Bellara Lutare - Official Companion Thread [Spoilers]

Seems unfair to lump Morrigan in with Anders and Solas. Secretly having a plan to save your life and the life of a purified God is hardly on the level as tricking you into helping blow up a public building by telling you it was for a cure and certainly not on the same level as secretly being responsible for Corypheus getting the orb and planning to destroy the modern world.

Like it sucks that she was hiding something from you but it's not really traitorous. If you refuse the ritual then she gets mad at you for choosing to die and abandons you to fight the archdemon without her - that's a betrayal, but a conditional one, we don't call the other origins companions traitors even though most of them will leave or attack you under the right conditions.

That being said it wouldn't surprise me if Bellara turned out to be secretly working for Dirthamen or something.

Varric does say "someone with fire in their blood" when Taash appears in the companion trailer. Given she's Qunari, he might not be talking metaphorically.

It is easy to give her a free pass in hindsight because it didn't have any nasty repercussions for the world and, of course, couldn't have since it was not obligatory, so in many world states the OGB does not exist. However, if you are role playing your character correctly, not second guessing the writers because in world they don't know they are in a computer game, then first run my Warden was very wary about giving in to her demands in order to save the soul of the Arch-demon. (There was no guarantee the "purified" soul would be benign, we are talking about the Old Gods of Tevinter here, you know the state that enslaves people and uses blood magic on them with their gods' approval).  Then she said she would depart immediately after the battle and he would have no part in the upbringing of the child. My first Warden was Dalish. He'd already had an example of how a magic ritual can have unforeseen consequences with the Lady of the Forest. Plus the whole episode of Flemeth and the grimoire. It was clear she only saved his life and that of Alistair for this end purpose and now Morrigan is effectively using them in the same way. He didn't want to die but already knew he was on borrowed time because of the taint. The whole business sounded terribly suspect and he really didn't want to save the world (and his Dalish people) from the Blight, only to have the god come back in some other form to conquer the world. So, he was quite prepared to sacrifice himself to prevent that outcome. Now we do know who Flemeth was, it is even more concerning what she wanted us to do, for make no mistake it was Flemeth/Mythal who was pulling the strings. Morrigan may have rebelled against her in the end so she didn't possess Kieran but she still got the old god soul like she always wanted. So, actually I think it does equate rather well to Solas.

Is it though? The wotv2 entry doesn't mention what race they are. And they seem so isolationist I'm surprised the account Genitivi quoted even got close enough to tell they wore alot of jewellery.🤔

I've become a bit obsessed with the triangle/diamond motifs that can be found in architecture (and neon signs), particularly in Minrathous, and for some reason Solas either appeared to start his ritual there or it linked to it in some way. It is probably nothing and has absolutely no connection with Bellara and the Veil Jumper but take a look anyway:

Well he is either dead or tranquil (since he was killed in the Fade). We know the latter is possible to reverse but I think PW discouraged the idea that he would be returning. Perhaps if the Dread Wolf kills you in the Fade then you are definitely dead. Cole also said: "The slow arrow breaks in the sad wolf's jaws", confirming it was Solas who killed him and that whilst he probably regretted having to do it, like with everything else he would not have held back if he felt it was necessary.

Hey, remember in what order we get Solas as a companion in DAI? Seems to be the same we meet Bellara apparently (Arlathan forest)... O.o

Just to add to the conspiracy theory, if you ignore the "red shirts" who get killed off, the third (what am I thinking,  she was the second) companion introduced to us in DAO is duh, duh, dur... that's right folks, Morrigan. (I'm speaking of human companions here as dog does go AWOL for a time even if he was your noble's faithful mabari.)

True, which one do we speak to first? Hmm, we see Varric first in the cut scene but Solas gets to speak first because he grabs our hand and closes the breach with it. I suppose technically Varric was first. Solas gets to do the magical doodad thing though. I think the article says something similar with Bellara.

Now, now, that is a bit extreme. Poor girl, we're immediately giving her the stink eye and we haven't even been introduced properly.

To be honest, I think our biggest problem is going to be that annoying voice in our head of our last Fade expert. Now if Bellara knows a way to block him, all will be forgiven.

Ah yes, dear old Varric. The eternal "tag along". Still, as I've realised and edited in my above post, Morrigan wasn't our third permanent companion in DAO but the second. So, perhaps we should count Solas speaking and acting first to account for his recruitment. Certainly when it switches from the cut scene to the game play, Solas is shown next in order after Cassandra and Varric last, so Solas is in the same position as Morrigan, but that means that Neve and not Bellara is in the "potentially dodgy" spot.

Does anyone else find Bellara’s vallaslin weirdly reminiscent of the Rite of Tranquility symbol? It struck me recently while looking at the Lighthouse shot, where she’s far away from the camera and the vallaslin is harder to make out in detail.

Might just be seeing things, but a cured tranquil would have a lot of potential for a companion. And it synergizes well with her bubbly personality, could be a ‘living for the moment to make up for all the moments lost’ type of deal. Fits the theme of regret too, that way.

It is only similar in that it is in the middle of the forehead. However, it is a round, sunburst symbol, in contrast with the diamond, sharp angled symbol that Bellara has.  The rays emenating out from the central image is similar but you will notice the middle is empty and the lines wavy on the tranquil brand, whereas there is a dark mirror image in the centre (which I think signifies the Black City) and straight lines ending in a border.   It is possible that central image on Bellara is meant to represent the Fade, with the Black City at its centre and the Veil surrounding it.   If you go to my thread on items on the table, you can enlarge the image and then focus in on areas you are particularly interested in.