Welcome back to Talking Dragon Age, the show
where I talk about Dragon Age.
Today we're talking about Dreamers, or what
the elves call "Somniari".
We'll take a look at a few of the dreamers
we know of, with special emphasis on Feynriel,
who it appears is a more popular character
than I realized.
If he was sent to Tevinter, I'm sure he'll
have at least a cameo in the next game, but
I doubt he'll be a companion.
I'll get to that.
For now, I want to address the fact that should
have picked a different name.
Because we can encounter people in the Fade
who are dreaming, and the game also refers
to them as dreamers, but they aren't dreamers
like Feynriel.
So not all dreamers are dreamers.
See what I mean?
They - they should have picked a different
name.
We could say "Somniari" to differentiate them,
but they're grammatically the exact same word.
Somniar means to dream.
Somniari means dreamer.
So even in the elven language, they face the
same problem.
Whatever.
For this video, unless otherwise stated, every
time I say "dreamer", I'll be referring to
dreamers like Feynriel.
Confused yet?
Welcome to Thedas.
So what is a dreamer?
How are they different from a normal mage?
Well, dreamers can enter the Fade at-will.
They can also shape the Fade moreso than the
average mage.
Now this leads to a new bit of confusion.
I think the deal is that mages normally need
a lot of lyrium and/or several mages in order
to enter the Fade where and when they want
to.
That's why, in Origins, we needed the Circle
help to confront the demon in the Fade, instead
of just... going to sleep.
Alternatively, we use blood magic even though
blood magic supposedly makes it harder to
enter the Fade, so what is-
So dreamers can enter the Fade where and when
they want to without the additional aid of
other mages or lyrium.
That's the main thing that separates them
from other mages.
In addition, they have an easier time navigating
the Fade, perhaps because they are more able
to shape it to their will.
In ancient Tevinter, this was used to find
the dreams of others.
Dreamers could also permanently kill people
from the Fade.
When normal people kill someone in the Fade,
they just wake up.
Although, if a Dreamer is killed in the Fade,
they become Tranquil.
This is NOT true of normal mages.
Mages also normally just wake up, unless killed
by a Dreamer.
It remains to be seen what becomes of a Dreamer
killed in the Fade by another Dreamer.
This was the case with Felassan in The Masked
Empire.
It is entirely possible his killer didn't
know that a Dreamer killed in the Fade might
just become Tranquil, because his killer lived
in a time before the Veil, so Tranquility
may not have even existed.
And a dreamer becoming Tranquil because they
were killed in the Fade was never common.
Now let's talk about some examples of Dreamers.
The first recorded human Dreamer was a man
named Thalsian, who came from the Neromenian
tribes that preceded Tevinter.
He and other dreamers claimed to have visions
of the Realm of the Gods, whatever that means,
and that Dumat was the first to teach them
blood magic.
There are varying accounts of how humans first
learned blood magic, this is just one of them.
Others include the Forbidden Ones or just
run-of-the-mill demons, and some even believe
humans first learned blood magic from the
elves.
In any event, Thalsian and the Dreamers became
priests and kings.
Eventually, the Imperium was founded by a Dreamer named Darinius, who has a long history of his own.
For now, let's just say he was a powerful
Dreamer who unified Tevinter.
Now, Dreamers were... not common in Tevinter
at the time, but they also weren't too rare.
Now, we know that after the Sidereal Magisters
broke into the Black City, the Old Gods stopped
communicating with the Dreamers.
What's odd is that Dreamers also became less
and less common.
Through generations, less and less Dreamers
were being born.
Attempts to specifically breed Dreamers ended
up failing.
The Dalish apparently had a couple in some
of their clans, but even they were extremely rare.
Which brings us to Feynriel, considered to
be the first Dreamer in hundreds of years.
Though we later find out Aurelian Titus was
also a Dreamer.
Now Feynriel...
In case any of you don't remember or didn't
play Dragon Age II, I'll do a quick rundown
of his story.
Feynriel was the son of a former dalish elf named Arianni and an Antivan merchant named Vincento.
Vincento basically abandoned Arianni and their
child after she told him she was pregnant.
