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I got the line about Mourn Watch!Rook missing parties in Nevarra & IMMEDIATELY had to churn out a spooky gown for Lydia post game. I’m gonna take another pass at this at some point when the brain gremlins allow for more design research, but the skeleton hands chocker is 100% making it into the final version.

I’ll probably design an outfit for Emmerich as well which will inform some choices for Lydia. There’s no way Emmerich isn’t making sure their outfits are coordinated.

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An ongoing collection of notes on my Mourn Watch Rook, Lydia:

She’s neurodivergent and spends a lot of time masking in the beginning of the game

Shes quiet at first with Varric and Harding because she’s still hurting over being all but kicked out of the Necropolis.

Varric is good at pulling her out of her shell, used to making friends with people who are sort of weird little guys (‘Get her going and she’s like if you merged Hawke and Daisy’ he writes to Isabella once)

Varric helps her navigate interacting with people outside the Necropolis, outside Nevarra, (‘You don’t have to not be weird kid, but it’ll be easier if you know how to say shit to get what you want when you need it.’ It only sort of works. She finds action suits her better than words, but she learns how to make jokes, Chanel her idea of what an adventuring hero is supposed to be. She doesn’t realize her picture is Varric, that it’s his stories of Hawke too.)

She really likes mushrooms. (‘It’s decay as an extant form of life!’ She chirps happily, most people find that phrasing unsettling, Emmerich gets stary eyed when she says it.)

She doesn’t just avoid necromancy talk at first because she’s trying to make herself palatable to the rest of Thedas, it hurts at first, to talk about home when it’s been ripped out from under her. It’s why she latches on to Rook so quickly. It’s easier being Rook than Lydia in the beginning. (She still wears her lipstick like Myrna though, twists the gold cuff she received when she was made a full Watcher when she’s nervous, they’re things she almost forgets she’s doing until Myrna and Vorgoth are in the Lighthouse, the former reminding her to straighten her posture.)

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@elfroot-and-laurels tagged me for a WIP Friday so here’s some first pass sketches getting comfortable drawing Emmerich.

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Playing dress up with my Ingellvar Rook, Lydia. Gotta practice drawing her a bit before I get to the Emmrook content I wanna make 👀👀

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if you tag me in a chain post and i don't do it it's not because i hate you it's because i am very lazy. i love you thank you for tagging me.

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talking to mutuals guide

dming a mutual tricks and cheat codes

basic techniques for reaching out to mutuals

recent advances in talking with mutuals

talking to mutuals okay?

will my mutuals think im weird for talking to them

messaging mutuals in a mutual-honoring way

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If the games won’t give me the Varric romance content I’ll just keep doing it myself

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Working through art block has finally paid off cause this is an image I’ve had in mind for them for ages. This is immediately after they finally admit they have feelings for each other, so of course they’re .5 seconds away from being interrupted by Hawke and Bethany.

This is a Warden!Bethany world state so she and Amira have known each other for about 10 years. They’re good friends and Bethany clocked that Amira had a crush almost immediately upon reaching Skyhold. She and Hawke have been waiting months for them to figure their shit out 😂

…and as I type this I’m realizing I need to make a “Hawke and Bethany try to play matchmaker” AU

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✨reblog if you're accepting anonymous asks about anything✨

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Trying to get back in the habit of working in my sketchbook so here’s my Mourn Watch Rook, Lydia, circa Veilguard present and when she was first found in the Necropolis as a baby (until canon directly contradicts me I’m headcanoning that bb!Lydia liked being held by Vorgoth) and First Enchanter AU!Amira.

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Have some fluffy sketches cause I’m just having a lot emotions rn

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Had to try my hand at drawing DAV era Varric. I like the outfit but I’m not sure how I feel about them changing his color palette to blue, might try mixing his DA2/I deign with the Veilguard one.

