Lucanis Dellamorte - Official Companion Thread [Spoilers]

I don't know why we are now associating Lucanis with underwater. The backdrop to his arrival in the trailer looked more like crystal, possibly lyrium.
Whilst he could have been revived by a demon, I'm still holding out for some sort of Spirit Warrior hybrid specialism and that his deal with the spirit that gave him those powers was already functioning back in the Wigmaker Job, thus accounting for his sensitivity to magic, etc. May be he had the wings even then but the author didn't mention it or may be he acquired them since, depending on whether or not they come from his robe. It may be relevant that he didn't want to change his outfit to attend the party in order to blend in but preferred to stay out of sight and let his cousin do the social work. This may have been simply because he doesn't enjoy mingling with people or perhaps he didn't want to surrender his outfit to fit in because it had a special function.

The codex says it was said to be the Maker's eye guiding them northwards. Essentially they just swapped the identity of the guiding god from the Lady of the Skies (an Alamaari and Avvar god) to the Maker.

Lucanis does have a lot of eyes decorating his outfit. Perhaps that is another thing we can ask him about when we get to know him.

I don't know, what with Lucanis and his eyes and Bellara and her triangles, our companions really seem focused on symbolism.   Wonder if the others have something we haven't spotted yet.

Hmm, well the original concept art had some snowy landscapes, so it could be actual ice. Or some weird magical manifestation. He was fighting Venatori when all is said and done. If that was their lair who knows what they have got hidden.

I'm pretty sure spirits are involved somewhere. However, if they are, I think that was back before the Wigmaker Job because of the heightened sensitivity to magic he appeared to display there. There was also his ability to hear what was going on in the tavern bar when he was upstairs. That took more than just simple training. He and Illario had the same training but it was Lucanis who sensed/heard the Venatori creeping up the stairs and Illario wasn't even aware until he saw that Lucanis was distracted. Having heightened senses to detect things ordinary mortals can't could be provided by a helpful spirit and may well be reflected in the eye motifs on his clothing (the all seeing eye).

Also, one of the criticisms some people had of Lucanis after the Wigmaker Job was that he seemed too skillful, agile, etc, more than a normal person, but this is understandable if he is getting spiritual assistance. When he was analysing the sounds from the bar it does seem a bit like one of Cole's monologues, except focusing on the physical rather than the mental images. One of the reasons Lucanis so intrigued me at the time was because of his uncanny, almost supernatural abilities, yet he clearly wasn't possessed in the usual sense, so something else must be going on. He's very much a "man of mystery".

With regard to the purple theme connected with him. Not only has purple been connected with spirits and spiritual offensive magic but also with the Shadow Rogue, my favourite specialism from DAA and DA2. In DAA it said they were self-taught but DA2 suggested there were enough in Kirkwall that Hawke could receive training from an already established practitioner. They are experts at attacking from the shadows and taking their prey unawares. So, it seems to me that if they took some of the attributes of the Shadow and combined them with the Spirit Warrior, they might get to something approximating to Lucanis.  (I would also mention that my favourite Hawke was my Shadow Assassin on my third run.   I was amazed at how quickly he took down the Arishok compared with my previous mage and warrior Hawkes.   He could have been Lucanis he was that good.)

As for his clothing, that eye motif does make it distinctive so could be connected in some way to his "wings" but I think you are correct and there has to be more to it than that. For a start, if it is down to his magical clothing, where did he acquire it?

I think people assume demon because of the colour, his moniker, because the eyes resemble pride demon and the wings have the skeletal outline. I think demon is fair assumption. That said, I would also not diregard it's a spirit. I don't think the Pride fits with his character, though. Neither does Hope for me - I can see the arguments, but it doesn't feel like that's it for me. I can imagine maybe Vengeance given the Wigmaker job (but that would be repeating themselves), or the Spirit of Valor (and whatever that turns into in its demon form) since he seems to have the heart of a hero. But I can also see them going with a spirit/demon we haven't encountered yet.

But why would we want to separate him?

While we don't really know the nature of whatever might've bonded with him, "spirit possession" isn't necessarily malicious - in fact, the only thing making it malicious seems to be Chantry, that called any such possession abominations.

But we've had friendly spirit possessions since DAO - they were even among our companions: by that I mean Wynne. And Casandra.

