Like Lucanis, your opinion on Neve might vary depending on whether you help her save her home of Minrathous in the early hours of The Veilguard. But in both routes, there’s something compelling about watching the mage detective in her element. Neve knows the name of a lot of the people you meet on the streets of Minrathous. Even as the elven gods are blighting cities and some of the biggest revelations of the Dragon Age universe are raining down upon Rook and their team, Neve doesn’t lose sight of the people on the ground who will still be struggling if and when the Veilguard accomplishes their mission to stop the gods. The question is whether she wants to fight for them from the shadows, or become a beacon of hope to pave a new path in the city.
Neve is perhaps the most concise example of The Veilguard’s broader thesis. Where often the series shaves down conflict and progress into factions and choices nudged by the player, The Veilguard feels like the series finally believes in something, rather than just showing you a nuanced ideological battle and letting you choose which one deserves to be wiped from the face of Thedas.
Neve believes that the world can be better, and is willing to do whatever it takes to find that path forward. Oppression and the structures that allow it are not choices or debates in her mind; she is here to fight for the people of Minrathous, it’s just a matter of how. This world is changing, and there are people who will be written in the history books as those who charted the course. Neve may choose to omit herself from the official stories if she can, but she won’t sit idly by while those who benefit from the way things have always been try to direct how things will be.