Arianni left the dalish to raise her son in
Kirkwall.
So, we first encounter Feynriel in Act 1 when
his mother, Arianni, asks us to track him
down after he ran away from home.
See, he had started developing magic but his
mother was terrified of losing him to the
Circle, so she protected him and used her
limited knowledge of dalish magic to teach
him to hide it.
Although, eventually, it became clear he was
unlike any mage she had encountered.
He began having progressively worse nightmares
involving demons.
Sometimes he would enter trance-like states
that could last for hours, and more.
Feeling like she had no choice, she called
the templars; specifically Thrask who she
knew was sympathetic to mages.
She was hoping the Circle could help her son
because she couldn't.
Feynriel found out and ran away from home, where he was kidnapped by slavers until Hawke rescues him.
He explains his plan was to find the dalish,
since his mother was dalish, and he was hoping
they could help him figure out what was up
with his magic.
Hawke has the choice of either sending him
to Marethari's clan, or recommending he go
to the Circle.
If you send him to the Circle, they are unable
to help him.
Because Kirkwall's Circle was so restrictive,
they just didn't have the resources to figure
out what was going on with him.
His condition worsened, he was unable to control
his ability, and so the templars were forced
to make him tranquil.
I say "forced", but really the templars just forced themselves by creating a problem they couldn't solve.
If you send him to the dalish, Marethari agrees
to help him however she can, but it's a work in progress.
Three years later, in Act 2, we encounter
him again when Arianni asks for our help.
While with the dalish, he entered into a deep
sleep and stayed asleep for days.
Marethari comes to Kirkwall to preform a ritual
which involves sending you into the Fade.
It's here she explains that Feynriel is a
dreamer and what that means.
She warns you of the danger of Feynriel being
possessed, and tells Hawke that if he can't
be helped, Hawke should kill him.
A death in the Fade for a dreamer would render
him tranquil, as opposed to other mages who
simply wake up.
We encounter dreams of Feynriel's desires
and pride, where demons may attempt to tempt
our companions, most of whom give in.
A demon of sloth in particular asks for help
possessing Feynriel.
I appreciate that the game LETS you do that,
but... yeah, I could never choose that.
Well, we free Feynriel from the demons' temptations,
and if we killed the sloth demon, Feynriel
says he's free.
"The Fade feels different now.
I see the stitches - the seems holding it
together!
I feel I could wake at any moment!"
It's here we either kill him, which makes
him Tranquil, or we let him wake up and he
sets off to Tevinter, since they are the only ones with the knowledge to help him master his abilities.
We later receive a letter that explains he
was taken as an apprentice to a magister and
that he is doing well.
If it seems weird to you a magister would
take on a random, foreign kid as an apprentice,
bear in mind Feynriel is a dreamer and they
are very rare, so Feynriel would be an invaluable
apprentice to any magister.
That's the kind of things magisters brag about.
In Act 3, we get a letter from some guy who
asks us to rescue his daughter who was kidnapped
by bandits and taken to the Wounded Coast,
where we find all the bandits already dead.
She says Feynriel had come to her in dreams
and that she had fallen in love with him.
All the bandits had killed each other after
arguing which of them...
ahem... would claim her maidenhood.
Whether or not Feynriel had anything to do
with this, we can't really say.
Well, in any event, more bandits come to find
us and their dead fellows, we kill them, and
the woman exclaims she's going to find Feynriel.
There's no real explanation as to why Feynriel
sought out this woman all the way from Tevinter.
I assume he had a crush on her when he was
in Kirkwall and sought her out once he had
more control of his abilities, but it seems
she didn't recognize him or even his name
when he came to her.
So...
I guess she never met him personally, he just
kind of admired her from afar.
And that's... creepy.
It's... romantic in its own way, but it's
still creepy.
I mean, he never spoke to this girl, just
admired her from afar.
Then he courts her by...
literally invading her dreams.
This girl seems a tad naive, she's a virgin
in KIRKWALL, and Feynriel somehow knew her
when he was barely a teenager?
