“Death is my calling.”
Lucanis Dellamorte is a Master Assassin in the Antivan Crows and a companion in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
Background
Lucanis is an expert assassin who specializes in executing powerful mages.[1] Lucanis killed so many blood mages and Venatori, that people began calling him the "Demon of Vyrantium."[2]
He is also known to be the poised and pragmatic grandson of Caterina Dellamorte, First Talon of the Antivan Crows. When Caterina trained him as a child, she would frequently hit him with her cane when he made mistakes. He hated her for years for being cruel, though now thinks it was her way to make sure he survived life as a Crow.[3] Although Lucanis views the Crows as a family business, he isn't interested in succeeding his grandmother as First Talon and would prefer to just focus on his work rather than be the center of attention.[1] However, despite his preferences, it is said that he is Caterina’s favorite, and the one she intends to name as her heir.[3]
Involvement
Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights
The Wigmaker Job
Lucanis and his cousin Illario accept an anonymous contract on Ambrose Forfex, Tevinter's premiere wigmaker and a Venatori blood mage. With the help of Athima, an elf sent by their mysterious patron, Lucanis and Illario reach Forfex’s party through the roofs and floating aqueduct of Vyrantium. At the wig show, whose dead-eyed models sport fantastical, transforming hair, Lucanis can feel that the Veil is thinner than it should be.
After Illario steals the keys, Lucanis heads for Forfex’s workshop, single-handedly killing its eight guards. Illario returns as the last guard falls. They are caught by one of Forfex's elven slaves, Effe. Noticing her pitiful state, Lucanis tells her to leave and forget their faces. She expresses approval when he tells her that they’re here to kill Forfex. Inside the workshop, Lucanis finds multiple rows of legless slaves chained to the ceiling, their skin spotted with crystalized sores. Forfex is further in, feeding his slaves red lyrium. Despite the risk, Lucanis decides to make Forfex pay instead of simply fulfilling his contract.
He realizes that Forfex is keeping demons at bay by strengthening the Veil with an elven artifact. When he destroys it, chaos erupts at the party, which Forfex goes to investigate. He doesn't sound the alarm, as Effe and the other slaves have hidden the guards' corpses. Lucanis tells Illario to get the slaves out of the mansion while he deals with Forfex.
Demons have possessed the models, as well as some of the drunkest and most frightened guests. The wigs have transformed, gaining a serrated edge and moving of their own volition. When blood magic isn't enough to stop Lucanis, Forfex starts ingesting mouthfuls of red-lyrium infused hair and turns into an arachnid-like abomination. Lucanis takes some injuries, but eventually defeats the abomination. Without Forfex as an anchor, the other abominations disintegrate. After Forfex's party, he finds his cousin at an inn, and they depart for home.
As approximately forty guests were killed in addition to Forfex, the Wigmaker Job is too big to be hushed up, and Lucanis is nicknamed 'the Demon'. Magister Zara Renata, one of Forfex's Venatori associates, resolves to lay low and observe Lucanis to discover and exploit his weaknesses.
Short Story: The Wake
- See also: Short Story: The Wake
Dragon Age: Vows & Vengeance
Lucanis is hired to assassinate Lord Alessio of House Borgiani. Disguised as a servant during the wedding of Lillemar Borgiani, he poisons Lord Borgiani's drink, causing him to choke; at which he offered to escort him to the kitchen to kill him out of sight. After serving elixir of embrium to Alessio, who soon realized Lucanis was his poisoner, the Crow proceeded to kill him with his blades. However, an unexpected earthquake suddenly teleported both Lucanis and Alessio's body back to the wedding, where he was spotted in front of witnesses, forcing him to flee.
Determined to find a place to hide out, Lucanis chose the ruins of House Amato, where he inadvertently discovered its last heir, Drayden Kiel, had returned. Revealing himself after hearing Drayden vowing vengeance on House Borgiani for the murder of their parents, Lucanis claimed responsibility for Alessio's death. He identified Drayden by name, revealing he was associated with their father, who hired him for protection when the local anomalies began a few years ago, and spoke of Drayden often. In turn, Drayden identified Lucanis as an Antivan Crow from his attire and the fact that he approached them without making a sound.
However, the conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Lillemar and her guards, who had tracked Lucanis. Lucanis then worked with Drayden and her companion Nadia Carcosa to fight the Borgiani soldiers, the former using House Amato's secret passages to sneak up on them. But when they reunited with Nadia and Drayden's nursemaid Eliza in the attic, Nadia is captured by the Borgiani captain, forcing everyone to surrender.
The party is escorted outside to meet Lillemar as the captain falsely claimed Drayden ordered Alessio's assassination. Eliza then identified the captain as the one who scarred her during the Amatos' assassination, forcing him to admit that Lillemar's grandfather was plotting to overthrow the Antivan monarchy and ordered the Amatos killed before Drayden's father could expose him and falsely framed them as conspirators.
