#* the hero of ferelden / character study.

[immobiliter]

WHAT TRAGIC DEATH DO YOU SUFFER?

THE PROPHETIC HERO. you die saving the world, as you were always supposed to. peace comes only with your blood. the world will remember you for centuries. they will write poems, create art, and film movies all about you. no one will remember what you were before your death. maybe you don't even know it either. you have spent so long saving the world time after time that there is nothing left of you except the heroism. you die never knowing love

tagged by: @anquenin <3 tagging: everyone!

[flowersforthemachines]

Some facts about Emmrich (and also the Necropolis, Nevarra and other related things) gathered from the banters

I went through all companion banters on DanaDuchy's channel after playing the game to write down all facts about companions/the world that I haven't seen brought up anywhere in the game as a writing reference (and for funsies).

Note: This list may not be exhaustive. I might have missed some something or didn't write it down because I considered it common knowledge. If you have anything to add, please DM me or send an ask! (do specify what banter the information is coming from, though)

Note 2: Posts from this series (mostly) don't include information from banters specific to quests or between companions and faction members. I plan to do another playthrough to capture more of those and will add any relevant info to the character posts.

Other characters' posts: Bellara, Davrin, Harding, Lucanis, Neve, Taash. I'm also planning a post about just the Lighthouse some time later

About Emmrich:

Family and early life:

“Volkarin” is a commoner’s name. Emmrich’s father was a butcher, and his mother was a cook 

When Emmrich was around 5 years old, his neighbours had a pig named Lucy. He was very fond of her, and she’d always let him hug her around his neck

Emmrich grew up poor (clocked by Neve based on the way he always saves his candle stubs, shows up first for meals and never leaves food on his plate) 

Emmrich grew up hearing that all dragons were so hostile they had to be slain and is surprised that Taash has found ways to deal with them peacefully 

General:

The gold Emmrich’ wears is called “grave-dowry” (or “grave gold”). It’s a Nevarran custom to wear precious objects one would like to take to their grave

Emmrich’s bracelet (not specified which one) was gifted to him on the day he became a full Watcher. The ring with a large stone was the last gift from his father. The skull pin doesn’t have a story, he just likes it

Emmrich isn’t fond of the Nevarran nobility

Emmrich’s shaving cream smells like potash (at least to Taash)

Emmrich uses moss perfume with flowers

Decades ago, Emmrich used to see an Orlesian woman who was an art appraiser

If Emmrich wasn’t a watcher, he would like to be a botanist

Emmrich displays some interest in Ferelden, mentioning that many of its heroes greatly shaped the history. Harding says that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said about her homeland

Emmrich doesn't like beer because it's bitter

Emmrich prefers tea (he mentions purchasing a Brynnlaw curled-leaf blend in Nevarra), but he can also drink coffee 

Emmrich doesn’t eat meat (seafood and insects included), but he indulges in cheese. It seems to be a Watcher thing - he says that each Watcher must decide what they will and won't take a life for, and meat crosses that line for him

Emmrich likes melons, mushrooms and pineapples. He also enjoyed a plate of fried leeks and potatoes at Halos’s stand in Minrathous

Emmrich always thought he’d get married one day

After a Minrathous merchant sells Emmrich fake charms, he causes him to see skeletal faces on the windows and hear spirits whispering that false goods endanger lives as punishment. Emmrich agrees to stop once Neve tells him that she can convince the merchant to get back to selling linen if the visions cease

On magic and studies:

Some deaths may leave emotional imprints so intense Emmrich may feel them decades later 

Emmrich thinks the magic of old Elven artefacts is “rigid” 

Emmrich isn’t very good at figuring out Elven artefacts (by his own admission)

Emmrich’s first published work was A Monograph on the Vagaries of Determining a Body's Time of Death

Emmrich is roughly familiar with the dragon anatomy

Emmrich knows a lot about how bodies work (muscle-wise etc.) from the time he performed autopsies 

Watchers study the death practices of other cultures. Emmrich knew about Eb-ketarra and the Rivaini traditions even before Taash performs them at the end of their questline

On life in the Necropolis: 

When Emmrich fell for another boy during his youth, he showed him a corpse he was allowed to practice dissection on. The date was ruined by a passing wisp possessing the body and causing it to sit up and ruin the mood 

Emmrich tutored Dorian during his term in the Necropolis (“Tremendous potential, but appallingly flippant towards the dead”)

Emmrich and other watchers live in the Necropolis (Emmrich has a flat there)

On life at the Lighthouse:

