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lairofdragonagelore · 2 years

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DA2: Presentation during Act 1

As I did with the trailer-presentation of DA:O and DA:A, I’ll try to analyse and highlight what patterns in the design elements of the presentation can be understood with lore concepts. Since I can’t do gifs for this post, any personal check you want to do can be done in the following [video] which compiles all the narrations made by Varric during DA2.

We start with a small summary of what happened in Ferelden [which is the main motivation of Hawke’s story]: Darkspawn run amok on Ferelden, as we see an empty forest quickly filled with darkspwan icons, all encapsuled around a white circle. This is easy to identify: it’s the cinematic we have in DAO before the battle of Ostagar.

From that encapsuled scenery, a dense thorny branch [with the usual trident-like design for lyrium veins] is shown, spreading upwards, as part of the pillars that support the bridge of the fort of Ostagar. Extra thorny vines grow and reach up the bridge as well, these are the common symbols that the game has been using over and over to mean the spread of the Taint or the Darkspawn. In the process, Varric narrates that the Darkspwan [=dark thorny vines] clashes with the army in Ostagar.

After the battle, the ruins of Ostagar are surrounded in red, emphasising how bloody and devastating that battle was. The illustration also moves to a side, as a representation of “the fall”.

Then we see the representation of Ferelden with the typical lions at both sides of King Cailan. The King wears his golden armour, which withers into a grey, broken figure, representing his death and the total failure of the battle. His image is replaced by Loghain’s, who holds a twisted dagger as a symbol of the betrayal, grey coloured as well.

On the image of Loghain, the paper cuts itself into the shape of a crown which bleeds blood, inside it there is only darkness at first, probably meaning the vacuum of royal power left by Cailan’s death [we know Anora rules over the land but the fact she is not royal blood remains true]. This vacuum of power caused by the death of Cailan brought consequences: the expansion of the darkspawn along the country. Slowly, we see that the darkness inside this crown turns into the image of the Chantry of Lothering. White thorny vines [representation of darkspawn] emerge from the ground, showing how the horde spreads without resistance. It’s true that the darkspawn/Taint is usually represented with dark/black thorny vines, in this case they are white to stand out from the dark red background. The Chantry is surrounded by a dome of blood which gets contaminated [turning black], probably interpreting the caged situation in which this town was when the darkspawn reached it [I will elaborate in a future post, but this constant symbol of thorny vines keeps reminding me of the Vallaslin of Elgar'nan.

The whole image is covered by more dark thorny vines coming from the left side of the screen, emphasising the overwhelming attack of the horde. The message is clear: the darkspawn’s expansion is unstoppable.

The windmill, symbol of Lothering [as well as Red Cliff, but in this case it doesn’t apply], is presented darkened, burnt, and broken, while at the sides of the screen, skeletons are shown with fire: the village was burnt and innocent died.

After the chaos, more dark thorny vines spread, showing how relentless the darkspawn are. Lothering has been totally destroyed and controlled by the horde.

As the image turns dark due to so many dark thorny vines, we are informed that the champion barely escaped in time. That's the end of the introduction of the context in which Hawke’s family is escaping. ---- After some gameplay, Varric returns to narrate ----

When Varric resumes his narration, the image of Flemeth appears. This part is interesting because from the bottom of her image, lines that look like lyrium veins raise up over her outfit, which looks like a mountain. In fact, if one observes the outline of her figure, the whole image looks like a volcano erupting. Maybe it’s an excess of observation, but I think there is a bit of intention in making her skirt look like a mountain with obvious lyrium veins on it [this is a symbol that appears in all games], specially after DAI DLC in which we learnt that Mythal was the responsible of killing/taking a titan’s heart. But that’s for another post.

On the background, there is a water-like texture accompanied with lines that may look like lyrium. They seem to be used to represent Flemeth's magical powers or maybe her relationship with water: the well of sorrows. This could be a bit far-stretched as well.

She displays her figure holding a staff which has always appeared in her concept art (Art of Thedas), or in games like Heroes of Dragon Age, and, so far, DAO has shown this symbol on the forehead of Andraste statues [we will find this symbol in some Eluvians in DAI as well]. On the background, the same symbol of the shape of her staff appears once more [outlined with a beige-colour]. I personally think this is a symbol that represents Flemeth.

Continuing with Varric’s narration, the following image is Gwaren, where Flemeth flew with the champion's family. Nothing more to say here.