Definitely need to draw some post DAI VarricxAmira fanart soon, maybe I’ll draw their kids? I’m thinking of making one of their adopted daughters one of my next Rooks. Lord of Fortune background cause I like the idea of her striking out on her own to adventure but under the watchful eye of her Auntie Isabella.

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Spoilers for Veilguard under the cut, just some musings about Amira’s narrative trajectory over the 4 games

Okay so I just keep thinking about how Varric’s death in Veilguard factors in to the endless cycle of rebirth and reinvention Amira seems to be caught in.

Like- when @world-of-thedas and I first made our multiple Wardens AU and decided Cassian would break up Amira and Alistair and it eventually led to me making Amira my main Inquisitor I started out trying to pair her with one of the canon love interests. So at first I was shipping her with Cullen and that was cute but not particularly compelling? And then world-of-Theda’s pointed out I wasn’t bound to the canon romance options and like— I realized how much in our fic I’d already been writing Varric and Amira interacting, and how easy their banter came. Then I realized they had basically matching traumas what with the whole ‘lost my first love to an arranged marriage and I’m still not over it’s and ‘my brother betrayed me and left me to die but I still love him and want to save him from the not himself state he’s been left in’. And it completely revitalized my interest in our AU and I got so invested in them and was like “they take ages to get together but I’ll never break them up once they are, this is Amira’s happy ending”

Then Veilguard came out. And Varric died and now it’s like

Amira’s fatal flaw is loyalty. All she wants is somewhere she can stay, a home she can keep.

Amira is six and she lives with her mom in the Deneriem alienage. They’re poor and she doesn’t have a father, but their home is full of love and she is happy. Then suddenly Amira has magic and her mother is holding her close and telling her to be good. That she has to go to a new home now. Her mother ties a blue ribbon in her hair before the Templar takes her by the hand and she looks back at her mom for the last time.

In the Circle she knew Irving was grooming her to be his successor. The Circle wasn’t perfect but it was her home and she was determined to become First Enchanter and improve the lives of her fellow mages. Only then the Chantry is going to make Jowan tranquil and Irving is letting it happen and Amira has to betray everything she’s held dear to save her brother because she believes him when he tells her he’s not a blood mage. Except he’s lying and now she’s a criminal for aiding a maleificarum. She looks at the closest thing she has to a father as she’s conscripted into the Wardens and he tells her the Wardens are her family now.

Amira is determined to be a good Warden, to atone for her (in her mind) mistakes. She is joined and watches only one other recruit survive, an elf who won’t even speak to her and then she watches every Warden besides two die. She falls in love with Alistair. And then just as she thinks she’s found someone who she can keep he’s telling her he has to marry for the good of Fereldan. He wants to keep her but she can’t accepted having to be the King’s dirty secret so she ends it.

Cassian makes a deal that means he’ll take command of Vigil’s Keep so Amira can go and travel on her own. Finish unfinished business only that doesn’t last long before he’s fucking off to the Wilds to be with Morrigan and Amira has to take charge. And so she throws herself into it. She takes on a student, tries and fails at having a relationship again and decides she missed her chance at romance. It’s not perfect but it’s a life she’s built for herself that she thinks she’ll get to keep.

And then war breaks out between mages and templars. And then she gets a letter from Leliana. She goes to the conclave hoping to help broker peace because no matter what else she is she is. Child of the Circle. The conclave explodes and even though she doesn’t know it yet the mark everyone is trying to convince her is holy has burned the blight from her veins. She will never be a Warden again. She is the Herald of a religion she doesn’t know she believes in and the Inquisitor and everyone is looking to her to save them again. So she fights, because it’s the only thing she can do and she finds herself building a new home for herself again. And despite having long given up on the idea somehow when she’s too busy fighting to notice it’s happening she falls in love.

They save the world only to realize the real threat is someone she called friend. but even if she loses her arm, if the Inquistion falls apart she still has Varric. He holds her hand and reminds her there’s a home that’s waiting for her in Kirkwall, with him.

