DAO: Syreniel

Syreniel meets her cousin to discuss their double-marriage in the alienage.

BACKGROUND

I was born in the elven alienage, right here in Denerim. The heart & jewel of Ferelden, the capital city. I never been outside of the alienage before and what knowledge I have of the outside world are mostly heard from others. I once snucked around and took a peek. The world beyond the alienage is so similar yet so different.. It is like what we have here, except less squalid and more spacious.

I got in a fair bit of trouble snucking out and it was my mother that saved me. I miss my mother so much. In her youth she was quite an adventurer and she had quite a number of stories to tell me. She also taught me how to handle a blade, which father frowned upon. They would often get into arguments at times.
Then one day I came back home and she was gone. I missed her so much and I never knew what happened to her until I was older. Father said the shems took her away. It was then I think I understood what she and father were always arguing about.
Father wants to stay out of trouble but mother says that she should not let the shems take away anymore of our dignities.

It was the shems. How they oppressed our people and treat our people as slaves. The shems say slaves are forbidden in Ferelden and that we are just servants. LIES! There is no difference in being a servant for the rest of the life than a slave. We still never be able to live the life we want and will serve on them till the day we die.
It is a life-time of servitude. To them we are animals, fit to use in anyway. Hard labour, work too undesirable or beneath them. Even worse as their play-things.

Just two days ago I caught a shem noble leering at me. Facing him, I glared at him contemptously and he backed down. I'm glad mother taught me how to use the blade, if he ever comes back one day to find trouble. I'll find him and gut the pig down.

One day the shems will pay. They will pay for taking away our freedom and most of all they WILL pay for taking away my mother. We will not be the down-trodden any longer.


BUILD
Class: Warrior
Specializations: Reaver / Berserker
Primary Role: Primary DPS
Secondary: Secondary Tank

Not the first warrior I created but arguably the most powerful one. Syreniel is dual-wields two main-hand weapons. Started out slightly better than average with low survivability, even though a lot of her stats had to go into Agility to unlock the DW path. With solid massive armor at high levels, she tears elites a new asshole.
I went with Reaver with the idea of having some physical resistance to help her survive. And Berserk provides a passive bonus to strength needed to don plate armor. In hindsight? I should have gone towards Templar for specialization. DW hits rapidly and can drain quite a fair bit of mana.
Bad thing is Syreniel dishes out so much damage that she attracts too much aggro.

PARTY COMPOSITION
1. Alistair - Tank
2. Wynne - Healer
3. Zevren - Rogue

I had to use a mod to respec Zevren to fulfill similar roles as Leliana. I let him stayed as an Assassin since it was his canon specialization. Having my rogue wade into melee when my main is already melee is not very good. Alistair was interesting but considerably weaker when compared to Shale in the early stages of the game. Limited AoE CC too. Heavy armor does have its advantages in attracting aggro, so I had to dump massive amounts into his strength, whenever he levels.

Syreniel in full-battlegear. Massive armour and twin blades. One enchanted with fury of the flames the other with chill of the winter's touch.

DAO: Quelvallei

Quelvallei protecting Dalish territory against intrusions of 'shemlens'. Or better known as Humans.


BACKGROUND

My whole life is spent in the wilderness of Ferelden, in the vast forest. I was not brought up by my parents but by the clan elders. They never told me much about my parents even when I pressed them.

Life is not easy but we get by. There are many dangers in the wilderness, witches, apostates, kocari barbarians & other monstrous creatures that lurk within the savage forest. There is no other way, such are the things we go through for the sake of freedom.

We are the Dalish, the last free people of the elvenkind. There are others who lives in the cities with the shems. Knife ears, elves who lost their will, dominated by the shems. These elves will never lift their head in pride & are shackled in servitude for the rest of their lives. Some even feel grateful to wait on their shem masters. Pitiful.

The shems encroach upon our lands many times and we often had to avoid them. I'm tired of this, the land used to be ours. Our once glorious civilization was laid to waste not once but twice by these shems. These brutes, take our land and rape our women. Young girls not even at the cusp of adolescence savagely violated and left to die.

Their transgressions should be punished yet the Elders caution me from doing so. For it may trigger a war between us and shems. Elders say we will lose out, for their numbers are much greater.

