faderiftooc | MOD POST: Veilguard Notes

VEILGUARD NOTES

This post has information for current players of how we plan to incorporate new canon from Veilguard into Fade Rift, as well as for new players interested in apping characters who would be affected by Fade Rift's AU timeline. We learned how to collapse sections of text in these posts, and we are very excited about that, so click on sections to expand them!

ON SPOILERS

We know not all players have finished the game who plan to, but going forward we will not be requiring that Veilguard information be treated as spoilers, and the post below certainly contains a lot of information that could be considered spoilers or at least spoiler-adjacent. We will not require Veilguard spoiler warnings on posts/comments and applications that include Veilguard info are not required to black out spoilers (in part because most of the biggest lore reveals in the game are things that won't be casually appearing in apps or logs anyway).

We're going to keep the Veilguard channel on the Discord server for now and would suggest using that if you want to discuss the specifics of the video game plot, especially the finale, but discussion of general Veilguard info in a Fade Rift context is now allowed in the game channel and doesn't require spoiler tags.

APPABILITY

We'll begin accepting applications/reserves for characters who appear in or whose backgrounds incorporate Veilguard info on January 12. Here's some info relevant to various types of apps. ( If you missed the note at the top, click this section to expand it. )

Rooks

As with prior game protagonists, your Rooks can be apped as native OCs! Everyone is welcome to use their protagonists' face, general origin, and personality/vibe as the basis for a character, but we need to make room for more than one of them and obviously they can't be The Protagonist, so will need to be adjusted accordingly. This means:

The character can't be called Rook or use a canon Rook surname. This is for fairness' sake; we can't have seven people called the same thing, so everyone has to make up something new. The exception is Rook-based Crows: like any Crow OC they can/should use house names as surnames, including de Riva. Using first names from the random generator is fine.
You'll need to adjust the character's backstory to make it unique and to make it fit Fade Rift's setting. You can do that any way you want to; this is your OC now so you don't need to adhere to Veilguard canon and we don't need multiple Mourn Watchers who were discovered by skeletons as babies and each single-handedly stopped a different corpse battle. You can make up some other notable adventure, as long as you make it your own. Using other general parts of the canon backstories, like 'orphan raised by a military family' is fine, but we'd encourage putting unique spins on those as well.
Because the events of Veilguard haven't happened in Fade Rift, you won't be able to incorporate them into your Rook's backstory. The good news is that this is your OC now! So if you'd like to play them already possessing character development from going through something tough and growing into a leader, you're welcome to invent a backstory for them where they did so in a smaller way, such as leading a team of NPCs to thwart a smaller evil plot at home, or getting involved in the fight against Corypheus in some way, or assembling a random crew on an adventure of some kind. They just can't have formed the canon team to thwart the canon evil or otherwise have saved the entire world.
Adapted Rooks need to follow the same rules for familiarity with canon characters as any other OC. This means that they can't be apped with pre-existing relationships with canon characters, including Veilguard companions and Varric. The exception is necessary professional familiarity with canon characters who lead an organization the character belongs to; for example, if you app a Crow from House de Riva, you can say Viago knows who they are and vice versa. But you can't say that your Crow is Viago's favorite the way a canon Rook is. Where a special relationship with an NPC is important to your Rook's background or personality, you're welcome to invent another similar NPC of your own to fill that role instead, such as the Warden-Constable your character reported to or a Crow trainer of your own invention. If/when people app companions or NPCs who could potentially have pre-existing connections to your characters, you can discuss handwaving prior CR with their players.
It probably goes without saying but just to be super clear: adapted Rooks will be treated exactly the same as any other PC in the game, meaning they won't be automatically given any particular plot or leadership role, won't necessarily be the first to learn the things Rook learns in canon, and won't necessarily be the one who defeats the enemies Rook defeats in canon. We also make no guarantees that Fade Rift's overarching plot will replicate any particular story elements from Veilguard, so please don't fix all your hopes on reenacting the video game in FR—it will be a different story and your character will be playing a different kind of role in it, same as any OC in the game.