It took 8 skeletons half a day to bring that slab of marble into Emmrich’s room

He didn’t bring his entire collection of books to the Lighthouse (there are more)

Emmrich talks to skulls in his room 

Lighthouse kitchen reminds Emmrich of the mortuary

Relationships with companions:

Emmrich offers to introduce Bellara to Audric, the Necropolis librarian (who appeared in Tevinter Nights’ Down Among the Dead Men)

Emmrich calls the Archive spirit a work of art  

Emmrich and Davrin disagree on parenting methods. Emmrich thinks Davrin should better discipline Assan and teach him boundaries, while Davrin suggest Emmrich should let Manfred learn more on his own (e.g. let him fall so he learns how to get up) 

Emmrich turns to Neve when he needs help acquiring some reagents he can't get his hands through normal ones, and she agrees to help him out (smuggling is involved)

Emmrich isn’t too thrilled about Neve taking over the Threads, questioning of what’s going to become with the organisation and the future and thinking it may become corrupt (sort of mirroring the way Neve is apprehensive about his lichdom) 

Taash likes Emmrich’s lich helmet. They are not usually fond of skulls, but that helmet is fine because it’s on fire

Taash thinks that gemstones like amethyst or green opal would look good with the lich helmet

Emmrich doesn’t seem to like unrealistic books as he criticised Harding’s “Gore-Knight” novels for their incorrect interpretation of magic. He is worried about people misunderstanding magic and spirits

Emmrich calls himself Harding's 'de facto physician'

On Manfred: 

(If Rook chooses to save Treviso) Manfred brings Neve tea by his own volition. Emmrich thinks it's because Manfred sensed she might need a friend

Manfred is as aware of his surroundings as most people (to a certain degree)

(If revived at the Necropolis) Manfred learns to say Emmrich’s name 

(If revived at the Necropolis) Manfred becomes much more talkative 

Manfred likes boiling tea because he is fascinated by steam

Emmrich suggests Manfred tries tending to plants in Harding's garden 

Manfred is curious about Spite and wanders into Lucanis’s room at night

Spite and Assan miss Manfred if he’s gone

On Lichdom:

Emmrich smells fine to Taash even after he becomes a lich 

Emmrich’s lich helmet burns with veilfire. He once tried using it in combat, but the flame ended up blinding him

Emmrich thinks Strife would no longer be interested in a relationship after he becomes a Lich. That doesn't prove to be true

Lich!Emmrich doesn't need to eat but still comes by the kitchen for company

The energy of Emmrich’s magic changed after he became a lich

Other liches call lich!Emmrich “Young Volkarin” 

Lich!Emmrich no longer has muscles, but when he tries out Taash’s pull-up routine, he can still feel something like “a spectral memory of flesh”, as if he had pulled a tendon

Emmrich starts seeing more books in the Lighthouse library after becoming a linch

About spirit, demons, and the Necropolis: 

There are spirits of Temperance and Diligence 

The Watchers avoid using the word “demon” because it creates bad expectations and can negatively influence spirits 

Some in the Mourn Watch suspected that elves originated from spirits, though it was just one of many theories, and not a particularly popular one

Chambers in the Necropolis can go missing (according to MW!Rook, they turn up, eventually)  

Even after the despair demon is banished from the Necropolis, the halls remain cold. However, the effects will abate with time

There are horses on display in the Necropolis

Watchers rarely get possessed thanks to the special wards of the Necropolis. Possessions also don’t happen as often because the necromancers already provide spirits with bodies, so they don't need to possess anyone by force

Bellara calls the background magic of Necropolis tidy and quiet

There something called “The Deep Necropolis” featuring sections like “The Unspoken Valley” and “The Charnel Bridge” (which has something called “nightmare fog”) that hosts all kinds of entities. Bellara is very excited to visit once the nightmare fog clears

Vorgoth ensures that the transgressions of those who use magical to cruel and abusive means will not be tolerated (whatever that means)

About Nevarra:

Many great Nevarran artefacts have been lost to time, including the Skull of Sabinar, the Key of Dead Dreamers, and the Crown of the Moon

There are strict rules about selling enchantments in Nevarra. You can’t sell anything without a licence and an inspection from the mage Circles

A Tevinter poem “Faustina's Song”, a romantic epic from the Steel Age, is very popular in Nevarra, and its quotes are used on ‘more than one’ epitaph in the Necropolis. Neve is surprised people even read it outside Tevinter 

Pineapples don’t grow in Nevarra

[loustica-lucia]

Heroes of the Dragon Age

An animation I've made for Dragon Age Day 2023, featuring my main Warden (Alyssa Cousland-Theirin), Hawke (Eleena Amell Hawke) and Inquisitor (Sulevin Lavellan)!

