Tevinter Nights: Chap. 1-3 {The Book Emporium}
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- Eh? A visitor? Welcome to the Book Emporium! This week, we discuss the Chapters Three Trees to Midnight by Patrick Weekes, Down Among the Dead Men by Sylvia Feketekuty, and The Horror or Hormak by John Epler of the novel Tevinter Nights!
A huge thank you to everyone who submitted art and comments!
VIDEO LINKS
- The True Horror of Hormak by Fusselkorn: • The True Horror of Hor...
- Ghilan'nain: Mother of the Halla by Ghil Dirthalen: • {Codex-DAO} Ghilan'nai...
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This video does contain story spoilers for the Dragon Age games and other related media.
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I'm catching up now for The Veilguard and wow, I'm loving these
I love that this book seemingly gave us possible early descriptions of enemies we are going to have to fight in the next game.
About Qunari breaking the truce, remember that Sten tells Alistair in a banter that the Qunari only signed the treaty because they knew the humans valued it. While the Qunari were probably exhausted by that point, clearly they don't use formal treaties in the same way and probably never really valued it.
Edit: Found the banter! Specifically this part of the exchange is what's probably most relevant given Stenashok's new authority in the Qun:
Sten: They signed a piece of paper, but only because they knew you believed in it.
Alistair: And what is the difference between that and negotiating?
Sten: They stopped fighting for their own reasons, and they will resume it one day. The agreement means nothing to them.
Alistair: But I thought you said your people believed in honor.
Sten: They do. The honor of the Qunari is what will bring our warships back to your shores.
There's also the codex entry, "What Discipline Achieves", found on the Storm Coast near where you meet Bull and the Chargers. "Such madness and hypocrisy needed another answer. We signed the treaties of the bas to silence them, and left.
We will return. Patience is the manifestation of self-control. While the bas bicker amongst themselves, we prepare. What is time compared to the demands of the Qun?"
The Thaig and the Labs relation theory is so intriguing. Orzammar might have been sitting on top of some cruel cavern all along. And this might also be the answer why Kal' Sharok is different. They probably discovered their own lab?
Hormak reminded me that Caridin's journal in DA:O states "I called him golem, for the legend of those great statues animated by the dead." This heavily implies that some other, prior creature inspired Caridin to create his golems. Maybe the legends are derived from tales of the labs.
or maybe ghosts/demons possessing statues? could also be a thing in nevarra
Meredith animated statues with Red Lyrium.
RE: Horror of Hormak. One possibility that occurred to me regarding the "I paid the price" comment is that the self mutilation was itself the price to go free. To suffer as Ghilan'nain had been made to suffer as a sign of devotion may have even been a hallmark of her cult or priesthood. While it sounds like a dumb idea to cripple one's own followers, given Ghilan'nain's skill set it's not inconceivable that she could have repaired, "improved", or otherwise healed the wounds after the rite was enacted. There's certainly plenty of examples of real world religious rituals and practices that involve self mutilation of one sort or another (up to and including ritual suicide in some cases.)
What also jumped out at me was the pattern of hybridisation among the "creations". I mean it's been a theory for quite a while that Qunari are somehow the result of a crossing of Elves and Dragons, and Ghilan'nain's other "labs" may be the smoking gun. Their origin across the ocean need not preclude this since we don't actually know how far Elvhenan stretched. Indeed a line in the final story from a certain tea hating character regarding a mysterious and distant group seems to imply the ancient elves did indeed have a familiarity with the world beyond Thedas.
It may also account for some of the stranger looking creatures seen only in elven paintings, for the many antlered stag looking thing to the lizard-person. Could the latter be a failed prototype Qunari, or a crossing of an elf and wyvern, gurgut, deepstalker, or something similar? Either way, if they are Ghilan'nain's work then it makes the ancient deep roads sightings of magic using lizard-people make a little more sense. We might even go so far to suppose that some creatures like griffons may be descended from some of Ghilan'nain's creations. I know the stories say all but the halla and the sea monsters were eradicated, but stories are all they are...