Hawke’s family sailed across the Waking Sea.

Immediately after, we see the iconic image of Kirkwall: the fortress [black wall] with two white humanoid slaves. Around the fortress, the water has turned red due to the spill of blood. In principle, we think it’s the blood of slave labour, but the game would suggest later that many blood sacrifices has been made in the underground of this place with consequences not clear for the city.

As we zoom-in the entrance, we start to see the chains and a constant red background that, in more than one occasion has been represented in other symbols along the game as a red pool of blood. Or is it red lyrium? In the beginning I never hesitated to understand it as blood, until some loadscreen [**] illustrations began to suggest another possibility [this will be presented in a series of posts about the architecture of Kirkwall].

This image coincides with Varric saying that, long time ago, slaves from all corners of Thedas were put to work in the quarries of this city under the control of Tevinter. And I think this piece of information is key: Tevinter used this place not just to make of it a slave trade center; it was a quarry for mining purposes, mainly stone to erect Tevinter temples or to expand the Imperial Highway. And we saw in this game that, by digging deeper, you could access to old, ancient Thaigs, older than Orzammar itself. I think this mining aspect of the ancient Kirkwall is an interesting detail to keep in mind for later. [More details in the series of posts about the architecture of Kirkwall].

The next scene is a darkened one, which hides the many chains still present in this city while Varric narrates the fact that now Kirkwall is a free city, even though it’s quite questionable.

As we walk into the gates deeper and deeper, we see the Gallows, filled with slaves that try to cover their ears [are they trying not to hear a song?]. We see them in the fort but also under water, maybe as sacrifices to fill the pools and canals of blood that are part of the architecture of Kirkwall.

There is another detail: in the main colossal statues that hang from the coast, as well as those metallic ones decorating the gallows, we can see that these screaming slaves have human ears, but the white drawings, the ones more easily found everywhere around the city, or even maybe the ones done by the slaves themselves, keep hiding their ears. Maybe it’s just circumstantial and means nothing, but I like to highlight how, with the exception of the metallic statues, the rest of the iconography of these slaves is always covering their ears when we know that the majority of the slaves were elves. It’s also true that Thedas has a long history of erasing elven ears in pieces of arts, monuments and even historical pictures.

---- After some gameplay, Varric returns to narrate ----

When Varric resumes, we are back to Ferelden: we see a tower that I think it's the representation of Fort Drakon, where the final battle of DAO took place and the “blight was defeated” with the death of the Archdemon. Its icon doesn't coincides with the usual one that represents Fort Drakon, but it's the only one making sense since it has two peaks on its top. The Tower of the Magi makes no sense. So, I go for this symbol being an oversimplification of the symbol of Fort Drakon.

Around this tower we see branches or algae. These branches do not look like the thorny vines that always represents the Taint or the Darkspawn, this one looks a lot like a Vallasllin design [June design to be precise], with leaves around it. But to be honest, I don’t think that makes any sense, unless your Warden is Dalish. It is as if the vine, instead of being thorny, now white and healed, grows leaves around it. It's strange to interpret this algae-thing as a vine because so far, during two games, such symbol has always been associated with lyrium veins [non thorny] or Taint/darkspwan [thorny]. They have never been associated with anything positive and benevolent as they are used in this illustration.

These branches extend below and surround Lothering, but despite the success in destroying the archdemon, there was no healing for Lothering: the windmill collapses, meaning how the town was destroyed for good. From the hill of ashes of this town, appears a circle which displays the figure of Hawke, meaning that someone who came from these ashes has now home elsewhere: Kirkwall.

Varric continues his narration in Kirkwall, where the champion is working for smugglers or mercenaries when the qunari come. The curious detail about the picture of the qunari used in this part is on the background: it uses a similar pattern that we will see repeated a lot in DAI murals: a mosaic-made undulating pattern, dark one on the top, golden one on the bottom. It could be the most obvious representation of water or flow, but it’s curious that it’s made in the same mosaic-like style than the murals we will see in DAI.

The qunari arrival drips dark ink over a trouble that is still underground: the conflict between mages vs templars, which grows as it does the Qunari problem.

And here is where all the narrations of Varric during Act 1 finish.

[**] The Loadscreen I was referring to is this one: The symbol it shows in the middle is the one representing Emerius, the City of Chains. The stone [curiously coloured in red] shows square-ish swirly patterns, very common so far in the dwarven representation of lyrium, while some geometric trident-like shapes at the very edge of the screen can be seen.