I am reluctant to concede to the Elder's wishes. We may never reclaim our lost glory, but I will defend what was left of us till the day I die. If any foolish shems dare encroach upon our territory, they will very surely feel my wrath and fury. I will make an example out of them.

But it will not stop here, I will find a way to return my people to glory. It may take years, decades or even centuries but I will find a way to return our numbers and make us stronger.

One day we will reclaim our glory, this I swear by our gods & my parents' graves.


BUILD
Class: Rogue
Specializations: Duelist / Ranger
Primary Role: Utility / DPS
Secondary: Crowd-Control

Picking ranger is mainly for its pets, already explained in earlier post for Celurriel's party composition. Its ability to block can be both good & bad, depending on the situation you have.
The duelist choice was chosen mainly for its passive bonus to agility. The rest of the abilities are similar to the Assassin path and are very melee exclusive. The whole idea is the get sufficient cunning for disabling traps/opening locks & pump the rest into agility. Constitution & wisdom are useful but not as important. Strength at the bare minimal so as to be able to equip Tier 7 crafted armour. A PC rogue is significantly stronger due to the bonuses received in the game that is exclusive only to the PC.


PARTY COMPOSITION
1. Shale - Tank
2. Wynne - Healer
3. Oghren - Main DPS

The only difference from this set-up from Celurriel's was swapping out Leliana for Wynne.
Wynne has the exact same specializations & spell as Celurriel, but lesser selection of spells.

The best handcrafted leather armor made from the best material. Armed with best bow crafted from the oldest oaks. Quelvallei stands ready to defend the lands of the Dalish

DAO: Celurriel - going in circles

We are back at the Circle of Magi... Me miss? you bald tranquil whose-name-i-can't remember

This is my dream, you are in my domain Alistair. And I can do anything I want here.. whats with that expression? not convinced?

Whats with the magic barrier? I thought you liked me?

Jowan, what happen to your girlfriend... you know the Chantry girl? What don't look away & avoid the question

I'm feeling kind of warm in here.. lets shed some clothes.

DAO: Celurriel - Along the way...

Its a WITCH!!! Quick! Everyone look away so you won't get turned into a toad!

Is there something behind me Alistair? You do know that I'm a magic user right? And magic users can turn people into toads. Just wait till I learn that spell..


We are a band of two looking for two more to form an all girls adventurers party. Guy? What guy? Oh! You mean Alistair to my right? He is our errand boy so he doesn't count.

Seeing as we are both elves & you seem rather important. I don't suppose you know who my parents are?


I hate spiders, I really do and I hate caves too. Its so musty... oh hold on a moment... why is the blood red? Spiders shouldn't have red blood right? Guys?

DAO: Celurriel - Prelude

Yes Jowan.. I'm aware my leg looks odd, can you please wave that magic wand over here and fix it. The Harrowing took too much out me and I'm in no condition to do it myself...


A cloister sister from the Chantry & a mage... not exactly the best matches... Hey but whatever floats your boat guys..

Uhm guys are you sure this is the place to take your marriage vows? It looks like a restricted area...

DAO: Denizens of the Fade

The spirit world in DAO is known as a the Fade. It is here most practitioner of magic sanctioned by the Circle go through Harrowing process.

A very dangerous place and not for the weak. Those who are trapped are eventually lost forever in it, their physical bodies die if the spirit does not return in time. Yet there are worse fates, a spirit can cross over from the Fade into the Physical world possessing the body of the mage. And in the process become an abomination.


(Left: trapped soul in the form of a mouse, Middle: a benign spirit of honour, Right: Malevolent spirit of sloth)

DAO: Celurriel

Here is Celurriel at the Harrowing Chamber with Irwin(left) and Gregoir (right) the commander of the templars. Mages in Thedas are hardly tolerated and are often kept under close watch by the templars. Which is the militant branch of the Chantry. The Chantry would be equivalent of the Church in medieval times as they wield quite a tremendous amount of power.


BACKGROUND

I never knew who my parents were. I barely remembered their faces. It was blurry & vague. As if it was obscured by fog. Were they Dalish? It didn't matter, well not anymore. I was brought to this tower a long time ago. I can't even remember how old I was then. If someone asked me what childhood meant. I don't think I could ever answer them.

