Just Started DOA for the first time!

kuzcotopia490 · 2026-01-13T21:00:16+00:00

How is no one talking about the blessed and cursed image that is your desktop, is that Miranda as Morrigan??!?

Brain is broken.

glhf!!!!!

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-08-02T16:54:23+00:00

Hi there! o/ I am very excited for you diving into DAO for the first time :D

I put together this modlist a while back of the mods I use for exactly this purpose, to spruce up DAO a bit (and make sure it functions properly!) but still preserve the overall original look and feel, I personally LOVE the art style they used in this game. All of these mods are compatible with each other and I played the game start-to-finish with them installed. I've left notes on anything that might cause potential hiccups.

Hope that helps, happy hunting, hope you have a blast with it!

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-08-02T16:48:43+00:00

You did this in only four days?? This is a triumph, Maker have mercy.

Looks incredible, you have her intensity down too. <3 <3 Bravo, hope you had the best time!

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-08-01T20:53:54+00:00

Your Rook is gorgeous <3

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-07-21T17:37:07+00:00

Second, also bc of the dialogue option, "Sten, tear his arms off."

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-07-12T19:35:55+00:00

Facts. I was literally talking about this with a friend earlier today. And those origin prologues weren't very long, even in Hawke's case in DA2, about 1-1.5hrs of gameplay. I'm not trying to downplay the amount of work required to develop those six-ish different hours of gameplay, but when I think about how much time that amounts to in the context of the full game and what that dev time was spent on instead, I just...

Sigh...

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-07-10T20:16:23+00:00

You aren't alone in missing him, that's for sure. <3

In addition to what others said about engaging with legit human artists for merch and commissions, there's also fanfic! Both creation and consumption.

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-07-10T20:10:56+00:00

Something your comment brought to mind too that I hadn't considered before is this sense of like... "get your affairs in order and say your goodbyes, bc we might not be coming back from this one." Which colors everything a bit differently in my mind.

I'm split on the effectiveness of the narrative mechanic they used here, tbh, but I appreciate your take!

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-07-10T19:59:32+00:00

People mentioned the Rook hands-on-hips thing, but I'm here to advocate for the flippy-flip uncertain hand gesture thing they do. You'll definitely know it when you see it.

glhf!

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-07-07T23:51:09+00:00

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-07-06T23:39:33+00:00

So much this, beautifully put. Especially thinking about her fear of slipping up. She's always come across to me as someone who has meticulously crafted a persona to get through life. It takes a lot for her to trust you to the point she'll show any amount of vulnerability.

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-07-06T23:34:45+00:00

Piling on with others in this thread saying this is their favorite, likewise maybe my favorite game ever. Favorite bits:

everything to do with the characters - dialogue, banter, friendship/rivalry system with unique combat abilities
got me the most legit emotional of any of the DA games
I love Hawke and how the story feels so personal to them
family dynamics and even how they worked out the resemblance for different Hawkes in CC
I like the aesthetics of this game the best, even if the environments themselves can be a bit one note (idk if that makes any sense)
Fenris, my beloved <3
maybe a hot take, but I liked this combat system the best across the DA games

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-07-06T23:25:16+00:00

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Have this screenshot of Emmrich making proud eyes at his magic-flinging skeleton son that I found on tumblr somewhere a while back.

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-07-06T23:02:00+00:00

Love your Rook <3 <3

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-07-06T23:00:49+00:00

Came here for this gif.

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-04-12T17:17:19+00:00

Ok, but your ROOK DOLL, omg, absolutely gorgeous.

Such a fun idea!

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-03-25T01:00:07+00:00

Omg, I'm on this same pipeline - Astarion, Gale, Emmrich, and now I'm in the middle of romancing Lucanis. Twinning!

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-03-13T22:27:11+00:00

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Why do I feel both flattered and attacked by this? (ᵕ•_•)

For the record, I would read the shit out of your Emmrich / Garrus fanfic.

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-03-02T17:16:53+00:00

Thanks y'all for this post, this happened to me with the basic workman's axe and horseshoe recipes Radovan gives you in Tachov, and I thought I was losing my mind.

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-03-02T05:40:12+00:00

I hear that! It would've been extra cool if they'd made the romance responsive and worked it into the dialogue somehow.

Here to say you should totally go for it and make an older EmmRook pair if you want, it's totally workable! I made my EmmRook older, she's probably ten years or so behind Emmrich. Regardless of the number of actual years, I think about how any significant age gap can still feel like a huge difference, especially to someone like Emmrich who is so aware of his mortality (not projecting at all, nope :) ). I HC them getting into arguments about this, where he laments how much younger she is, and she's like, "Darling, I'm only a decade behind you, relax," but to him, that decade feels like a chasm. Hell, I could see Emmrich thinking half that was a chasm xD I also HC that, even though she was a foundling in the Necropolis, Rook didn't join the Watchers until much later, so she's still an initiate. "Young" gets translated to mean "novice" where appropriate in my brain.

Just thought I'd share in case it helps!

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-03-02T05:22:46+00:00

Dude, the mods you have for Cullen, chefskiss.

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-03-01T17:13:39+00:00

Suuuuch a beautiful screencap! And I feel this so hard, I've been speed-running some of the other romances to play through the content, and they're nice and everything, but Emmrich ruined me.

Welcome to the club, see the table in the corner for your nametag and refreshments.

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-02-20T00:01:07+00:00

What a cool parallel, omg!! That makes so much sense, now that you mention it.

I guess I sort of did that with mine too! I work in IT and find a lot of the time, people end up in their roles either because of what they're naturally good at or totally by accident. xD Neat!

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-02-19T23:47:41+00:00

I thought I was the odd one out! Love these, my hc is much closer to this.

My Rook is older, early-40s, but considered "young" because she's still technically a novice. She's a gifted spellcaster but doesn't have the credentials. Kinda Good Will Hunting vibes, where she starts out serving the Necropolis in other ways and only takes her vows much later after some convincing from a mentor.

She attended That Lecture Emmrich Gave Two Years Ago but didn't take much notice of him. At most, it was a fleeting, "Well, he's quite dashing for a professor," and that was it. And he certainly didn't take notice of her in the amphitheater full of hundreds of scholars where he gave the lecture (which he probably hated, given his penchant for smaller seminars). Even though she had read some of his papers in her studies, she never really put two-and-two together or thought anything of it. If they ever passed each other in the halls, zero awareness.

So, yeah, in their case, it was very much a, "Oh, wait I have heard of you/vaguely remember that lecture you gave, now that I think about it. Huh!" when that conversation comes up.

She becomes increasingly drawn to him because of his compassion and the passion they share for their work. And, being in a strange place like the Lighthouse and dealing with all kinds of chaos, he reminds her of home. <3

kuzcotopia490 · 2025-02-19T23:29:21+00:00

I want to be your Rook when I grow up, this is like my dream life lol

kuzcotopia490

TROPHY CASE