Lucanis Dellamorte - Official Companion Thread [Spoilers]

After all, how would they know? They were just told she was their grandmother and it is not likely that anyone would want to contradict her. Whilst I realise it might be different for the high ranking houses, according to Zevran's story it would seem that generally their operatives are either orphans or obtained from their families by coercion or even payment. However, they are also often the cast off bastard children of the monarch and merchant princes. Viago, was the son of the current King of Antiva, who like his other bastard children was given the choice of exile or assignment to the Crows. According to Zevran's story in WoT2 his lover Rinnala was actually a bastard princess of Antiva that political activists were trying to use for their own ends. The lawful heir, Prince Claudio, got to hear of it and arranged for Rinnala to be eliminated in exchange for House Arianni being elevated to 8th Talon. Zevran and Taliesin were charged with killing her but it would seem never knew the truth as to why, although it is possible Zevran may had discovered it subsequent to DAO and that is why he went on a vengeance spree specifically against the leading members of his old House. So, it is entirely possible that they may not have been Caterina's grandchildren, or, as you say, their parents were killed because they were politically inconvenient. For example, she could have had a daughter who fell for one of the bastard royalty members of the Crow, the children of their union having political ramifications unless their parents were removed and they never knew their heritage.

I am curious how Lucanis interacts with an Antivan Crow Rook (pun not intended). I am hoping for a rivalry as we try to one up each other in our various assassinations.

I think you mean Mage Trevelyan from Inquisition.

You guys ever notice the patterns on his coat/outfit?
Another hint to a spirit/demon connection of some sort with this guy.

I don't think they're necessarily messing with us, but all the hints may eventually culminate in a way that nobody's really expected.

After all, after 'The Wigmaker Job" we know he's being observed by a powerful Venatori, and there's no way to tell right now whether the reason he 'died' is because the Venatori has struck... or maybe because they, say, sent a powerful demon after him? Or maybe he's struck another Venatori and it turned out to be a trap that's bound him to some demon? That's a possibility too.

Destroying an artefact that released all kind of spirits/demons possessing people like it's Black Friday, might have done the trick, as well. And considering he's always had this innate connection to the Fade, a sixth sense of sorts. Then, comments that he was acting "not quite like himself".... yeah, there's something going on with this dude, definitely!

Not trained, I believe. It's innate (like it's been said, Lucanis is 2% mage), a sixth sense (the eye twitch), a connection with the Fade (or some*thing* in the Fade) that he can tap into. Which probably is what makes him a very efficient mage-killer.

However, something has seemingly changed, we don't know what or how or to what extent ,exactly, and can only speculate with all these little clues. But I think this latent affinity, sensitivity  or connection, whatever you wanna call it, may have been the catalyst.

The 2% mage thing comes from Ghil'dirthalen when she was discussing the companions trailer in one of her podcasts. She was talking about the group shot at the end with the person with purple wings and she confirmed that was Lucanis, not Rook, but didn't want to give spoilers so she was very vague and mentioned that people might have some speculating thoughts if they read Tevinter Nights but she would only say that "he's, like, 2% mage". That was all the context she gave which, in my opinions, is not enough to have people latch on to that statement so much, but I also get it.

She playtested the game previously, so she knows a lot more than we might think she knows, even with all the changes that likely happened since she last tested it, but when it comes to making vague statements, especially because you know what the truth is and you're trying not to spoil or say something that could be misconstrued, I would prefer people hold off on doing that. As much as they preface that they can't say much and for people to take what they say with a grain of salt, people will latch on to those words and, through internet telephone, what was said will be twisted and someone somewhere will take it as some kind of fact.

But I'm not sure people are doing that, it barely gets mentioned, actually (at least as far as I can tell). 2% is negligible - *maybe* he's more sensitive to magic and the Fade than the average Joe, but no magical ability whatsoever. And I only mentioned because, we're spitballing here over what could have caused such a change (purple wings and all), what happened to Lucanis between TN and Veilguard.

Is the Veil now so thin, than he can tap into more than before? Did he fake his own death, or was actually "killed", and "came back" different? We know that spirits and demons of the Fade are drawn to mages - is that how he got his "sixth sense", what the designs on his coat (+ eyes on his tarot card and etc) are alluding to? Has he always been in contact with someone or something in the Fade, like a "guardian angel", a friend... or maybe a demon just waiting in the wings for an opportunity, perhaps created by the events of Veilguard, to make a move? If so, is it more of a Wynne or Anders (or... Connor) situation? None of the above...? We don't know (yet!). xD

Anyhow. I think it'd make sense as well, given how they're moving away - or rather branching out, into more hybrid-type classes with more options in gameplay. Harding, too, has acquired "some unexpected" magical abilities. So maybe Lucanis *is* (98%? ) a skilled Crow assassin, as we've been expecting - but also with a touch of something more, of the supernatural... 

My guess is that he is possessed by one of the Demons he unleashed during the Wigmaker job. He killed a lot of people and messed with some Elven artifact, a perfect recipe for possession.
As for his odd magical quirks? Maybe they conditioned him to be sensitive to magical phenomena? I imagine the Antivan Crows have the occasional mage in their ranks or they hired someone from the local Circle of Magi to slip him some potion or concoction to heighten his awareness. We've been told that the Veil is a magical vibration, so perhaps he has been 'tuned' to listen for this 'frequency' giving him greater awareness and thus greater lethality.
You're either born a Mage or you're not one. Can't have it both ways.

What I mean is that the focus has been on that remark a lot and discussion surrounding Lucanis' weirdness has moved away from more creative and wacky ideas to a very specific set, where everyone who heard that phrase is directing their discussion and also can have the tendency to direct the discussion of people who haven't heard it. There used to be ideas floating around that the wings might be some magical construct or that his magical sensitivity might be a result of some kind of reversed Tranquility ritual (something similar to what the Seekers are put through or maybe something conducted by a Rivaini seer, seeing as they are less regulated by the Chantry) but recently speculation has been revolving around "he's possessed" or "he's dead and possessed". I'm not saying this can't be true, we've known since DA2 that non-mages can be possessed, even if extra steps need to be taken, and Zevran all the way back in DAO said that the Crows have no issues making blood sacrifices. This is a personal thing because I love seeing everyone's wacky ideas so I'm a bit disheartened when discussion is steered into one direction because someone with a large following makes an innocent remark trying not to spoil things and then that remark gets spread around without the context or the disclaimer from the person who said it and the initial innocence of it is lost.