I was brought up here. Not much later, my training has began. The concentration, the books & rituals. Amongst all that, we were watched by the bunch of men in heavy armor that called themselves the Templars. It didn't matter what you are, human or elves. They kept a close watch on us regardless. We were never allowed to leave the tower. Though I have heard of a particular mage that have escaped the tower on several occasions. Anders was it?

Now several years have passed, at least a decade. I have grown and started to notice a Templar by the name of Cullen. Who seems to be paying special attention to me. An odd fellow for a Templar, sometimes I catch him smiling at me. When he realized that I was aware, his expression quickly change & seems to be a little nervous when I talked to him.

I haven't had much time to contemplate. Since much of my time has been spent on harnessing the powers of the arcane. Which I am told is extremely dangerous. I have spent much time learning from the Senior Enchanters and I'm told the day of my Harrowing is just tomorrow.

I will have to enter the fade and face one of the greatest challenges in my life. There is a chance that I might even turn into an abomination that must be put down by those Templars guarding us.

If I am successful I will leave the ranks of apprenticeship and become a full-fledged mage. Yet I'm not filled with excitement. I will still be kept in this prison of a tower. I'm often told that we are dangerous and we are housed here to keep ourselves and others safe.

And that with power comes great responsibility.
Though I should count my blessing that the Circle hasn't decide to turn me into a Tranquil. One of those creepy mages who no longer have any emotions. Oh... what I would give to leave this tower. And maybe.. to experience a bit of love? Is that too much to ask?

BUILD
Class: Mage
Specializations: Arcane Warrior / Spirit Healer
Primary Role: Healer / Buffer
Secondary: DPS / Crowd-Control

I wanted something different for my 2nd play-through. So I tried another class, but its hard to get the hang of friendly fire when everything is moving in real-time. Pausing can only do so much. So a healer would definitely be a lot easier to manage. The decision to go Arcane Warrior was merely cosmetic, Celurriel can't actually tank at all. Robes are just too plain ugly for me. Definitely the traditional D&D Cleric.

Heavy armor will attract aggro so putting her in the back is a sound plan. It forces enemies to wade through my other party members. The down side is that she runs out of mana fairly easy due to fatigue. Therefore potions are an absolute must in long drawn-out fights. Also deliberately done so to exclude Wynne from the party since I wanted a completely different experience.


PARTY COMPOSITION
1. Shale - Tank
2. Leliana - Rogue
3. Oghren - Main DPS

Very standard MMO party set-up. Shale is hard to take down and can switch modes. Her tanking mode is what interest me since it comes with some AoE CC that helps in the fights itself.
Leliana is a no-brainer... she is the only rogue around. Going the ranger route is just to bring a little extra dps & to soak the damage. Also useful to block off enemies.
Oghren is just mainly just for comedy relief, but he also comes with two specialization slots unlike Sten who given only one.

Celurriel in her full battle regalia. From robes to massive-armor.

DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS

I first saw this game when I was at a friend's house. Heck I have been so off the 'gaming scene' I hardly knew what new games are out there. Oh well, spending too much time in a MMORPG & saving up cash can do that to you.

While all my friends were in the living room playing some board game. I was glued to his computer, creating my first character for Dragon Age: Origins (DAO for short). I'm a sucker customizing my character. When I saw the options I was sold. Almost every part of the face can be customized down to the voice. The only thing you can't change is the body shape.

Pity, but I loaded up the game and played it a bit. It didn't take long before I was impressed. I guess its partly due to the fact that I wanted something new. But I still had to save money and too much pride to borrow it from a friend.

4 weeks later, I couldn't take it anymore. I bought the game, installed it on my PC. For two weeks I was hooked on it. Clocking almost 5 hours of game after my returning home from the office.

I finally completed the game at last but was left wanting for more. Eventually created 4 different characters and completed the game with it.

My other friend wasn't so keen on it. His gal-pal of his who happens to be a gamer, nerdraged when her party got wiped out and quit the game entirely! And he was influenced by her so much that he too decided that the game was terrible.

I must admit though, the AI can be rather idiotic and will run into ambushes and traps. Often then resulting in a party wipe. Which can be frustrating but nowhere as frustrating as playing Sims 3 and getting error codes 12.

But once you look past the stupidity of the AI, it really isn't bad. Particularly the party dynamics and how they interact with each other. The banter they have while traveling are absolutely hilarious.

Good job Bioware.