And her father seems like a prominent citizen,
but Feynriel lived in the Alienage, which
was like the poor part of the poor part of
the city.
So... maybe this guy employed elves, or was
like some kind of businessman helping the
alienage, and he brought his daughter with
her when he visited sometimes and Feynriel
could never talk to her...
But it seems like the elves of Kirkwall didn't
have any help from humans, so...
I mean, that's just the best explanation I
can come up with.
Either that, or he literally stalked her when
he was a kid.
But she seems pretty sheltered, so I don't
know how he could have.
The only other option I can think of is that he went from dream to dream until he found a woman he liked.
I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt
and go with the first option.
Altruistic businessman's daughter and the
poor human kid living with elves.
I'd assume he was more likely to find a woman
in Tevinter who liked him, but... well, you
know, I'm just gonna move on.
If you allowed Feynriel to be possessed, we
find out he has been manipulating people.
He told some guys that some guards were thieves,
and so they went and killed them.
He becomes known as "The Dreamstalker" which...
is a pretty cool name, I have to admit.
Sounds like a future boss battle, in this
particular world state.
I want to see more stuff like that - entire
boss battles or quests depending on choices
from previous games.
It's not THAT big of an undertaking, though
in this case, I'd like to think almost no
one allowed him to be possessed and imports
that world state.
So yeah, there's where our information on
him ends.
So what's next?
Well, given he can be made tranquil 2 different
ways or become an abomination, I sincerely
doubt he'll be a companion.
That said, I DO think he'll show up in the
next game if he was sent to Tevinter.
Initially, I assumed it would be anywhere
from a cameo like Connor in Inquisition, to
a larger role like Hawke or the Warden Ally.
But the more I think about it... he has a
lot of potential, not just because we're going
to Tevinter and that's where he is, but because
he's a DREAMER, so his assistance against
Solas and the Wolf Pack would be INVALUABLE!
Solas can apparently kill people at will, so maybe a Dreamer could have a defense against that.
It's also said that the Litany of Adralla
also works against dreamers, but I'm not sure
how you would use it.
I guess you just have to say the words while
in the Fade yourself.
But yeah, as far as Feynriel goes, I could
see him having a KEY role in the fight against Solas.
You know, maybe there will be a system kind
of like the War Assets from Mass Effect 3,
where you collect everything you can to help
you in the fight and you have a nice laid
out list of everything and everyone and what
exactly their purpose is.
I'd like them to be more useful than the War Assets ended up being, but this sounds like a good concept.
This isn't the video for it, I need to make
one for mechanics, but I just thought of that
and didn't want to forget it.
So, here's where I'll wrap things up!
To recap...
Dreamers should have a better name, uh...
they can control and understand the Fade on
a deeper level than most.
Navigating the Fade is a lot easier for them.
They can enter the Fade at will without the
aid of lyrium.
They can manipulate people's dreams; and by
extension, the people themselves.
They can kill people from their dreams.
Uh...
Feynriel will probably show up in the next
game.
What role he'll have is up in the air.
It could be a whole plotline or just a cameo.
He might be a stalker, but I'll give him the
benefit of the doubt.
If he's possessed, he becomes a whole different
kind of stalker.
He might be tranquil, which sucks.
Actually, come to think of it, if he is tranquil,
maybe we'll encounter him anyway.
He COULD still be an asset if, as a tranquil,
he studied things that could help against Solas.
I think in that case, we'd encounter him in
a different place.
Like, if you sent him to Tevinter, he's either
still an apprentice or a magister, and at
this point has strong control over his abilities.
If he's tranquil, maybe he goes to Nevarra
looking for a job with the mortalitasi after
the Kirkwall rebellion.
Or after the Circles were officially dissolved.
I think if he's tranquil, it'll be a cameo.
But if he's in Tevinter, it'll be a larger
role.
So here's where we'll end things!
What are your thoughts on Dreamers and Feynriel?
What role they might play in the future?
If you want to talk about this or anything
Dragon Age related, jump on over to Discord
where you can chat with me and other fans!
So that's it for now, guys!
Thank you all so much for watching!
Don't forget to comment and Like, and remember:
tela nadas.