Some people are now saying elves are dragon's, even though it's a long shot it's from one of greatest dragon age theorist (if not the best) u/nouvlesse
www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/fjnio2/spoilers_all_a_detailed_analysis_of_the/
@@bruhmieter5688 There's certainly plenty of evidence to link Dragons with the concept of divinity in Thedas; from the obvious Old Gods/Arch Demons, to the Avvar binding spirits to dragons, to the Haven cult worshipping a dragon they believed to be Andraste incarnate, and how the shape-shifting form was considered to be only for the Evanuris (exemplified by Flemeth/Mythal's "you could never be a dragon" comment.)
Whether that means the dragons and the Evanuris have a common origin remains to be seen. We've seen mages shape-shift (especially elven trained ones) into various animals; from wolves, to bears, giant spiders , to crows, halla, and even whole swarms or insects and nobody is claiming any of those are the Elves' "true form", or somesuch.
If I had to guess though, I'd say the dragons we've seen on game may be an atavistic shadow of what they were before the veil was created. That they once had a more profound connection to magic that was all but severed when the Evanuris were imprisoned. As such in those days they would have been the most powerful creatures in the world (not counting titans and whatever sea monsters may be out there) so of course the Evanuris would claim that form for themselves. Another factor may simply be that it takes and *enormous* amount of magical power to take a form as powerful as a dragons and so under most circumstances, nobody but the Evanuris could pull it off anyway.
Yeah the Mad scientist is rather fitting for Ghilannain, given that she is a *peanut and jelly* with the -Amazonian- hunter assasin goddes Andruil
Hi I'm currently playing the descent dlc and came upon a note. Its called Warden Ailsa's Diary. In the note, she said "But then I stubled across something horrible. I smelled it before I saw it: bodies. Hurlocks, genlocks, creatures I didnt recognize - hundreds of them, mutilated, tortured, and thrown into pits."
This immediately reminded me of Horrors of Hormak. Definitely related to what the wardens on the novel saw. It could be one of the thaigs that has that pool with the green crystal in the middle.
Wait. Commenting again, in Horror of Hormak, the sickly green lyrium Crystal that energizes the pool-
"Here lies the abyss, the well of all souls.
From these emerald waters doth life begin anew.
Come to me, child, and I shall embrace you.
In my arms lies Eternity."
-Canticle of Andraste.
Is this a stretch?
Well of Sorrows. Well of All Souls. Hmmmmmmm....
Maybe it's sickly because it's being used to make something related to void rather than life.
Ooh, that's good.
I was also wondering if those weird green lyrium-shaped spikes growing around fade rifts in the Hissing Wastes were somehow connected to all of this. Ooh, what if there's a Fade-Touched Titan under the Wastes? What if the red lyrium is proliferating because there are multiple Titans being infected with the Blight?
@@abracadaverous I've always found it odd that almost no one talks about the green lyrium in the wastes. It was one of the more interesting mysteries to me and seems like it would be important, considering the significance of red and blue lyrium
@@DeSanto127 i thought it was fade quartz
When I picture the Mural in "Horror of Hormak" I get H. R. Giger vibes from the description. If you look up the mural showcased in the movie Prometheus (quick Google) the subtle movements and shifting nature stand out. Other works by H. R. Giger have a fluid, organic hellscape nature to them.
I'm so excited to see this particular style be utilized in the Video game art medium.
Could the process to create brood mothers relate to this brine/mutagen/substance?
My feeling is that bioware was being cute with us when they say Ghilan'nain has "sea monsters." They aren't sea monsters because they live in the sea, they are sea monsters because they come from brine in some manner.
The dlc in Dragon Age Origins explains the process to create broodmothers. It didn't mention anything about green lyrium and sea water.
Ah yes. Back to enjoy the wonderful works now that we got some real action coming. Thank you as always~
57:17 slight correction, you said that Vivienne started the college of enchanters. Vivienne restarts the circles again as the grand enchanter, Fiona and/or the inquisition mages/mages who didn't want to go back to the circle reformed the college of enchanters as a more "free" version of magical study. Vivienne>Circles, Fiona/Inquisition mages>College of Enchanters
Unless Viv goes Divine mode, then Fiona and all her extremists go out the window.