Companions & NPCs

Veilguard companion characters and other NPCs from the game that meet our general requirements are appable! Here are a few general notes:

Because Fade Rift's story has diverged from the canon timeline, some native characters may need some tweaks to their backstories to fit. For the companion NPCs and their organizations, we've provided a quick summary of the main differences prospective players should be aware of.
There are a number of canon NPCs from previous games, including some that reappear in Veilguard, who for various reasons are no longer appable in Fade Rift. Please check the list here.
We're capping the age for appable native characters (canon or OC) at 150 years old. This includes characters who have lived 150 consecutive years, characters who were born 1000 years ago and then in a magical coma until last week, characters who have lived in the Fade where time seems to pass differently, etc. No loopholes.
Otherwise, our existing policies on which characters have enough canon to be appable and how to handle gaps in canon backstories continue to apply as normal, so please take a look at those here.

ADAPTING TO FR'S TIMELINE

All of the Veilguard origin organizations (Shadow Dragons, Veil Jumpers, Lords of Fortune, etc.) are appable for native characters (whether they were originally Rooks or not), and members of any of them could fit well in Riftwatch! Each org has a tweak or two to their story to fit the setting or a non-canon event in their history that a member would be aware of—most are pretty minor but some, like the Grey Wardens, have played a more significant role in the Fade Rift plot so far. We've provided a quick summary of the main differences a new player should be aware of before apping into each below.

We've also written up a short summary of Fade Rift's game plot so far and how it's diverged from Dragon Age canon for reference. If there are major questions essential for an app that aren't answered here, please feel free to ask! We absolutely do not expect that new players will go study the wiki and memorize everything that's happened over the years—that would be nuts and most of it you'd never need to know anyway!—but if you're planning to app a native, particularly from one of the orgs featured in Veilguard, we do ask that you take a look at this overview. We'd also recommend anyone interested in playing a native of any kind skim through our timeline highlights to get the basic lay of the land.

FR General Summary

Fade Rift's canon began in 9:41 when the Herald of Andraste sealed the Breach over Haven. That's also where it diverged from official Dragon Age canon, because in Fade Rift the Herald died achieving that goal. Her sealing of the Breach was mostly successful, but caused some side effects: rifts continue to appear throughout Thedas, and sometimes they strike those who come too close at the wrong time with a spike of magic that sticks a smaller version of the Herald's anchor in their hand. The rifts also sometimes spit out people who claim to be coming from other worlds, each of whom also has an anchor. They were taken in by the Inquisition and are now famous around Thedas as "Rifters."

Despite the Herald's death, the Inquisition was still formed and run by the four canon advisors and spent the next few years working to combat Corypheus in Ferelden and Orlais, visiting many of the sites from DA:I. Corypheus's influence grew more powerful than in canon and he's survived longer, in part by shifting his focus away from southern Thedas and instead basing himself in Tevinter. Fearing his growing ambition in the north, the Inquisition set up a base in Kirkwall, at the Gallows, so that they could monitor and work against the Venatori more directly. This proved to be a smart move because the Venatori have been able to bring the Tevinter Imperium and the Anderfels under their control and use their armies to invade and occupy a large part of Orlais. When this invasion was eventually pushed back a couple years later, they regrouped and invaded the Free Marches, destroying Tantervale and capturing Starkhaven, which they still hold today.

After a long interregnum after the death of Divine Justinia at the Conclave, a new divine was eventually elected (not any of the canon Victorias) and declared an Exalted March against Tevinter, at which point she also took the Inquisition back under Chantry control. Many of those stationed at the Gallows were reluctant to answer to the Chantry and voted to break away and form a new, independent organization: Riftwatch.

It took a while to get moving, but the Exalted March is now pushing into Tevinter, having captured a couple border cities. Meanwhile, from their base at Starkhaven, the Tevinter invasion force controls river trade and launches small attacks against the Marches. Skirmishes at sea between the Tevinter navy and Free Marches ships are also common, while Riftwatch works to undermine Venatori power through guerilla attacks, supporting various resistance groups, developing new technology, espionage, and similar.

