Playing some Inquisition before bed and the Avvar augur in Jaws of Hakkon is fascinating and gave me an idea
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
Playing some Inquisition before bed and the Avvar augur in Jaws of Hakkon is fascinating and gave me an idea
Playing some Inquisition before bed and the Avvar augur in Jaws of Hakkon is fascinating and gave me an idea
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
So the Avvar have it that every mage, until they're strong enough, are joined with a spirit to teach them how to use their magic, and then that spirit departs
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
It could very well be that the Chantry took this ritual long long long ago and bastardized it into the Harrowing the Circle practices
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
While the Avvar see there's no better teacher of magic than a being made of it, I thought it was weird that the Chantry throws mages at demons directly as a "test" in the Harrowing
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
But if both rituals are born from this need to make sure the mage is strong enough not to become a danger, then it makes sense that the Chantry would warp that into a heavy-handed "test" instead of a teaching thing
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
And what's more, the Avvar believe/know the spirit can be asked or even made to leave and so the spirits can basically always leave the Avvar mages when the time comes
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
But the Chantry is over here like "there's no way to split them safely!!!" and the spirits possessing Chantry mages, or the examples we get, don't seem to know how to gtfo either
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
Which I think is a reflection of the mortal influence on the spirit and the different cultures beliefs
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
Spirits are highly suceptable to influence and strong enough influence can mess with a spirit's identity, much less memory and knowledge
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
So its entirely possible that the spirits around Andrastian mages literally no longer know they can leave with a spell or a ritual
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
(
God Bird
this is relevant to your interests)
God Bird
Yes yes yes all the yes
God Bird
I love Avaar and Rivaini stuff, because they both have a tradition of voluntary possession that doesn’t seem to be permanent or dangerous
God Bird
I headcanon that Justice used to participate, but he’s forgotten as Chantry practices become more widespread
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
Interesting! And yeah, I'd love more info on Rivaini seers
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
Or Rivain in general.
God Bird
All we really know about Rivaini seers is that they tend to be women and they tend to be community leaders. Apparently the Circle there was super chill and seers kept leading communities and practicing possession, and when the Chantry found out, they annulled the Circle.
God Bird
I’d love to have a game or DLC there
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
Saaame. Also there's the only peaceful Qunari settlement in southern Thedas and a semi-permanent Dalish settlement (though that's contradicted by DA2 party banter so idk if that's an in canon thing at this point)
𝔞𝔰𝔥 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔯𝔫
yesss more Rivain please
God Bird
Rivain is awesome and I wish that DA were more consistent about it. Or just consistent in general.
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
The thing about consistency in DA is that we basicslly get all of our information about the world from in world, biased characters. There's a little bit of Word of God from the team, but in general its all in world stuff
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
codex entries are excerpts from in world lit, characters contradict each other because of their different backgrounds, etc
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
And those inconsistencies I actually love because its very real. There's no one universal truth because everyone has their own biases and interpretations
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
The inconsistencies I don't like are when its like...for example Word of God says "all half-elf kids are essentially human" then hey there's Fenryal in DA2
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
Who looks half-elven
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
Or when they have to do something weird because of programming limitations
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
Or dev cycle limitations
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
Like Morrigan elfsplaining to a Dalish Inquisitor
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
though that one can also be a funny character thing if you read it that way
God Bird
I don’t mind inconsistencies as much when they come from characters’ word of mouth. Part of DA’s appeal is that they try to make people be people, and that means sometimes they have no idea what they’re talking about.
God Bird
My main issue shows up when there are inconsistencies in how the world works or how this or that mechanic functions.
ʙɪʀᴅɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢ
So through the things they show in game events vs the stuff you find in text, basically?