@@bgcvetan Not all Divine Vivienne's crush the College. I think it depends on her personal approval of the Inquisitor and whether or not you allied with the mages.
@@ninethreefivesix I just checked, it depends on whether you're looking at the Inquisition ending slides or the Trespasser ones; in Inquisition Divine Vivienne forces the College of Enchanters to join her or rejoin the Inquisition. By Trespasser, with the Inquisition gone/serving the divine, she allows the College to exist in a somewhat uneasy state. Basically, no matter who is Divine or if you pick the mages or templars, there's always a Circle of Magi under Vivienne (even if you don't recruit her at all, she just isn't named) and the College of Enchanters. What changes is which group has more support from the Divine.
I definitely thought the green/yellow of the Horror of Hormak crystal implied it being fade-touched or imbued (like veilfire, the Inquisitor's mark and the breach/fade rifts) especially given the ancient Elven hints in the "decor"/architecture of the Hormak discovery.
Love your channel, thx for all your great insight!
Just a brief thought. Quite often in fiction when asking “who” is the wrong question, the right question normally is “what” or “where”
I took the invasion of Ventus as not so much a rogue act by the Antaam or some other subsection, but just that some of the tactics and the methods weren't sanctioned. It happens all the time in real life, where two countries go to war and an invasion is a completely top-down order, but then the soldiers commit war crimes either of their own volition or on the order of a lower officer. The Huntmaster didn't seem to mind that the invasion had happened, he just seemed concerned that the Ben-Hassrath had not been properly involved
Also, I'm only part-way through this book but I'm working on a theory about most of the stories (i.e. 13 of the 15) having to do with each of the Elven gods. We obviously got both Andruil and Ghilan'nain from two of these three and the last story is called "The Dread Wolf Take You", so...
what if the "mean old lady" sandal talks about in da2 is actually ghilan'nain, and not flemeth like everyone assumes
..........that would be awesome! Sandal already is like a prophet figure for the dragon age series so maybe we will see ghilan’nain in the 4th one since Solas says he’s going to rip down the veil🤯
Omg I’m happy for the morning I will watch this and draw to it in the background 🥰
Well nice to see at least three of our companions in Veilguard are introduced in these stories 😁
And here I thought that I could be finished with this book quickly and that I could be able to read a chapter a day... Six months since I started reading and I'm finally done with it and now can go and start with this video series. It had some stories that really were captivating and I wanted to read them in one go. And then others that seemed to drag on and on and took me several days to get through (weeks actually if you also count the breaks of not reading anything in between)...
the new monsters remind me of in Mass Effect 3 and how the reapers were corrupting each race and turning them into a new monster. The Asari were twisted into banshees and the Rakni became something else entirely if you tried to kill them off in a previous game
Talking about the Qunari breaking the Accord, I am reminded of what Sten said about it in Origins. The Qunari only signed the Accord to appease the other nations, and they would break it whenever they felt like it.
Omg yes!!! I've been checking youtube the whole day.❤
I hope Bioware plans on releasing a full audio narration of Tevinter Nights for those of us who can't see well.
I love Three Trees To Midnight! Strife and Myrion are great characters and I would be really happy to meet them in DA4. 😊
Down Among the Dead Men was a little boring most of the time but then...plot twist hit me hard in the face. After I learned that Audric was dead all the time...I was heartbroken. 😔 Poor man. It was like The Sixth Sense in DA universe. In the end it was a really good story.
The Horror of Hormak was creepy and insane. I would never expect something like. I'm more than sure that "She" is Ghilan'nain. That 🤬 was insane! And I start to think that Ghilan'nain is also responsible for the Blight. And I'm really scared that her creations will appear in next DA game...and I really don't want to see those creepy things on my screen. 😱
There might be a group or groups of Dalish elves that won’t buy into Solas’ stories and promises. They may see it as yet another trick of the Dread Wolf. He imprisoned their gods, now he’s spreading lies about them not being real gods, being actually evil etc... isn’t that what a trickster would do (in their opinion)?
I suspect the gods will have followers that will fight against Solas’ “lies”.