It's to this day one of my best artwork and I thought I should share it here too! 90+ hours between the original sketch, outfit design, the rough animation, rotoscope, inking, flat-colours, background shading and even the audio :')

Interested in the process? I detailed it below since it was my first time doing something like that:

I would like to start by saying I'm not a professional animator!Everything you've seen here is the result of experimentation and a lot of practice to learn and understand how 2D animation works.

My first idea started in May 2023. I just finished rewatching DA Absolution for the X time, and wanted to analyse why I loved the intro so much. (Even after countless rewatch, I never skipped it once.) I was inspired to study it with my main three protagonists!

Then came the first test with Alyssa Cousland-Theirin, my Hero of Ferelden! I tried to understand which part to separate for the animation. Mainly the hair and cape because it flows a lot more than the rest! If I recall, my first idea here was to make her counter flame attacks (?). Then, as the camera turns around her, I tried to add a grid to know how the camera would work around it.

I ended up making the clip longer, so she could position herself to the further left and leave space to the two other protagonists.

Now it was time to try to animate Sulevin Lavellan, my Inquisitor. I really kept that quick doodling style just to capture the vibe without putting too much time/effort into it! The background would be static to contrast with Alyssa's. I also loved the idea of a rogue sneaking!

Instead of working on Eleena Amell Hawke, my Champion of Kirkwall, I went back to Alyssa and started working with Clip Studio Paint 3D models (this entire animation has been done on the EX version of the software!) It helped for rotoscope animation and maintaining likeness! That's when I got the idea to make the background swirl around the character to let the eyes be guided by the rest of the screen!

After a couple more hours, I planned the entire animatic with 3D models and quick doodles! I finally found a cool pose for Eleena Hawke, which was honestly the hardest of the three to imagine for some reason? I tried many other poses but ended up picking an animation from the game!

This whole time, I was studying a bunch of background ideas and how studio Red Dog Culture House (who made Absolution) work! Thankfully, they have a YouTube Channel where they shared some BTS content so I could analyse it!

Then, I simplified my character and their original designs in the style of the studio! These outfits are how I imagine them after Trespasser. Alyssa as the Queen of Ferelden, looking for a cure to the Calling, Hawke following Fenris to Tevinter & Sully as a Red Jenny Inquisitor!

The idea for Sulevin's animation actually came from a piece I doodled on a live stream, when I was drawing pose studies and turning them into finished artworks haha As for Alyssa, I wanted to draw the fight that got her facial scars!

Once their designs were ready and the background ideas too, I made the rough version of the animation! Basically a sketch done on top of the 3D models to add the details, staying pretty rough just to capture the idea and movements.

Then it was time to start the lines! I decided make a folder per frame, so I could separate all he main elements and draw them one by one. It helps keeping the likeness of a character in the different frames without having big "jumps" between frames! In fact, every parts were coloured differently to recognize them, and then I used vector erasers and masks (Ah yes, the entire lineart is done in vectors of course! It's easier to adjust and save time when working on similar frames!)

At first of course, everything overlaps! But I find it easier to draw too much and erase after, just to make sure everything is coherent in each frames! The cool thing about CSP is how you can change the colour of the layers in one click! So all the coloured lines turned into black in one second, and I could reverse it just as quickly to double check!

Then I started working on Sulevin! I made a blue line to mark where her feet were, as the sketch in the background wasn't perfectly straight! (Like Sulevin's sexuality 🤭😂) The silhouettes were very quick to do, but I had fun adding more & more details as she came closer to the foreground!

I really wanted to add that little dagger trick, but I remember it required me to change the pacing of Eleena's apparition, as it was recovering her arm too quickly! I had to change the pace of multiple frames quite a lot during the project, to make sure the flow was right! For Eleena, most of her animation remained around her arms and the staff itself, as magic would be the most difficult part! That way each character has their own focus: Alyssa has a very animated background, Sulevin got the grappling hook and Eleena the ice!

Then it was time to start adding colours! Just like for the lineart, I separated every colour on it's own layer, so I could easily adjust the colours later if needed. I added one colour at the time, going through all the frames, and then another colour!

I made full palette tests with the colours I would use for their background at this point, checking if the details remained readable! Alyssa was the most challenging in terms of clothes, because I made her a very detailled armour! I had to simplify the Theirin heraldry, vectorize/redraw the Cousland, and make a brush for her cape's pattern!