The Venatori are also working on a more mysterious project: unsealing the Seven Gates to the Black City, ancient semi-metaphorical portals of some kind that it's believed may provide Corypheus with the direct access to the Fade he's always sought and whatever power he thinks he'll find there. Riftwatch is attempting to prevent this, but with each one that's opened the boundaries between the world, the Fade, and the Crossroads are becoming less and less stable.

And somewhere out there, other potential adversaries seem to be biding their time. Because Corypheus has yet to be defeated and the Herald died early on, the events of Trespasser didn't happen in Fade Rift, but it is now known to Riftwatch and Inquisition leaders that Solas claims to be (and likely is) some sort of ancient elf, and that he's leading a quietly growing group of elves under the name Fen'Harel and pursuing objectives no one has quite identified other than 'improving elven lives'. The Qun also hasn't yet invaded, in Trespasser-fashion or via an Antaam mutiny. But that's not to say they never will.

Veilguard Factions

SHADOW DRAGONS: The Shadow Dragons in Fade Rift are a new anti-Venatori, anti-slavery organization that have formed in the last few months as the secretive Minrathous branch of the Lucerni. The head of the Lucerni, Maevaris Tilani, is in hiding in Qarinus, while Dorian Pavus is missing, believed to be imprisoned by the Venatori. The local leader of the Shadow Dragons is a young cleric of the Black Chantry named Ashur (whose personal history may or may not match canon, but is ICly unknown at present). Riftwatch has worked with the Lucerni, especially in Qarinus lately, but hasn't had direct dealings with the Shadow Dragons just yet. If you'd like to app a character who has been doing work similar to that undertaken by the Shadow Dragons for longer than the last few months, they could have previously worked with another group, like the Lucerni before they were forced underground, or one of Riftwatch's other NPC allies in the area.

GREY WARDENS: Fade Rift's Grey Wardens have diverged significantly from DA:I and DA:V canon. In Fade Rift, the Inquisition was too late to stop the mass blood magic ritual at Adamant Fortress and the Wardens' return to Weisshaupt. There, some Grey Wardens, under the influence of the Venatori in various ways, staged a coup d'etat that installed the First Warden as Warden-King of the Anderfels, claiming it was necessary to prevent a new Blight. An Inquisition team present at the time escaped with a few dozen Wardens and 13 baby griffons. The griffons have since been raised by the Inquisition (and later Riftwatch), while the escaping Wardens took up posts at Griffon Wing Keep or Valeska's Watch.

The army of the Anderfels, led by the Warden-King, then invaded Orlais. During the Battle of Ghislain later that year they were joined by Tevinter and the force of demon-bound Wardens and controlled darkspawn were revealed to be part of the army. Warden-King Vidal was killed during that battle and rule of the Anderfels was taken over by Tevinter through a viceroy and with the aid of a new First Warden from Tevinter. For the past six years, the combined forces of Tevinter and the Anderfels, which include Grey Wardens, particularly the mages that were bound to demons at Adamant, have attacked and intermittently occupied large portions of Orlais and later the Free Marches.

Many Wardens remain at Weisshaupt operating under Tevinter/Venatori control, but in recent years a steady trickle have fled the country, with some sneaking south and others hiding out in the Hunterhorn Mountains in an attempt to aid others in escaping and protect locals. Some Wardens that were further afield when Clarel's call originally went out back in 9:42 and so didn't go to Adamant in time for the ritual—primarily those in Antiva, Rivain, the eastern Marches, and further south in Ferelden—have continued to operate in the typical pairs or small groups traveling about to combat threats or manning small outposts in their areas.

ANTIVAN CROWS: The plot of the Tevinter Nights story 'Eight Little Talons' is not canon in Fade Rift—we do use the house names and most other information about the Crows provided in it, but that meeting and the assassinations haven't happened. House Kortez did, however, betray Antiva to the Venatori (as revealed by Riftwatch during a visit to the city to persuade Antiva to stop trading with Tevinter) and was subsequently destroyed by the other Crow houses. There has been no Antaam invasion, so the Crows are operating as normal in Fade Rift, focused on their usual business of assassination, and inter-house rivalries remain alive and well.

