Recent Reading: Tevinter Nights

[rocky41_7]

This was my second read-through of Tevinter Nights, the short story collection released for Dragon Age; the first came in 2020 not long after it was published. I wasn't super impressed with it at the time, but I was eager for any updates on the Dragon Age franchise, so I ate it up anyway. Having played through the latest game release, Veilguard (review here), it seemed like a good time to revisit Tevinter Nights, conceived undoubtedly as a way to keep fans interested and engaged with the coming story when, six years after the release of the last game, Inquisition, there was still not a crumb of news about the next game. I stand by my original assessment.

 

First, let me say this: if you are not already a fan of Dragon Age, this book is unlikely to have anything remotely interesting for you. It is steeped in its own lore, which it assumes the reader's familiarity with, and the quality of the works are simply not worthwhile if you are not already invested in this world.

 

Tevinter Nights is emblematic of so much of Dragon Age's writing. That is to say, it's deeply uneven in quality, with parts that are genuinely exciting and emotional, that give you exactly what you're looking for on your hunt for fantasy adventure; and parts that leave you scratching your head about how this cleared quality control (and whether the people writing it are familiar with the worldbuilding of their own franchise).

 

It confused me last time and still does why the book opens with Three Trees to Midnight by Trick Weekes, one of the weakest stories in the book, and I can only assume it was for the name recognition, and so they could bookend the collection with their work (Weekes also writes the final story, Dread Wolf Take You, which is a much stronger piece). Three Trees is cliche in ways that never let you forget it. A cliched plot can still be fun and interesting, but Three Trees made me feel like I was reading something rote; it hit every beat of "two trapped men who hate each other forced to work together to escape" (and raised questions, for me, about why Strife isn't better at his job). 

 

On the other side of the coin is The Horror of Hormak (Or is it Hormok? The book spells it both ways in a sign of editorial carelessness) by John Epler, which drives home my firm belief that the Dragon Age team's best genre is horror. This piece cleverly hints at the truths Solas suggested to the player in the Dragon Age Inquisition "Trespasser" DLC about the true nature of the elven "gods" and the escalating horror throughout really sets the stage for Ghilan'nain's entrance onto the scene in Veilguard. (My favorite moment is how the protagonist initially takes a mural in this "abandoned elven temple" as a scene of a benevolent goddess healing her people and gradually realizes she's not offering healing, but drawing something out of them.)

 

Already creeping up in Tevinter Nights are some of the same issues I had with Veilguard, like its need to constantly reassure the audience of the unproblematic nature of its heroes, such as through the whitewashing of the Antivan Crows (particularly egregious were the moments in The Wigmaker Job by Courtney Woods when Lucanis Dellamorte, heir to House Dellamorte and noted blueblood, castigates the excesses of the nobility as if he were not a beneficiary of that same generational wealth).

 

I will say that Tevinter Nights was a more fun read having played Veilguard and been more formally introduced to many of the characters and locations featured in the book. Seeing Neve and Rana in action, getting the story behind Bharv, and catching a glimpse of Emmrich in his natural environment were particularly enjoyable after having played through their featured game (and I'll always, regrettably, be a sucker for the kind of Inquisition nostalgia at play in Callback by Lukas Kristijanson or the many references to Cassandra and the Pentaghasts in Caitlin Sullivan Kelly's Murder by Death Mages). 

 

There are also hints of things present in Tevinter Nights that I wish had gotten more focus in Veilguard. For instance, Epler's Half Up Front has its two protagonists encounter the agents of Fen'Harel—two of whom kill themselves rather than be captured. The agents of Fen'Harel have been an interest of the fandom since they were first mentioned in the epilogue of Trespasser, but Veilguard drops them entirely, claiming Solas decided to work alone instead. It makes little sense, particularly given his history with leadership, except if the devs decided they did not want the moral quandary of players killing or deciding whether or not to kill these agents, given that they are made up primarily of some of Thedas' most mistreated people.

Weekes' Dread Wolf Take You, the final story in the book, also raises interesting aspects of Solas that do not get attention in Veilguard: his efforts to chase down necessary tools for his ritual, his ability to command loyalty (here agent we see agents of Fen'Harel at work), his efforts at intrigue (infiltrating a meeting with the Inquisition agent Charter himself rather than delegating), and his assault on the Mortalitasi and Tevene mages using blood magic to bind spirits. In Dread Wolf Take You we see why Solas is feared in Thedas; this story demonstrates not only his conflict (he concludes by noting his sincere apologies to the inquisitor for how things are, and he includes in part of his disguise a callback to a joke among the Inquisition) but also his power. It is a delicious reminder of what the stakes where the first time Solas took up arms (as we recall Solas himself has said he is far less powerful than even the lesser of the Evanuris), and what that fight between the Evanuris and the Dread Wolf's rebellion might have looked like, as well as why the modern elves—downtrodden, disrespected, longing to reconnect with their history—would be in awe of him and want to support his cause (though in Veilguard they are not permitted to). The Solas in in Dread Wolf Take You reminds us why Rook really ought to be careful in how they deal with him more than almost anything he does in Veilguard.

 

On the whole, the writing is mediocre. There are parts of it that are enjoyable, but it reads like something hastily cobbled together and thrown at fans to make sure they didn't forget about Dragon Age in the interminable wait for news of the next game. You can see where they were already building parts of Veilguard here, such as the start of Neve's history with Aelia and the adventures of Antoine and Evka, which is interesting for hardcore fans. However, like Veilguard itself, it left me ultimately uninspired and wishing for something better.  Once again, I wonder what the Dragon Age team might have come up with if truly left to their own devices.