So if the 'Her' is actually Ghilan'nain that Jovis and Freidl are referring to. Does this mean she has some influence beyond her prison? Or she doesn't/has very little control and that why Jovis has the ability to his mind forward.
Yay, it is great to have the Book Emporium back!
My B.A. in Creative Writing and Fiction at it's most use theorizing and analyzing video game content/books. Worth it.
I think it's also implied that June had a lot of stuff to do with lyrium.
Yes, thank you for doing this.
You can Meet/kill 3 of the 4 known Forbidden ones across the 3 Dragonage games. Imshael in DAI, Xebenkeck In DA2, and Gaxkang in DA:O.
There is codex lores on them pieced together over the 3 games.
I always kill/look for the Forbidden one in each of the games though there is only The Formless One that has not been encountered, that we know of.
They are optional fights/encounters, so you may not have come across them. I personally like looking for one in each game.
DA:O - You will encounter Gaxkang inside the quaint Hovel in Denerim's Dirty back alley
DA2 - You need to find and read 5 books in to get this fight with Gaxkang, which will show up in darktown portal after reading final book.
DAI - Emprise Du Lion sidequest Call Me Imshael.
So, finally catched up myself with the first video. And I was really blown away by the last story, not just cause it is a nice dark fantasy, even horror story and of course takes bites from Lovecraft, even the retelling was very thrilling to hear. And now I wanna share what it reminded me of (and possible inspiration) and some little thoughts going through my head (propably just nonsense and out of order).
First: obviously in title, The Dunwhich Horror. and as you read the part about Sandel... I thought, shit - dont say he is the equivalent of the evil character there.... it would fit to well and damn I would be scared of him.
second: the goo hella reminds me of the goo in Prometheus (movie). maybe less exponential chaotic and destructiv, but it goes in the same direction. inserting vs contact played a huge role there too. but how much that is a reference or even relevant, i cant tell
third: dwarves vs elves. very confusing, but i always wondered about the origins of the dwarves and still dont buy 'the titans children'. some wild theories that flashed through me:
- dwarves were originally elves. transformed or made in a way, either the goo or even a titan (maybe its the father of all titans or something or a network of them?). maybe they wanted to destroy them or the source. or even wanted that change.
- elves put there as punishment or experiment. sacrificed dunno
fourth: did they or she create something like you said, but even in bigger measure? created titans? created lyrium? was the blight invented there? or is the goo linked to void or is it? (yeah wild)
fifth: also reminded me of amgarrak, but not just the creatures. the different 'coloured lyrium'. i always wondered why the heck there are different colours in amgarrak that seem to have different magical properties and if they are tied to lyrium. and iirc the dwarves said it also felt 'wrong'.
what if we are still far from understanding lyrium? and the different dimensions? what if the blight/taint is not linked to the void and all is colour-schemed? just like the possibilties and how new knowledge could turn everything. (like why would tainted lyrium be red and not black? wasnt there a black tainted sword that iirc could shield detection magic or sth? really cant remember)
last: okay back to a bit more straight forward: what if all evanuris started out as demons/spirits (or even archetypes or first of them?)
commenting on a 4 year old comment to say: yeah I agree wholeheartedly with your last comment.
They probably started off as spirits that made up a corporeal form like Cole. Especially bc Solas means pride but he was given that moniker in mocking, probably bc he was originally a spirit of wisdom like in the Netflix anime
@@alexsnewhandle dunno if i believe that still, but if - sure. or a fusing of both. (elf/spirit)
also thx for the unexpected reply. :)
Re: Hormak vs Hormok, I could've sworn Epler tweeted something kinda vague a few months ago about having a major misspelling(s) get through to being published in his story. But even if he did, that guy tweets so much it's buried forever
Regarding Sandal, is it possible that he’s a (failed??) experiment? That someone decided to splice a Mage - or some magical being... maybe even magic itself - with a dwarf?
Enchantment ?