VEIL JUMPERS: It's not 100% clear how long ago the Veil Jumpers formed in canon, but in Fade Rift it's been between two and three years. The disturbances in the Veil in Arlathan Forest had begun by the time Riftwatch visited about two and a half years ago. (They didn't encounter the Veil Jumpers then [because the comic that introduced them wasn't out yet!] but as a small organization just forming in a huge forest, that's not surprising.) They would've gotten gradually worse over the last year, concurrent with the spread in pockets of veil disturbances throughout Thedas that Riftwatch has been investigating. The ancient elven technology being revealed by the forest and coming back to life has begun, but hasn't yet progressed to the point we see in Veilguard. In Fade Rift, Arlathan has also been home for a couple years to Fen'Harel and his organization, who the Veil Jumpers might've come across.

LORDS OF FORTUNE: The Lords of Fortune are generally unchanged in Fade Rift, but we want to make sure there's room for both the Veilguard version of the organization and the somewhat-different vibe they had in Tevinter Nights. To that end, in Fade Rift's Thedas the Lords of Fortune depicted in Veilguard aren't the entire organization, they're just one branch of it run by Isabela and there are also other branches run by others elsewhere. These will be mostly in Rivain but potentially elsewhere, and they may have their own bases, styles, focuses, and customs, though all Lords of Fortune will be primarily adventurous treasure hunters. It also won't be the case that this is a new organization founded by Isabela—the exact age and origin of the Lords is (deliberately) the subject of so many tall tales that nobody is quite sure whether it's been 200 years or 20 or who started it all.

MOURN WATCH: The main canon divergence affecting the Mourn Watch is an attack on Nevarra City on Satinalia 9:45, during which the city was overrun by the dead, raised by the Venatori (including some Mortalitasi traitors working with the Venatori) and two of the ancient Magisters Sidereal (Corypheus's counterparts) with the aid of a lot of red lyrium hidden in Necropolis corpses and the use of an ancient magical device. The city had to be evacuated and abandoned with the dead penned up inside, and the Mortalitasi (including but not exclusively the Mourn Watch) have spent the last few years cleansing the dead and restoring them to the Necropolis, which is now finally near to being safe for citizens to return. The death of King Markus Pentaghast also led to two rival claimants to the throne, his niece Aurelia, and the Van Markham heir, Gaelan. Both have been crowned by their followers and the Van Markhams have set up their own rival court in Hunter Fell.

Fade Rift will also keep more of the flavor previously established in canon for Nevarran death practices/the Necropolis, which can be summed up as mummification rather than straight burial, each corpse in the Necropolis being possessed with a spirit (Nevarrans believe that when spirits of the newly dead cross the Veil, they displace a Fade spirit, which needs to be given a home in the world), and more elaborate animated tableaux of the dead acting out scenes from their lives. Just imagine all this overlaid over the empty corridors of Veilguard's Necropolis.

Companion NPCs

Some companions will need a bit of tweaking to fit into Fade Rift's narrative. Below, we've highlighted the main differences a prospective player would need to account for in an app and some suggestions for how they might be dealt with.

DAVRIN: You'll have to account for the differences in Warden history discussed above, particularly Weisshaupt coming under Venatori influence and the fact that the baby griffons were smuggled out to the Inquisition and have been raised by them for the last 8 years (there's now a second generation). It will most likely make sense for Davrin to have been assigned to remote locations that meant he didn't get called back to Adamant and avoided being embroiled in the coup and invasion and has continued doing his monster-hunting work elsewhere in the meantime. We wouldn't deny him Assan, but we leave it up to a potential player whether you'd prefer him to be a new son Davrin meets in Riftwatch's eyrie after joining the game, a baby he encountered randomly in the wild, or something else.

BELLARA: Because the plot of Veilguard hasn't happened yet, the ancient elven magic-tech in Arlathan hasn't yet woken up and been revealed to the extent we see in Veilguard, meaning that Bellara wouldn't have quite the same degree of experience with it she does in canon just yet. That said, the simpler artifacts haven't been completely dormant the last couple years and she could have already been interested in exploring elven ruins and trying to find and tinker with bits of ancient magical devices (in Arlathan or elsewhere) even before the Veil Jumpers formed, so she'd still have as much experience in this area as probably anybody in the world.

