:4 scale, at 46.5cm / 18.2" (going off his front foot) he comes out to be 182.88cm / 6' full scale.

This is echoed when you do the adjustments on his back foot so to account for the bent leg, and using that you can use it to double-check the first leg, and you get roughly the same number.

With his leg bent, at 42.5cm / 16.7" (rounding up a smidge) he scales out to be 170cm / 5' 6.9". Which is a reasonable decrease of height when on a bent leg and maths out to the same height as his front foot.

Going off numbers other people shared with me, all within the same range give or take a few centimeters, these numbers check out. Which honestly thrills me.

Excuse me while I'm a little unhinged about this. But does anyone have the Gaming Heads Solas statue?

This one.

If you have him... could you do me a big, huge, amazing favor and measure him from the bottom of his front foot to his head, and then back foot to his head. I know he's at an angle and I have to do math with these numbers. Thank you.

#dragon age #solas #gaming heads #my hero!#long post #These are so good! Thank you again!#He also looks amazing

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exhausted-archivist · 7 days

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New Mark Darrah video, on his channel Old Game Dev Advice: “Why I’m not worried about Dragon Age 4 (DAO edition)”

The vid description is as follows -

Discussed at the end of my Dragon Age: Origins memories and lessons video, I thought it was worthwhile to extract this into its own video.

Why am I not worried about Dragon Age 4? Or at least, why are many of the current worries VERY similar to things that happened on DAO?

You should check out the whole video here: https://youtu.be/K7NsTS9MtPw

AAA Game development is a group exercise. [source]

In the video, he had this to say -

“When you look at Dragon Age 4 through the lens of what happened on Dragon Age: Origins, you actually see a lot of similarities. The team has been working on it for a really long time. The overall project direction has changed a couple of times. It’s gone one way and then come back to its original goals. Some key leadership members have departed and been replaced (I was the third or possibly fourth Executive Producer on Dragon Age: Origins, depending on how you count). The Creative Director changed late in the development of Dragon Age: Origins as well. But Dragon Age: Origins came out and it was very successful. I’m very confident in Dragon Age 4. I believe in that team, I believe in that vision, I believe that there is a continuity of vision and development within that team that is capable of making an incredibly amazing game and I think they are well-positioned to do that.

AAA games aren’t made by individuals. This isn’t about my brilliant vision driving the game to completion. It’s about the collective vision, the collective ideas, the collective creativity of the team, and while people have left the Dragon Age team, most of that team knows this IP, most of that team knows how to make a great game. My belief is that they’re going to do that. I have every confidence in that team. And honestly I believe that EA is going to give them the space to do that. I think that EA learned lessons from Mass Effect: Andromeda and from Anthem and from the Mass Effect trilogy remaster and from Jedi: Fallen Order, and all of those lessons I think will help Dragon Age to be a great game. Don’t worry about Dragon Age 4 because I’m not on it. Don’t worry about Dragon Age 4 because any one person isn’t on it. This is a large team and large teams have resiliency when it comes to the departure of individuals.”

[source and watch link]

#dragon age #dragon age dreadwolf #da4 #mark darrah #text post #dragon age news

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exhausted-archivist · 10 days

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This dramatic bald guy again (I'm impatiently waiting for news from da4)

#dragon age art #dragon age fanart #solas

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exhausted-archivist · 10 days

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feeling sad and bad about my art lately. channeled it into a much needed hug for Solas

#dragon age art #dragon age fanart #dragon age inquisition #dai #solas

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exhausted-archivist · 11 days

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My Tevinter Nights art project 🐺🦚:

—The Dread Wolf Take You—

written by Patrick Weekes

Finished!! I’m kinda emotional, I started this project in 2021! It took me so long because I sometimes had way too long breaks.. At least you can see my art progress ✌🏽

#dragon age art #dragon age fanart #tevinter nights #solas

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exhausted-archivist · 11 days

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So in the hype of Dragon Age Dreadwolf coming this summer. I wanna post my first attempt on drawing Tarot cards back in 2020, inpired from Dragon Age Inquisition's tarot.

Lania Lavellan, Cassandra, and Solas