@@bgcvetan ENCHANTMENT!
i think it's still possible the elf faction in three trees to midnight are team solas. i highly doubt he's being 100% honest with all of his followers and bioware has even shown he has people loyal to him that he has no personal connection to/doesn't interact with face-to-face like the guy from the deception comics. it's not even clear how many people know him as the dread wolf and not just some powerful elven mage promising to restore the old elven empire. and there's the fact that we don't know exactly how he recruits people through dreams. solas is absolutely the type of leader to only tell each part of his organization what they need to know and leave the bigger details ambiguous. he already tried once pre-dai to convince modern elves the gods were bs and it didn't go well.
Oooh, just plot summaries were enough to satisfy my curiosity for the other books covered so far but I might actually need to buy this one! Idk, DA short stories always tend to appeal to me more than the novels do. Especially ones that flesh out parts of the world we don’t know much about, like these. That second one made me so friggin happy ;o;
There is a ancient technique using a ton of tiny beads like stones to make mosaics. When tbe gem mosaic was mentioned in the book I figured it was the same as usual bead like stones to make a painting like mosaic.
Sten is dead in my canon playthrough so I'm really curious as to who the arishock will be for me
oh wow thank you! I have a hard time reading for myself, I was so dejected when I saw a lack of audiobook... Thank you for reading this for me! Ill definitly buy the book anyone just to encourage the writers though
The Horror of Hormak, and the unknown “her” and “they”, and Friede who clawed out her own eyes, reminds me of Dragon Age Origins with the Brood Mother in the Deeproads. It sounded like, in that section of the Deep Roads, Broodmothers made dark spawn. I know Solas, whenever the Wardens were mentioned, hated the Wardens mostly because they infected themselves with the blight. My theory . . . The elven “gods” infected people with blight? (This is stretch, but the blight needs to connect somehow) Why would Solas be so angry about the wardens and the Blight, something he wouldn’t really know about because he was asleep during all the Blights? Why would the Blights begin when the city of the “gods” ( the elven gods Solas locked away) was accessed by mortals?
Hahaha nice motorcycle
I feel like The Horrors of Hormak ties nicely in with the theories we have regarding the Titans and the ancient elves. But why would the darkspawn be willing to interact with the gray brine?
A question about Horror of Hormack. Why is it specifically wardens who lead the story? As in could it perhaps be that only a blighted creature can see the twisted version of the murals?
Newly subscribed and have to say .. Wow this is amazing im a real d.a. fan and the lore around this game and given history and hinted history is soo cool . thank you so much for all of this .. All your time and all .
I mean if blue Lyrium is Titan blood and red lyrium is corrupted Titan Blood, could yellow or green lyrium (if it’s actually those colors) be different bodily fluids? Sort of like the Medieval theory of humors?
Edit: A thought, if you go into the west of orlais, some of the rifts are surrounded by stones that glow lime green. I mean, the assumption is that they’re Fade remnants since the Fade has a vaguely lime green glow, but their structure is reminiscent of red lyrium crystals. Could the crystal the Warden’s see be some kind of Fade manipulated lyrium?
The crystal in Hormac could been a titans heart being used to create these abominations.
Hooray! Have been waiting for this!
if you save the chargers in da:i, the iron bull says he has been dosing himself with the antidote to liquid saar-qamek which acts as a poison on the blades used by qunari spies
Uh, many years later and not sure if it was mentioned in comments before - but the stomach wound... I mean. The warden ws female. Maybe something she gave up was removed from her body. After all, Wardens having very low fertility doesn't seem like something impossible to overcome, given what was going on in Hormak
hi, i was rewatching this for fun n i remembered that in Rivain exist a dalish settlement, if im not wrong in Llomerryn, so thats why i belive that elves care about the qunari attack.
Could the pool or liquid be the “deep sea” and all the creature who drank from the pool in turn the monsters of it spared at the request of Pride? Some kind of deep sea monster reservoir lol
Right question is obviously WHAT she is.
Well we know lyrium can be tainted. It turns red when it gets the darkspawn taint, maybe it turns yellow green when it's tainted with the brine substance? I guess this liquid is a new type of taint? Since this liquid is somehow connected to the elves, it kinda makes me wonder what Solas knows about the taint that he's not letting on, even hating the wardens for doing what they could.