EMMRICH: Emmrich can bring Manfred with him to Fade Rift as an NPC companion, but Manfred will be at his pre-Act 3 level of capability and won't talk or learn magic in-game. Emmrich cannot be apped in as a lich, but if you'd like him to eventually pursue lichdom in-game, you can submit a mod request. It will likely require the purchase of a lich specialization. In Fade Rift, Johanna Hezenkoss is still a member of the Mourn Watch as of late 9:50 (Riftwatch worked with her on a visit to the Necropolis in August). We're going to leave her there for a bit since she is technically an appable character as long as we don't progress too far into her Veilguard arc.

HARDING: The Herald died almost immediately in Fade Rift but the Inquisition has continued to exist for a lot of years, and they are still technically around now despite having been folded into the Exalted March when a new Divine was elected. The plot of the comics can't be incorporated exactly (Trespasser didn't happen, and the Qun hasn't invaded), but Fen'Harel and his network have been quietly active in Thedas hunting various relics and objects/sites of power, so it's fine for Varric and friends, including Harding, to have been tracking him. How these changes impact Harding's story will be up to the player to determine; please make sure to include info about what she's been up to in your app history.

Harding can acquire her Titan powers in RP in Fade Rift in a plot of your choosing or she can have just acquired them right before she joins Riftwatch. In either case, you can make up a mechanism that prompts them, and it's fine if it's a random encounter with raw lyrium that does it, like with Valta, no need for an elaborate justification. She can't have handled Solas's dagger off-screen pre-game and we'd advise not waiting for it to appear if you'd like to give her powers because we can't guarantee when or how that may happen.

LUCANIS: Lucanis can of course be apped in possessed by Spite. Since possession is such a touchy subject IC and can be seen as dangerous—and because we don't permit PCs who would need to be kept in the dungeon or under surveillance indefinitely—we'd encourage players to be sure to stick with Spite's canon characterization as, you know, spiteful but not actively aggressive to ensure Lucanis isn't seen as too (inadvertently) dangerous to others to keep around, especially since Riftwatch is based in Kirkwall rather than a secret Fade base beyond the reach of city guards.

NEVE: Fade Rift's Tevinter got to late-Veilguard stage a lot faster, and while we don't think this alternate history would necessarily cause any major changes for Neve, prospective players should be aware of it. Canon Archon Radonis was deposed in a coup a bit more than six years ago and replaced with a clueless magister who behind the scenes did whatever Calpernia (and by extension Corypheus) told him to do. Corypheus has been around all that time but remained somewhat mysterious, known to most only through Venatori proselytizing. The power and membership of the cult have been growing all the while, both publicly and privately, until they took full control of the government last year and Corypheus himself stepped out of the shadows and took the throne. (He's not calling himself the Archon.)

Tevinter has also been at war for roughly the same amount of time, invading Orlais and later the Free Marches in what are openly wars of conquest to restore the territorial might of the Imperium. Even among non-Venatori, this has been fairly popular at home, with enough big flashy captures of major cities to keep morale up so far. The Exalted March was a joke for a while but has grabbed enough victories in the last year or two to make people begin to pay attention, at least if they're anywhere near the southwest of the country.

TAASH: The main thing to know is that in Fade Rift, the Antaam has not broken from the triumvirate or launched an invasion. We're not making promises about what may or may not happen on that front in Fade Rift's future, but we think the Dragon King aspects of Taash's story could be easily tweaked to work with a standalone enemy, so we don't anticipate the differences having much impact on an app or RP.

NEW CANON INFORMATION

New game means new canon! We're very excited to incorporate new stuff into FR, through the mod plot and in everyday RP and whatever player plots you all come up with. While we're pleasantly surprised at how much overlap there is between Fade Rift and Veilguard canon (if we do say so ourselves), there are inevitably some things that conflict or that won't fit perfectly in an RP environment, and also some things we'll want to reserve for plots or to give players of canon companions a chance to RP out key character developments. We've covered as much as possible as briefly as possible below. If you have questions please feel free to ask in response to this post, through the Mod Contact, or on the Discord channel.

