#dragon age the calling

[goatanarchy]

Finally finished an illustration of young Duncan as he is described in The Calling without looking too much at the in-game Grey Warden uniform.

He said to be only wearing a grey tunic over his leather armor and like hundreds of buckles and straps. Very much a rogue, still!

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some close ups :3

[breninarthur]

GOD the calling is making me sad. you mean maric believed katriel was the love of his life?? that rowan and loghain were each other's??? that the four of them just fucking lived and died in misery??????

[danielnelsen]

hey so.. on page 54 of the calling:

do we ever get an explanation of this?

[emeraldforestraven]

I’m currently reading the Dragon Age books (I know, I know…very late to the party haha). I haven’t read a lot of them yet, only finished The Stolen Throne the other day and started the Calling a few days ago.

And eventhough I really don’t regret reading them, especially since they really add to your perspective and knowledge and can be quite entertaining when it comes to the dialogue…please tell me they get better over time?

Any opinions here on the books? Did you enjoy reading them? Do you have a favorite? (No hardcore spoilers though please!)

[rock-teh-elf]

Absolutely adore how unhinged and what a gremlin of a man Duncan is in the calling

[ladydulazy]

[thedreadfulwolf]

...so is it canon that Maric has a thing for elves?

[theadhddragon]

Can we please talk about how in Dragon Age The Calling, Duncan, Fiona and Maric coming across a pool that CLEARLY has a fade rift in it that allows them, even the nonmages, to hear spirits murmuring. The water's light also responds to Duncan?? And there's MOVEMENT in those waters too, Fiona assumes it's fish, but come on. Not only that, but despite Fiona's doubt that there is a temple there, that the cavern is OBVIOUSLY a temple, statues surrounding the water and a platform so one can walk out over the green waters? Imagine what could be if one of them had thought to scrap away some of the sediment from one of them? Also no darkspawn at all is anywhere near that area, despite the horde knowing that there are intruders in their realm. The dragon is not enough to deter them, as Maric says, the taint spreads everywhere, even where the darkspawn aren't residing, even dragons succumb the blight eventually. But there a dragon lives, healthy and untainted.

I don't know if this IS the spot that Andraste came to as the chant says, although it certainly fits what's said, but that spot is definitely important somehow, I just wish I knew why

[gexten]

SO, i plan to read all the dragon age books and comics while waiting for the dread wolf!

I’ve started on The stolen throne, but I’m wondering what order they should be read? Order of release, or something else? This is kinda the idea I’ve gotten from the web, but a few comics are a little harder to figure out. :’) Am I missing something? Does some of them not matter at all or are unrelated?

I’m really excited tho, and plan to do some book Fanart when I’m not reading huehuehue. Im also not much of a reader to begin with, so this will be quite a ride!

[sybillineus]

Why is there a narrative in the fandom that Alistair came from an affair, in The Calling where Fiona and Maric have their Dalliance.. Rowan is canonically dead? And had been for some time. Or am I misreading lore?

[goatanarchy]

Maric's pain is funny to me.

[lieutenantseivarden]

first of all, THEY ARE MARRIED

second of all, jesus christ that foreshadowing

[transandersrights]

Vivienne, Fiona, and why their Redcliffe interaction SUCKS for Fiona

Currently thinking about: how Vivienne speaks to Fiona and what that looks like in the wider context of how we know people treat Fiona. 

Vivienne has two lines of dialogue that will come up when meeting with Fiona in ‘In Hushed Whispers’ - the first (at 0:15) is pretty reasonable (if Vivienne-standard levels of pointed/rude), commenting on how Fiona looks terrible, but the second (at 1:11) stands out to me.

Vivienne, when confronted with the knowledge that the rebel mages have sworn themselves into the service of the Tevinter Imperium, tells Fiona that her “dementia is showing.” Brushing aside everything I feel about casual, crude references to dementia (seriously, fuck non-serious depictions of or references to dementia), this is cruel, and especially so in Fiona’s specific context.

This line implies not only that Fiona has made a bad choice (which she has! One she doesn’t know the extent of and one she made in desperation, but that’s a whole other topic), but that she has forgotten why it’s not a good choice, that she is unsound to lead because she is unsound in mind.