Before the captain could say anything else, Lucanis decided to break his client confidentiality policy to identify the captain as the one who hired him, claiming to recognize his voice. Initially trying to deny Lucanis' words, the captain soon broke, arrogantly boasting that he never supported Alessio as head of House Borgiani for trying to redeem the family for his father's deeds and, convinced that Lillemar would drive her house to the brink of collapse, was hoping to seize power, only for his plans to fall to pieces when Lucanis botched Alessio's assassination. Lillemar and her guard seemingly kill the captain before making amends with Drayden. However, the captain took advantage of their distraction to attempt to kill Lillemar only for Drayden to get stabbed instead. Lillemar then decapitated the captain, with Lucanis commenting on the messiness of the kill.[4]
Lucanis then got to work on cauterizing Drayden's stab wound and determined that the captain's dagger was coated with Black Rot, slowly turning Drayden's blood into an oil-like substance. After telling Nadia that only a necromancer could save Drayden, Lucanis bade his allies farewell as Lillemar escorted the two companions to Nevarra.[5]
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Around 9:51 Dragon, Lucanis' ship was ambushed by the Venatori and the Antivan Crows assumed him dead. However, Caterina suspected his death was faked and that the decoy body bearing his face was altered by blood magic. Taken to an underwater prison called the Ossuary, Magister Zara Renata of the Venatori decided to forcefully insert a demon of Spite into his body to make his nickname of "Demon of Vyrantium" literal, making him a rare non-mage abomination. However, Spite was just as unwilling in the possession as Lucanis himself, developing a profound grudge against the Venatori and allowing his host to remain in control when awake. Because of this, Lucanis suffers from insomnia, wishing to give Spite as little control over their shared body as possible.
As an abomination, Lucanis can use Spite's magical abilities to make himself stronger. For example, Lucanis can summon magical wings that allows him to make superhuman leaps. His in-game skill is Spite's Reach, which uses the instability of the Veil to summon floating platforms from the Fade to help the party cross gaps.
When the Veilguard arrives at the prison, Lucanis had broken containment and went on a rampage. The Venatori narrowly sealed him in ice only for him to break out and kill all present. Upon being told the Veilguard required a magekiller against the Evanuris, Lucanis requested Rook help him retrieve the vial of his blood that Zara would use to control him, killing the prison warden, Calivan (the target he was contracted to kill), in the process.
Quests
This is a preparatory section for Lucanis' personal quests.
Approval
- Main article: Lucanis Dellamorte/Approval
Romance
Lucanis first meets Rook at the Ossuary during Sea of Blood. He is initially wary of Rook, but the two agree to help one another with their end goals.
Upon returning to the Lighthouse, Rook, Neve, and Bellara learn about Lucanis' strenuous relationship with his demon, Spite. After Spite lashes out at Lucanis, Rook is able to express romantic interest for the first time by voicing concern that Lucanis not be left alone with the demon.
Lucanis later invites Rook to Treviso to meet with his cousin, Illario, at Cafe Pietra. Along the way Lucanis and Rook can shop for items for other members of the Veilguard team. Rook can prompt Lucanis to consider himself as well; to which Rook buys him a wyvern-tooth dagger. The purchase prompts Lucanis to reveal he has loved wyverns since he was a young boy. At the cafe, Lucanis makes a note of which drink Rook prefers between coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.
Further down the romance path, Lucanis will make Rook their favourite drink with an accompanying dessert of either Nevarran hazelnut torte, tarta di limon, or churros.
Statistics
This is a preparatory section for Lucanis' starting statistics.
Quotes
- Main article: Lucanis Dellamorte/Dialogue
This is a preparatory section for select Lucanis quotes.
Codex entries
Codex entry: Book Club Notes: Second Meeting- Codex entry: Nevarran Hazelnut Torte
- Codex entry: A Letter from House de Riva
- Codex entry: A Letter to Lucanis
- Codex entry: Caterina's Search
- Codex entry: The Joyous Wyvern
- Codex entry: Antivan Lemon Thyme
- Codex entry: Questions On Demonic Possession
- Codex entry: The Dellamorte Vineyards
- Codex entry: Seeking Zara
- Codex entry: Lucanis's Logbook, 1
- Codex entry: Lucanis's Logbook, 2
- Codex entry: Lucanis's Logbook, 3
- Codex entry: Lucanis's Logbook, 4
- Codex entry: Lucanis's Logbook, 5
- Codex entry: Imperium Secret: A Fortunate Heir
Trivia
- Lucanis was written by Mary Kirby[6] and Courtney Woods.[3]
- When something taps into the Fade, Lucanis feels an itch in the back of his eyeballs.[3]
- Lucanis likes coffee,[7] and is a good cook.[8]
- He is in his mid-thirties.[9]
- Banter between Lucanis and Emmrich indicates that Lucanis once attempted to woo Viago with a gift of knives. He was unsuccessful.
- According to creative director John Epler, Spite momentarily leaves Lucanis during intimate times out of respect for his privacy.[10]
- Lucanis has a fascination with wyverns.[11]
Gallery
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 BioWare. "Myths and Legends" EA.
- ↑ According to Neve Gallus' dialogue in Dragon Age: The Veilguard
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights, The Wigmaker Job
- ↑ Dragon Age: Vows & Vengeance, Episode 6: The Bride Wears Armor
- ↑ Dragon Age: Vows & Vengeance, Episode 7, The Demon that Came Knocking
- ↑ Mary Kirby (June 13, 2024). "Oh, it's Lucanis, hands down. He is the sole dumpster fire of the crew. I wrote him specifically to be a bisexual disaster of a human. You're welcome." Twitter.
- ↑ elisa (June 12, 2024). "Character Descriptions I gathered from the DA live stream the day before the gameplay premiered. A little different form the EA press release." Twitter.
- ↑ Exhausted Archivist (August 26, 2024). "SDCC 2024 Panel: Dragon Age Meet the Heroic Companions of Thedas" BioWare. YouTube.
- ↑ John Epler. "He's mid thirties!" . Bluesky.
- ↑ PlayDragonAge (December 4, 2024). "Dragon Age: The Veilguard - Developer AMA on Dragon Age Day (12/4) @ Noon PT (DATV ALL SPOILERS)" Reddit.
- ↑ A codex entry reveals he read books about them as a child, he said he wished for wyverntooth daggers as a boy during Coffee with the Crows and he asks Mila if she knows anywhere he could see one.
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