Some of the stuff that's new to the video games in Veilguard also appeared in the Tevinter Nights short stories, and may be covered in our (much shorter) post on that back when it was new. We said back then that bits of the Necropolis couldn't move around on their own; we're taking that back. We'd also limited certain types of characters to side characters, which no longer exist so that no longer applies. (Our other notes about those characters still do.)

New Lore

In general, new lore/detail introduced in Veilguard that's easily explained as having always been around and knowable to the public but just not coming up—like Lavendel's existence, the existence of new named books or games, etc.—will be adopted into FR. Current characters can handwave that they've always known about them wherever that makes sense.

SECRETS: New lore/detail that's an in-world secret or being newly discovered by modern Thedosians as of Veilguard, such as what the deal is with the Forgotten Ones or how the Blight happened, must be revealed through plots and must have specific mod approval. Solas's ritual and the emergence of (more) ancient god-like beings are plotlines we'll be reserving as potential mod plot elements, and there may be other things we similarly save so that everyone can be involved. But please don't let that stop you from pitching a player plot! If you have an idea, even a big one, don't assume it's off limits. You can always ask us "can I do something where we learn xyz" informally before writing a plot proposal, to be safe, but know that we say yes more often than not and even when we may say no to a specific thing we can often help make ideas work some other way.

The bottom line on this sort of major secret is that you can't handwave your character learning them from a book or anything else. These rules apply equally to characters whose backstories include contact with ancient mysteries/persons—apping a Grey Warden who worked at the Cauldron or a Qunari scholar or an agent of Fen'Harel doesn't mean you can assume your character is familiar with related world secrets unless specific secrets are approved either at the application stage or in a plot request.

VEILGUARD V FADE RIFT CONFLICTS: For major world events/lore/political developments that conflict with Fade Rift's story so far, e,g, Archon Radonis being deposed years ago in our timeline but still ruling in Veilguard or the Antaam invasion, we obviously won't be retconning Fade Rift's story; our version of events remains canon here. We may work various elements into the game down the road, but that's a different story!

Any new info that isn't quite on that scale but that conflicts with either prior DA canon or FR's game history will require mod approval so we can consider whether to retcon what came before—until/unless you receive mod approval, you should assume that Veilguard canon does not apply. This includes both direct conflicts (e.g., we said Johanna Hezenkoss is still fully alive and in the Mourn Watch in the August mod plot; we could retcon this if there were good reason but for now we'll leave it be) and things that haven't been directly addressed but that would've been too big to miss or could have a ripple effect (e.g., the existence of scrying magic, though we've addressed this one below).

If you aren't sure about how a specific detail should be handled, ask in the mod contact post or Discord channel!

Companion Quests

Through the end of June (and potentially longer if someone apps a companion character and needs some more time to play out their arc), we won't allow anyone but the corresponding companion character to acquire Titan magic, learn the true history of the griffon extinction or find Blighted Weisshaupt, be/become a lich, be an adaari, or find a comprehensive and functional archive spirit or deal with Anaris specifically.

Indefinitely, we'll try to avoid letting player plots overlap too much or invalidate companion story arcs, including holding their personal villains/archnemeses in reserve as much as reasonably possible without holding up plot progression forever. So anyone can do a plot about a betrayal in the Crows or corruption in Minrathous in some other form, but doing anything with Illario or Aelia specifically will have to wait for a Lucanis or a Neve. Players knowing or learning about adaari among the Qunari is allowed, but the Dragon King as a specific antagonist will only show up if Taash does. And while we may allow other dwarves to obtain Titan connections once the six-month deadline has passed, we'll continue to discourage player plots that copy Harding's angry red lyrium twin and overall arc.