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore ]

#Art Of Thedas #Blight #The Blight #Darkspawn #Flemeth #Murals #Kirkwall #da2 #visual narration #taint

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bowlerhatduck · 2 years

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I did some thumbnails for storyboard course last weekend. Of course I picked Ducktales and one of my favourite episodes/scenes, where Flintheart appears out of the blue and suggests he and Scrooge join forces against Lunaris.

Another assignment was to make it look like more like actual storyboard (this is quite rough as there was like 30 minutes to make it haha):

I struggled drawing with Wacom drawing tablet after drawing so much with ipad and Apple pencil.

#storyboard #thumbnails #sketch #exercise #fun #ducktales 2017 #visual narration

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hellenhighwater · 6 days

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Based on your last post, I can only assume you do not have an internal narrator (i.e. when you are reading the words are spoken internally in your mind), but I have to ask.

weirdly, my internal narration is mostly text-based or visual. I tend to think in something more like written form, not spoken words. Unless I'm reading something that has a voice I'm familiar with, like transcription of a colleague's trial, where I do "hear" them in the transcript, or fic about a tv/movie character, and the author is really nailing their characterization.

I do also regularly dream in writing, and can usually read in dreams. That fiction trope of 'you can tell you're dreaming if you can't read" has always baffled me.

#i do have internal narration but its a visual thing not an audio thing

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gothic-mothic · 4 months

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how did narr even managed to survive outta there irl world before he found stanley again..? bet was confus- anyways, UR ART IS SO SILLYYY N SKOINKY /pos

CW: Panic attack, overstimulation, depersonalization, eyestrain

Begging tumblr to not send this post to the void again

Anyway, The Narrator wasn’t left alone for as long as Stanley was. He followed a familiar stream of thought to safety shortly after he arrived.

To say he was confused would be an understatement to say the least

Also thank you :]

#.exe #.png #the stanley parable #tsp #the stanley parable ultra deluxe #tspud #the narrator tsp #cw eyestrain #cw panic attack #cw depersonalization #cw overstim #<- I really hope that’s a sfw tag.#anyway umm I tried something a bit different this time #I wanted to show the narrators inicial disconnection from his body and reality in a interesting way #to visualize his feelings more than his perception #bc he has a lot of feelings #so many.#anyway I’m decently proud of the end product and I hope you guys like the style switch too #post parable au

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employee052 · 16 days

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[The Freedom Beginning] Screenshots

"The Narrator and Stanley escape the Parable thanks to your help. But now the three of you must explore the world beyond the office, and hopefully, start a new story together."

Source: EP 1 "Never the End.", EP 6 "An Open-World sort of Game"

[This is a fake Visual Novel/Anime screenshot idea thingy its not real sdkfjhsjdfh]

[un-filtered versions of these, check under the cut!]

#artswin #tsp narrator #tsp #tspud #the stanley parable #the stanley parable ultra deluxe #stanley parable #tspud narrator #the narrator #fake visual novel #tempted to make a real one tho #idk what it would be about but im tempted #i can make these assets pretty decently quick #its just writing it thats the issue

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ilovelumity3000 · 21 days

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Narrator is the Voice of Solitude

...or, to be more specific, he is the voice in your head that tells you to be alone.

Thats his role - to discourage the player from forming a connection with the princess, to abort a relationship that hasnt even begun yet, a nagging voice telling you that the best ending for everyone in the world is the one where you spent rest of eternity completely alone, in an empty room...

But, heres the thing thats so brilliant:

no matter how hard he tries, The Long Quiet WILL form a relationship with Shifting Mound.

We WILL gain new perspectives of one another, we WILL understand each other better, no matter how many times this voice will echo in our mind, telling us that solitude is whats best for everyone... at the end of the day, its just an echo

#slay the princess #slay the princess spoilers #stp spoilers #stp narrator #visual novel #I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS GAME

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clairaworlds · 5 months

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I unironically ADORE that narrator at the start of uprising who will give information that sometimes feels like political propaganda.

I wish more shows had opening narrations like that. It's like a cool game of chance, and it fits with the themes of the show.