They keep living, they have kids (some adopted, one not) and they agree that they are going to save their friend from himself. And despite all the danger, all the risks, Amira lets herself believe she’ll be allowed to keep this. That for once she’ll be allowed to have something that stays.

And then Varric dies and the Elvhen Gods have been unleashed and she has to keep the South from falling apart despite the gaping hole in her heart where Varric is supposed to be.

Amira’s youngest child is six, and doesn’t have a father anymore. She holds her youngest close before handing her off to her eldest daughter, her eldest daughter who has no stomach for fighting, who has learned to wield paintbrushes not weapons and sends them both as far from the frontlines as she can. She tells herself Leliana will protect them, and tries not to worry about her children who refuse to be swayed from the fight. Her six year old looks back at her and Amira wonders if this is the last time she will see her mom.

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For context I like to imagine Amira got Varric’s stuff by going to Josephine and saying “I need you to hustle my boyfriend at cards”. When Varric goes to convince Josie to let him have his stuff back she says Amira already “convinced” her and has it.

Varric is not prepared for how she’s chosen to return it.

I’m about 40% through DAV and just wanted to draw something shippy. Shout out to @world-of-thedas for the idea of what to draw and hella input while I was drawing!

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”Let’s get this over with”

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Amira is far too Fereldan for this Orlesian Ball nonsense, but there’s an assassination to prevent so she’ll suck it up.

I rewatched 2005 Pride & Prejudice recently so I decided to draw something Halamshiral related. I’ve always headcannoned a scene before the ball where the inner circle is all running around whatever fantasy AirBnB they’re all staying in getting ready. While that’s all happening I like to imagine Amira and Varric got to have a bit of a seeing each other in their fancy outfits for the first on the stairwell moment like it was Prom. They’re both pretending they don’t have feelings for each other at this point (to varying degrees of self awareness) so there’s ~tension~ that they’re not about to acknowledge.

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your canon DA worldstate

as veilguard's premiere comes closer, an ask game with a couple of lore-heavy questions for your warden/hawke/inquisitor — answer for all three in your canon worldstate, or for the protagonist of your choice.

your Warden/Hawke/Inquisitor's opinion on Orlais?

are they skilled in The Grand Game?

opinion on blood magic?

attitude towards Andrastianism?

attitude towards the Chantry?

attitude towards the Qun?

if they had to choose one person most important to them, who would that be?

who do they hate the most, and do they have an arch-nemesis?

what is their love language? 

are they good horse riders?

what are their religious beliefs, if any?

attitude towards Mabari?

their thoughts on the Grey Warden order?

who are they closest to from their family?

preferred weapon of choice?

do they get sentimental about their weapons or armour?

what were they like as a child?

do they have any irrational fears?

are they afraid of death?

where would they like to be buried?

what is their biggest regret?

have they ever been to Tevinter?

do they have, or want to have, children?

what languages can they speak?

what did they plan for their life to look like before the events of the game happened?

do they get a happy ending?

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Seen a few of these prompt lists and I wanted to give it a go myself! Aimed for a range of prompts that will work for both artists and writers, and for all sorts of OCs as well as the Warden, Hawke, and the Inquisitor.

If you use, give me a tag! I'd love to see what you create.

Prompts listed under the cut 💚

Week 1: Origins

1. Family 2. Allegiances 3. Faith 4. Memories 5. Home

Week 2: Legacies

6. Inquisitor 7. Champion 8. Hero 9. Agent 10. Friendship 11. Beloved 12. Youth

Week 3: Travels

13. Fade 14. Sea 15. Palace 16. Blight 17. Mountains 18. Crossroads 19. Deep Roads

Week 4: Endings

20. Epilogue 21. Archdemon 22. Remains 23. Loss 24. Griffon 25. Battle 26. Remembrance

Week 5: Ghosts

27. Well 28. Abyss 29. Ostagar 30. Eluvian 31. Veil