We will otherwise allow player plot requests that touch on lore that comes from Veilguard's companion quests but isn't essential to the companion's story arc, such as the Forgotten Ones generally, the nature of the Titans, Kal-Sharok, Wardens being able to survive beyond their Callings, the first Qunari expedition, etc., but this type of info, like the major secrets discussed above, will require plot requests to learn.

New Magic

There's some new magic in Veilguard! We can't cover absolutely every new spell/device/etc. that appears or the many more mentioned in passing or implied by codex entries and the like. Here are some notes on major categories of new stuff and general rules of thumb for how we're going to approach new magic canon.

SKILL TREE ABILITIES: Fight-focused spells and abilities that the protagonist can use will be freely allowed, except specializations, which must be approved in your app or bought through our rewards system. For mages, orb and dagger will be a thing. This fighting style will be a predominately northern method and in and out of fashion even in Tevinter, so existing characters aren’t obliged to use or be familiar with it, but you’re also welcome to retcon that your existing characters already know how to do this as desired. Fade Step will still use energy and not be endlessly available for constant dodging.

OTHER NEW MAGIC: Magic from cutscenes, companion exploration abilities, codex entries, or external media—especially companion-specific signature abilities like Neve’s magic detective work pulling fragments of the past out of the Fade, Emmrich's corpse whispering,, etc.—will not be freely usable by other characters unless part of a specialization and should not be treated as common. They or things like them may be considered as part of specialization proposals on a case-by-case basis, with forewarning that we are tough on magic that expands the existing scope of what magic can do and allows mages to make their non-magical colleagues' skillsets superfluous. Additionally:

"Scrying" will not be a thing in FR, except potentially within plot proposals and reliant on specific objects (like the Lights of Arlathan) to facilitate it. No one can magically look inside a locked box or through a closed door or try to scry up the location of a missing friend.
"Glamours" like the one used by Emmrich will be reliant on physically enchanted objects, not spells that can be freely cast. Each such object will be able to change the appearance of someone's face (or extremity) to a single alternative appearance (like, say, making their hand appear to not have an anchor in it, hint hint). Unless someone apps in with one, they'll generally need to be bought as enchanted objects through our rewards system.
The new runes introduced in Veilguard, including the new types of runes with more complex effects will be possible and available in Fade Rift. We're retconning in that these have always been possible and produced by dwarven enchanters, they're just rarely available outside of Tevinter, so Riftwatch will be encountering them more now that they're expanding their presence in the Imperium. Veilguard-specific runes will be available for purchase as AC rewards, and we'll probably include an option to buy a custom rune with other effects along similar lines (or to buy the right to invent one).

NON-MAGE "MAGIC": Abilities for other classes that have a supernatural element (e.g. the Reaper specialization for Warriors) have to involve enchanted equipment, ritual such as the ones undergone by Reavers and Templars, or some other external explanation for the acquisition of abilities, as they will not be innately possible. As always, abilities that aren't magic but blatantly defy the laws of physics or "look" magic, like a rogue's dodge making them briefly fully disappear in a swirl of feathers, don't actually happen that way in FR. A rogue character can be good at dramatic dodging, but will not become invisible or teleport.

Similar to Lucanis, anyone including non-mages can detect when large amounts of blood magic have made a place feel "wrong;" you can decide your character's sensitivity to it and how that manifests for them (eyeballs itching optional). But the upper limit of this sensitivity is being able to detect large (e.g. sacrifice-involving) ritual use, not small personal uses, and in a vague way that doesn't allow them to tell exactly where, what, or who.

BLOOD MAGIC SIGNS: In DA:V people being puppeted by blood magic are often shown with red eyes. This makes it way too easy to tell who's being controlled and when, so we're not adopting it into Fade Rift. There are no physical manifestations of blood magic puppetry.