(Also, "telser continues to bring peace and order to Argon" *tanks, armed gaurds harassing programs in the street, the clip of Bodhi* has lived in my head rent free for so long I'm fairly sure it fundamentally altered my nurochemistry)

#tron #tronblr #tron uprising #tesler #the voice of the grid #I am OBESSED with this consept #its a wonderful idea and I love it #like they made a metaphysical embodyment of the consept of polticial propaganda and my only wish is that they took it FARTHER #I want her to fully gasslight me #lie to my face I BEG #what dose the state want me to think about the uprising?#the consept of an unrelyable narrator in a visual media is wonderful #espechally because it really furthered the theame in uprising of perspective #AND THAT PEACE AND ORDER LINE IS IN 'THE REWARD'#which #OH MY GOD #I #One day Ill do a full series breakdown of Uprising

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lairofdragonagelore · 2 years

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DA2: Presentation during Act 2

This narration starts with the image of a human that cracks and breaks apart. It’s just a regular grey human that represents Hawke when he was a grey nobody, but once the treasure of the Deep Roads gave him prestige enough, his grey image is replaced by the golden one shown below, yielding weapons in gold. This image is accompanied with the sentence: “The treasure found in the Deep Roads made us a fortune. The Champion moved up in the world.” Which seems to confirm this interpretation.

Around this grey human, there are some geometric patterns that seem to give the impression of dwarvish art [squarish swirls], meaning Deep Roads.

The human, now covered in gold thanks to this found treasure, is placed between two dark buildings that, curiously, have been used in illustrations inside the Art of Thedas to represent the Black City. In this case, I think it represents the Gallows which are usually oversimplified as two mirroring structures divided by a separation in between.

At the same time, it’s not exactly the shape of the Gallows, and resembles a bit the Viscount’s keep:

and still it looks like a press device where the Champion is compressed.

The narration continues as we see that behind the Champion there is a tree of white canopy which roots grow quickly. Since Varric is exactly describing at this point about how the Deep Road treasure allowed the champion to buy a mansion in Hightown and everyone in the city started to know about him; this seems the obvious representation of how Hawke began to spread roots in Kirkwall [recovered the Amell’s mansion, developed wealth and fame, got involved with the problems of the city], while staying between two big buildings that represent the Gallows [I think?] where the main long-lasting political problem of Kirkwall lays.

One of the roots hits in between a hooded figure of yellow robe casting something, which must be a mage, and a dark hooded figure, which bottom shows dark tendrils, representing (in my opinion) a mage Grey Warden. Both figures are the same, since the dark cape has a pattern with the same symbol on both of them.

The one casting what looks like a simplification of the Chantry Sun may represent the sibling’s fate of going to the Circle/becoming a Templar, while the other one, where the dark cloak covers them completely, dripping dark tendrils of what usually is represented as Taint, could be the other alternative: the sibling becoming a Grey Warden. It's in this part where Varric changes his narration depending on the sibling’s fate.

The corruption of the figure of the Grey Warden drips to form a mountain of warriors representing the Qunari army, but also it was made in a shape that resembles the Viscount’s Keep where the Viscount was beheaded. It also looks like a mountain of warriors/templars holding their shields, and in a more distant way, the usual oversimplification of the Black City. I’m surprised of how multi-interpretive this image can be. This screen is accompanied with Varric’s narration about the Qunari being still present in the city.

This transition is what makes me suspect that those dark figures that form a mountain of warriors are not Qunari. In the bottom we see the unmistakable shape of Qunari in red. So who or what are those dark shapes in the background? I can’t say for sure. Their heads look like templar helms, but at the same time, the whole image looks like the Black City, in which interior there is a thick vein of Red Lyirum. All this aditional interpretation resounds with DAI and the red lyrium templars. Was it a foreshadowing? But it makes no sense to represent this with the Qunari. Or maybe it’s what it’s happening elsewhere with the Templars while the Qunari drama is unfolding?

That the qunari are in the same red than the red lyrium vein makes me wonder maybe too much and I’m afraid of being too carried away with overthinking the images [something that I don’t want to do].

If we remain in what we know up to DA2, this image can be interpreted as how the Gallows and the Viscount’s Keep were overtaken by the Qunari, who spilled blood and fury in equal measure. This interpretation makes sense with the following animation where the red lines simply get aflame and destroy the representation of power in the Viscount. If we see again the representation of the Gallows in the map, we can see more or less that this black amount of creatures are forming the structure of the Gallows, and the separation that characterises the Gallows is filled with that red vein of blood that erupts, showing how explosive this situation was.

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore ]

#visual narration #da2

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