Lucanis Dellamorte - Official Companion Thread [Spoilers]

Been pretty much musing on this very subject over the last couple of days. At least sort of. 

Given how Oliver feels about Lucanis, at least originally, I do wonder if that will extend to the rest of the Crows by extension? After all I rather like Teia and Viaga to but relationships with Assassins guilds could certainly be complicated things and Oliver certainly may not approve of the Crows running around through Tevinter either so it might create an antagonistic relationship...at least at first. 

All of this becomes rather interesting when you consider that originally he was supposed to be a Crow. But dropped that part of his backstory for simplicity sake. 

Now that we've seen Manfred, it's looking less likely that Lucanis is another embodied spirit, which is a relief.

I listened to some Zach Mendez and wow wow wow. I cannot wait to be made into puddy as I listen to Lucanis talk and open up about himself. He's like Zorro and I am so here for it.

Same, I also wanted to see the conclusion to that story.

Do we think the Zara + Viago/Teia scenes from the trailer happen during his recruitment or personal mission?

It is!
Though there’s still the spirit-y purple wings of it all, we don’t know know what that’s about (yet!), but Zara might have something to do with it: “So he fancies the name ‘demon’, let’s make sure he lives up to it”.

Though - and I could be wrong - but Lucanis is not giving “abomination”, to me. Whatever was done to him, supernatural wings and all, I think it’s a Wynne kind of situation, worst case scenario. Don’t think he’s possessed or isn’t himself.

It's hard to say because I think some of the scenes were shown out of order for effect. I do think it will be funny if Viago/Teia are fighting for their lives against all those Venatori and then Lucanis drops in and saves them. They just stand there opened mouthed: "Your supposed to be dead!" Lucanis: "Just as well I'm not then isn't it? You're welcome."

It could be just a magical cape, although I'm still favouring the spirit warrior/rogue concept. You aren't possessed but are being aided by a spirit (or demon) from the Fade. In the past this was in the description of the attribute Beyond the Veil in DAA:

The warrior dons a cloak of mystical energies from the Fade in order to evade a substantial proportion of physical attacks, although the mode drains stamina constantly. If the warrior has Soulbrand, this mode also adds a moderate chance of resisting hostile spells, and the warrior's attacks all deal spirit damage, bypassing enemy armor. If the warrior has Blessing of the Fade, the chance of resisting hostile spells increases further and the warrior gains bonuses to movement speed and attack speed.
The specialism was also described like this:
Although spirit warriors employ magical abilities, they are not mages; instead, they flirt with inhabitants of the Fade who agree to augment mortal abilities in exchange for a glimpse of the physical world. Naturally, the Chantry's templars rarely acknowledge that distinction.

Doesn't that sound like a description of Lucanis?  Now it doesn't say they have to be benevolent spirits but Blessing of the Fade does state this is the source of the power, so it is not demonic. However, I assume there might be no reason why demons could not strike a similar deal, although I would have thought they would be more inclined to simply possess the person. What is more likely is that he did a deal with a Justice Spirit and that is why Lucanis was so riled by what he found in the mansion of Fortex. Possibly he was even advised in how to obtain the assistance of the spirit by one of the mages connected with the Shadow Dragons. I would imagine that the specialism is far more acceptable up there than it was in the south. I suppose the only downside is the association with purple as they seem to have shifted the colour associated with the Mourn Watch and the Fade to green, whilst purple would appear to be connected with the evil gods and thus possibly the Void. However, Dorian was associated with purple so it can't be all bad. Also pride demons come from the Fade, so perhaps green is more the Fade magic and purple with the spirits themselves?

One thing is certain, since those wings are pretty obvious, I would imagine that is something we can ask him about fairly early on in our relationship, unless he doesn't start using them until later on.   If Soulbrand is evidenced by a corresponding tattoo, didn't they say that Lucanis has a tattoo somewhere hidden?   Or perhaps they were speaking symbolically.  Teaming up with a Justice Spirit would explain why he had no interest in becoming First Talon and was committed to dispensing Justice in the form of death on the evil doers of the Imperium.

I suppose it could be Lucanis but it looks to me as though the body shape is more female, since those are very broadly spaced hips surrounded by blood. Also, why would Lucanis have a different tarot card to the one we know? If it changes later in the game, then perhaps that is the negative one if we don't help him but there must be another in that case that looks less sinister if we do.

I have to admit that I did think originally that recruiting him might involve rescuing him from somewhere but now I think that is more likely connected with his personal quest later in the game. I also think it more likely Zara would imprison someone he cared about to torment him and lure him in.

Main thing I took from the trailer is that eventually he does seem to have a showdown face to face with her, which is great. Go Lucanis.  I'll be there supporting him.

I wonder if maybe this is in Minrathous and we're seeing here the possibility of one of the factions helping out? Who I assume is Teia and Viago are fighting in a place that has the same tentacle-y/blight-y bullshit that is seen in the Dread Wolf vs dragon moment at the end of the trailer and the architecture looks like the one in the streets of Minrathous that we saw in the gameplay video (at least the details on the wall and that lantern).



If that's the case, it makes sense for this to be magister Renata, if she wants to stay in Minrathous herself. She might try to send minions to get at Lucanis but she might be confronted only in Minrathous. The architecture in this shot is the same as in the sequence with the 2 Crows fighting Venatori and the lady on the ground in the lower right corner looks like the Crow lady fighting Venatori, likely Teia. (There's also that statue that's peeking through that hole in the upper right corner, it looks familiar but I can't place it off the top of my head).

I have a question for people who are more familiar with lore than me. Lucanis has an eye symbol on the back of his default outfit. Have we seen it before? The only other eye symbol in DA that i know of is the Inquisition's symbol, but it looks a bit different. I don't own the World of Thedas books, so maybe you can see it there?

My first thought was about pride demons too, but they don't have vertically slit pupils. And as you said, purple is quite priminent in Veilguard, so i'm not even sure pride demons being purple is important here. If anything it reminds me of dragons' eyes, but Lucanis has no connections to dragons.

Well there is the constellation Visus. Whilst it is connected with the Maker and associated organisations, it also apparently had great significance to the Ciriane and Alamaari due to its association with the Lady of the Skies and the latter said it the constellation is what led them to safety across the Frostbacks from the Shadow Goddess (a story which Solas confirmed was true in that they were fleeing a spirit that had been pestering them). It also says the early Inquisition, prior to the formation of the Chantry, took the eye as the symbol of their search for maleficarum, so that could be significant. May be the robe originally belonged to a member of the first Inquisition or perhaps it had a similar significance to someone in the north opposed to bad mages.

There was also somewhere that we visited that had a wall covered with eyes. I think that may have been in Jaws of Hakkon but I'm not absolutely certain about that.