ELVEN TECHNOMANCY: Veilguard introduces a lot of new ancient elven magical artifacts, both specific individual artifacts (like the items in Veil Jumper containment) and general types of artifacts (power crystals and their magic bridges and such, constructs). We're generally going to either include all of this or allow players to do so, with caveats:

The specific high-power artifacts observed in Veilguard, such as those in the containment facility in Arlathan Forest, will probably exist in FR and may not yet be contained by Veil Jumpers and thus available to cause some chaos. Plot requests will be required to find or learn about any one of the artifacts in particular.
Power crystals, constructs, and related magical systems will exist in Arlathan. They can appear in plots set there as enemies to be fought or puzzles to solve. They may also be found in other ruins (including buried/repurposed ruins) outside of Arlathan, but for the time being they won't have power or do anything in those other regions, unless we discuss it as part of a plot request. We're also changing the power crystals to be of a small, pocketable size, whenever they do come up.
As a general rule, anything ancient or mysterious will not be previously known to PCs unless a reason for familiarity is specifically written into a character's background (i.e. we'd need to have approved that a character has spent time learning about ancient elven tech, not just that a character is generally good with enchantments or has been to Arlathan once).
Ancient elven technology will generally not be understandable or replicable via Research, and use/repair/experimentation/manipulation of it like Bellara does in Veilguard will require a plot request. Many of these artifacts will only exist as they do because their creators had millennia to work on them—not only to figure out the complex magic behind them but also to then do years or decades or centuries of labor to carefully construct that magic—so even very smart people who may be able to figure out generally how they work or how to fix them when they're malfunctioning won't necessarily be able to make replicas or make any significant modifications to how they function. This doesn't mean we won't allow any related use or innovation, just that it will require approval, limitations, and likely some combination of existing elven tech with modern Thedosian work.

Miscellaneous Notes

PHYSICALLY ENTERING THE FADE: A big deal in canon (Corypheus's entire stated goal, even, and reason for wanting the anchor), but happens kinda casually in DA:V without much comment. We're going to stick with existing canon.

CROSSROADS: We based Fade Rift's version of the Crossroads on what was in DA:I, but in DA:V they look pretty different and also don't distinguish between elves and non-elves. We're going to incorporate some of these new elements into Fade Rift, because we think they're cool. In canon these changes seem to have been instantaneously caused by Solas's ritual; in Fade Rift, they'll be part of the ongoing disruption of the boundaries between the Crossroads, the Fade, and the normal world. We introduced some places migrating into the Crossroads in our event last January, and that will continue. Characters who are not native elves also may have noticed a gradual lessening of their discomfort in the Crossroads over the last year or so, but it won't have been a dramatic change yet, easily written off as just getting more used to using them or to the now much easier and shorter path to Riftwatch's main eluvians.

BLIGHT: In the game there's a lot of non-Wardens stabbing Blight boils and getting Blight pus all over them and yet seeming unworried about catching the Blight. We're chalking this up to game mechanics/rule of fun rather than a lore change. In Fade Rift, reckless exposure to and especially ingestion of the Blight will result in the character being tainted pretty much without fail, so characters should approach it with their correspondingly IC levels of caution.

HAIR & EYE COLORS: Our rule thus far has been that characters can only have hair and eye colors that it's possible to be born with in the real world. The DA:V character creator offers a lot of options that fall outside of that but the game doesn't populate the world with NPCs that have blue hair and yellow eyes, which we think indicates the CC is just player wish-fulfillment and not an indication of what's intended to actually be normal in Thedas. However, in the interest of not preventing players from using their DA:V screencaps for icons, we're going to compromise:

Thedas's range of natural hair colors remains the same as the real world's but we're retconning in that Thedosian alchemy has invented highly effective hair dyes in a wide range of colors that can be obtained at a very reasonable cost and applied as long or short term as desired. Effectively, any hair color available in the CC can be used by PCs without it requiring them to be someone who would spend a great deal of time or money on hair upkeep, but it's technically fake. (This has the added bonus of letting us allow all characters to change colors on a whim.)
We don't want to invent eye-dye or contacts, so we are going to expand the range of eye colors that can happen normally in Thedas to match what's possible in the character creator. Unusual eyes will no longer be OOCly banned or ICly so strange as to alarm NPCs.

That said, these unusual hair colors or eye colors will be rare, akin to having an unusual face tattoo or striking birthmark (or going grocery shopping with pink hair and white eyes in real life) and may affect someone's IC suitability for work that requires going unnoticed or not being remembered.