This is immensely and monumentally disrespectful to Fiona. Now, I don’t know if Vivienne knows Fiona’s particular history (prior to the emergence of her magic, Fiona was a slave for seven years, from age 7-14. Fiona mentions in The Calling that she never tells anyone about it, but a lot of things have changed for her since then - it’s possible Vivienne is being either knowingly or unknowingly cruel here), but that’s not the point.

Fiona is smart. Vivienne might not think much of her, but Fiona is resourceful, intelligent, and a very quick thinker. She also has decades (likely at least one before she joined the Wardens, and then at least two and a half more after she left them) of Circle education and work, including making her way to the head of Circle politics. The point is: Fiona knows what the Tevinter Imperium is. She knows what slavery is. She knows exactly what that means for her as! An! Elf! Who has experienced slavery!!

Vivienne’s comment is therefore spiteful and incredibly cruel. Anyone with any sense (which Vivienne has in buckets) knows this isn’t a choice made lightly. She knows Fiona is perfectly, 100% aware of what this means - and she chooses to rub it in with something Fiona is intimately aware of (more on this momentarily): a suggestion that she has no idea what’s going on.

It’s possible to argue that Vivienne is referring to the Inquisitor having met Fiona in Val Royeaux, something Fiona likely experienced but has no memory of due to timeline fuckery (thanks, Alexius) - this makes the comment make more sense, but doesn’t minimise its cruelty, so bear with me as I explain why.

Fiona is referenced twice in DA2, in weapon descriptions that the vast majority of players will not read - Duncan’s axe, named after Fiona, and Kell’s bow (Kell is a Warden only in The Calling). The latter is pertinent here - the note left with the description of the Longbow of the Avvars, includes this section:

Her [Fiona’s] tales of this "darkspawn who speaks" must be a product of a fevered imagination.

The events of The Calling have three survivors: Maric (not a Grey Warden, and seemingly never asked to relay his version of events to the Wardens), Duncan (at the time of The Calling, the most junior Grey Warden in the Order in Orlais, but when the note was written in 9:20 he had been Commander in Ferelden for almost a decade), and Fiona. The Wardens, in the period between the final chapter and epilogue (~a year), get Duncan and Fiona’s testimony of a phenomenon that has never been known before (intelligent Darkspawn), send investigators… and later conclude that Fiona’s account specifically, with no mention of Duncan’s, is complete nonsense. She made it up, she dreamed it, she imagined it.

Fiona is shown, throughout The Calling (esp towards the beginning), to be sensitive to challenges to her knowledge, ability, and experiences. She’s particularly angry about the dismissal of her concerns about Maric (completely reasonable, given the combination of his less than stellar presence + her past experiences with nobility), her knowledge of the Fade (in response to Maric dismissing that dreams could ever mean anything), and others’ prejudice towards elves and mages.

She also refers, during Inquisition, to how she was glad to see the back of the Wardens because they began to resent her seemingly complete immunity to the taint. The Wardens didn’t like her. And they did the one thing she already hated most - dismissing her ability to actually know things.

When Vivienne speaks of how her “dementia is showing” in Redcliffe, it reads as an established jab. A trait Fiona has already been assigned, derogatorily, to suggest that her capacity to lead has faded and will only continue to do so. It is the kind of disparaging comment against her understanding of the world that Fiona has been enduring since at least her 20s (most likely, though her age is never stated beyond describing herself as old in Inquisition, by which point she’s probably at least in her 50s).

Tldr (I feel you, this is so long): Vivienne’s comment towards Fiona not only dismisses her personal experiences and knowledge but also forms a part of the consistent invalidation of Fiona’s mental capacity that has plagued her for most of her life.

[multifandommenace]

Ok, but after reading the Calling no wonder Duncan decided that Brosca would make a good Warden.

He probably sees a fair bit of himself in them. Your average street criminal with a heart of gold (well, maybe.) Who's in way over their head and just pissed literally everybody off.

Then potentially forcibly conscripted (like Duncan but under different circumstances).

Queue Duncan feeling a certain degree of sympathy for Genevieve getting stuck with the sticky fingers rogue with a chip on their shoulder. But also only feeling a bit angrier at her because she had a really good reason to hate him but also was not a great commander and the alienation of the person she demanded go through the joining (under the belief he wouldn’t survive) is a small part in what made that entire mission start going sideways.

[maleficarlife]

I'm reading Dragon Age: The Calling and I love how much bitchy young Duncan is to Ferelden being cold

[rock-teh-elf]

NOT THE GAYS HOW COULD YOU