Playing some Inquisition before bed and the Avvar augur in Jaws of Hakkon is fascinating and gave me an idea
๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐น
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
๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐น
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
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It could very well be that the Chantry took this ritual long long long ago and bastardized it into the Harrowing the Circle practices
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Which I think is a reflection of the mortal influence on the spirit and the different cultures beliefs
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Spirits are highly suceptable to influence and strong enough influence can mess with a spirit's identity, much less memory and knowledge
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So its entirely possible that the spirits around Andrastian mages literally no longer know they can leave with a spell or a ritual
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(
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 doesnโt seem to be permanent or dangerous
God Bird
I headcanon that Justice used to participate, but heโs forgotten as Chantry practices become more widespread
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Interesting! And yeah, I'd love more info on Rivaini seers
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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
Iโd love to have a game or DLC there
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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)
๐๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐๐ซ๐ก ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ซ
yesss more Rivain please
God Bird
Rivain is awesome and I wish that DA were more consistent about it. Or just consistent in general.
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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
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codex entries are excerpts from in world lit, characters contradict each other because of their different backgrounds, etc
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And those inconsistencies I actually love because its very real. There's no one universal truth because everyone has their own biases and interpretations
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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
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Who looks half-elven
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Or when they have to do something weird because of programming limitations
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Or dev cycle limitations
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Like Morrigan elfsplaining to a Dalish Inquisitor
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though that one can also be a funny character thing if you read it that way
God Bird
I donโt mind inconsistencies as much when they come from charactersโ word of mouth. Part of DAโs appeal is that they try to make people be people, and that means sometimes they have no idea what theyโre 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.
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So through the things they show in game events vs the stuff you find in text, basically?