Is it just me or is anyone really bummed that there isn’t an audiobook version? 🙃 I got the book this week 😁 still reading, but I’m on story 5 I think.
So everyone seems subscribed to the idea that ghilan’nain is responsible for the horror of Hormac. But what’s the likelihood of it being one of the original darkspawn magisters?
Thanks for posting!
Late comment that I doubt will be read - I can’t help but see some interesting parallels between Hormok and Amgarrak.
Commented literally a minute before this got mentioned. RIP
Is there a downloaded version of this by chance? I just found this while watching random videos for Dragon Age and have been playing through the games again. I wanted to read Tevinter nights but don't have a lot of free time during my breaks at work, would love to have this a s audio book type option
YYAAAAAAAASS~
I thought that the elf woman in three treese to midnight is an old elv like solas, because in one Part it says, that she thinks the accent of strife is funny. So I thought the three different elvs (one old, one City and one dalish) were working together for solas. And honestly I think solas will not tell the delish elves that there "gods" are wrong. Who know, what He will promise them to take them on his side..... I mean, he needed a lot of time to Tell his love the Story of the valleslin....and he never told her the truth of the old gods directly.....but maybe i understand something wrong in the book. (my english isnt perfekt 😅)
During the entire video: wow this is all so crazy I can't wait for DA4 and to see wtf Ghilnan'nan is up to
When Sandal is mentioned: SANDAL?! SANDAL? MY BOY?? THAT SANDAL??
(Lol!!)
Also, my predication as to why everything smelled like seawater and grime is because Solas could have trapped her there? In the ocean, while she was scouring it (maybe) to kill her monsters/creations. If "Pride" stopped her from killing those monsters, then that could mean that's where she was when he put the Veil up. This is just a possibility though since it's rumored that the Evanuris are all in the Black City together(?).
Thank you for all your work. But goodness slow down!
Hmm. Interesting. I began searching for Tevinter Nights in my country and found two. One that is around 12$ and one that is around 18$. There is a 64 page difference between the two.
Turns out that yes, there is a Tor version and a Titan version available in my country. Tor is more expensive and is noted to have 64 more pages than the Titan version. How odd. Anyway, just listening to this video and checking reviews helped me decide to buy it. I'm a huge fan of Dragon Age so this is gonna be worth it I believe. Also, this specific story tickled my fancy. I was sucked in.
Let's say someone wanted to replay/read everything dragon age? What order would you recommend? (Like stolen throne Then play DA1 then etc etc)
Gormullish Stolen Throne, The Calling - Dragon Age Origins - DA2 - Asunder, Masked Empire- DAI - Griffon book - Tevinter book - COMICS are involved too but Idk their order
1:01:26 "The editing hasn't been great in all of these novels" lol
Thank you for this
What if strife is an ancient elf?
Oh hell yes
Guess I can be glad that my book came from Germany (it is in English but it was delivered from Germany) because I have the version that came with the map.
There is a reason these books have terrible editing. Bioware wrote Hard in Hightown 2...
The Qunari seem to be getting restless, I think it may be that their society cannot properly function if it’s not expanding
ENCHANTMENT!!!
I had to do a double take at 15:35, I didn’t hear neck.
You know, I always wonder if the books were titled after BioWare’s Neverwinter Nights series
Wait the qunari cut down the arlathan forest?
I wanted to read along with your narrating but it seems there is different versions 😓
There is not- while I read some parts of the novel, this is me giving a summary, not an audio book!
Ghil Dirthalen that makes sense 😅
By "her" I thought of the mother more than the Elven god. But then again the mother could be just the result of inspiration from the original lab mother. Hormak gave me DA:O deeproad flashbacks and anxiety hahaha the book is pretty cool so far. The first chapter was a little boring though, for me.
Is this a synopsis or are you actually reading the book? XD
I gotta ask: what’s the legality on these videos? They’re great, basically free audiobooks - but it does mean I’m not gonna pay for the book.
She is giving a summary, not reading word for word.
I’m pretty sure that Patrick Weekes is going exclusively by they/them pronouns now.
What
The game is listed as skyrim XD
Rule