Because yes, Cassandra is bonded with a faith spirit. That's what we learn via her own quest. It's what gives Seekers their powers without her having to use Lyrium, like Templars. And why they can't be possessed (because they're already possessed, lol)

And in JOH we learn that to Avvar such bond with spirit is basically sacred - that they teach magically-gifted how to safely use magic.

It could also be a bit like Cole in Asunder - a spirit that is, basically, confused about their own nature and how this possession ends may be reliant on how it's treated.

Unfortunately, Anders didn't want to help himself. The nearest would seem to be he expected you to execute him, so in a way he was telling the truth when he said the stuff he wanted you to gather for him would set the pair of them free. That would seem to be the difference between demonic possession and that of a more benign spirit, the latter will leave if you ask them to but that won't necessarily have the outcome you want. In the case of Anders, according to his short story, he had actually been fatally attacked by the Templars and it was Justice who preserved him from death, so if Justice left him he would die, just as Wynne did when she voluntarily gave up the faith spirit to save Evangeline. However, even when a demon is doing the possessing, it is still possible for it to leave of its own accord and the person to survive. That is what happened with Imshael and Mhiris in Masked Empire and we encountered them both separately in DAI.

So, if Lucanis was possessed in some way, it would be possible for him to be freed of it and it wouldn't be terminal provided the circumstances in which the spirit occupied his body wasn't in connection with his (alleged) death. I still think it could be more a co-operative arrangement though, rather than true possession, as would be the case with some sort of spirit warrior hybrid. We haven't had a companion with that specialism since DAA and even there it didn't really count because Justice was a spirit occupying a corpse, not a spirit giving assistance as would be the case if we took the specialism and, as Midnight Tea has pointed out, is probably more what occurs with a Seeker and their faith spirit. Unfortunately, that was ambiguous in DAI because Cassandra was given the Templar specialism, with the same abilities as the Inquisitor if they took it, rather than having unique Seeker powers of her own.

That is why I'm holding out for Lucanis to be a Spirit Warrior/Shadow Assassin hybrid because it would be different to just regular possession.

Which is so obvious and on the nose I feel it has to be something else. I think they are deliberately misleading us. I hope so, anyway, because after the potential intrigue surrounding his abilities in Wigmaker Job, learning he is the subject of demonic possession is rather boring and, to be honest, off putting. I was all ready to romance Anders when I saw he was going to be a companion in DA2, having loved him in DAA, but then was increasingly disturbed by his relationship with Justice, with the last straw being me having to talk him down from killing Ella. I really hope Lucanis isn't going to be a repeat of that or at least he won't end up creating widespread destruction in pursuit of vengeance. So long as he is just attacking the villains, I'm okay. (Note that Lucanis got the slaves to safety whereas Anders didn't get any innocent bystanders out of the Chantry).  Mind you, with the evil gods running around Thedas and wrecking havoc I think we are going to have our work cut out just dealing with that.

Just had the amusing thought given everything and all my stated opinions it would be hilarious if Lucanis ends up being on Oliver's A team. Him, Neve, and Lucanis could form the 'I hate the Venatori club'.

Lol, isn't this sort of the default position for anyone working for Inquisition?

Good spot with the wings in the icon. I had forgotten that. Perhaps we shouldn't read too much into the colour code either. Green seems to relate to Fade/Spirit magic and they have now chosen to link that to the activities of the Mourn Watch (even though Necromancy was colour coded purple in DAI). However, that big skeleton in the trailer doesn't look benevolent to me, so green doesn't automatically equate with good.

That being the case, purple doesn't automatically equate with evil but it does seem to consistently be linked with direct action by spirits and offensive/protective magic associated with the spiritual realm. It seems a fair bet that Lucanis is getting spiritual assistance but it remains to be seen the exact nature of the spirit helping him. Solas did say that a demon is just a warped spirit and Cole could flip flop between being a spirit of compassion and a spirit of hate/despair, whilst Anders said it was his anger that turned Justice into Vengeance, so these things aren't necessarily fixed and can be influenced one way or the other.

Further thought, it says of Lucanis in Tevinter Nights that he "was the sort of man you couldn't look away from - until he looked at you".  Then with Cole, just before he killed someone in Asunder he would say "Look into my eyes".      (May be there is a reason they have't given us any close up shots of his face looking at the camera like they have with the others.)