Once I was done adding the flatcolours, I started the background, and oh boy it was a wild ride. For the cave, I painted multiple tests. I imagine was to use CSP panorama tools, which transform a texture into a 3D sphere, so each corners must match to look good. Sadly, it made the background very blurry, so after hours of testing, I changed ideas. Instead of the random fire balls (?) I originally imagined for Alyssa, I made three simple frames of a Rage Demon to attack her.

I ended up using the cave as a repeated pattern to make it turn 360° around the character. For Eleena, I mixed inspiration from the comics, Dreadwolf & Absolution, using warm colours matching Hawke's signature red. Just like I made the cave very grey/blue to match Grey Wardens. For Val Royeaux, it was more complex because I wanted to make it green, matching the Inquisitor's signature green. But bright green couldn't work, and the original colour during day time was blue/white/gold. So I added more leaves, played around the design a bit! After adding the rage demon, I made the shading! It was surprisingly easy and quick to do now!

I clipped a white layer on the flatcolours to not be distracted by the colours, and made thin lines to separate the light/shadows, then simply filled everything with the bucket tool! Then you set the layer to multiply and remove the white layer, and you have celshading shadows! Now the character looks out of the picture, so I added layers of blue in color burn, saturation and substract blending modes to make her look like she's in the right setting! Of course, I did the same with the other two, giving Hawke a red overlay and Sulevin green shadows!

Then I added the details, it went from white irises, to sword/staff smears to earrings and smaller finition that goes on top of these layers. To add the lights, I simply selected the shadows and reversed the selection! Using warm and cold tones to create contrast with the purple/bluish shadows! I also added more ambient light layers for Alyssa to reflect the Rage Demon fire. Now it was time to add ice magic! My first attempt had too many frames, making it look weird! Sometimes it's better to lower the frame rate to make things less bumpy!

Then I downloaded some cool ice brushes on CSP assets that made it look less like blue magical flames! But when I covered the screen in ice, I realized "Oh wait, I could make a cool transition from the ice, to blue lyrium turning red?"Red Lyrium truly links these three games and The Veilguard somehow! I spent the next hour painting over the idol and putting it in a black background, with lyrium and then the golden Dragon Age title text.

For the SFX, I used free youtube libraries sounds & "Darkspawn!" comes from the violent human female voice set (iconic for ""Can I get you a ladder? So you can get off my back!"😂🤭) After editing all that, the animation was finally done!

Here's the final math:

About 15 hours for the sketching/rough/animatic phase, 30h for the lineart, 25h for colours, 10h for backgrounds, 5h for details & 5h for music & SFX, for a total of 90 hours. Aka the same amount of time it took me to finish Baldur's Gate 3 the first time lol

If you have any question regarding the animation or the softwares etc. do not hesitate to ask, I'll do my best to answer!

[thetaxicabber]

Because Dragon Age is on my brain….let me introduce you to my original 3 characters!

Elissa Cousland - Hero and Queen of Ferelden

Elissa defeated the Blight at age 18 and became Queen and Warden Commander all within a year of losing her parents. She once studied to be a Tevinter historian. She still wears the necklace she got at the joining, though she’s added a few tokens to it over the years. She is best friends with Morrigan and Leliana and married to Alistair. She went searching for a cure to the calling at the time of inquisition.

Aelin Hawke - Champion of Kirkwall

Aelin saved both her siblings from the blight. Carver joined the Templar order and Bethany the Grey Wardens. She’s sarcastic and prone to violence. Her best friend is Varric. After the defeat of Corypheus she married Sebastian Vael and they settled into life in Starkhaven - though she’s still known to make mischief.

Evelyn Trevelyan - Inquistor/Herald of Andraste

Evelyn is the youngest child of Lord and Lady Trevelyan. She has four older brothers and the whole family is deeply entrenched with the Templar order. Her magic manifested at age 8 and she was taken to the Ostwick circle where her Uncle was Lord Commander and two of her brothers trained as Templars. This led to Evelyn being very sheltered from the horrors of living in the circle. Her best friend is Dorian. After the defeat of Corypheus, she dissolved the inquisition and enjoyed a few years of quiet peace with husband Cullen - though they still worked to find Solas.

I’ve put a lot of thought into my protagonist and I can’t wait to add Rook as I play through the new game! I’m a shadow dragon mage this first playthrough!

Art by lillithblack_comics on Insta

[jb-nonsense]

Below, you will find a list with links to my fanfictions featuring Ogden Thorne. Basic information about Ogden is as follows:

He is around 37 years of age during Veilguard. He was a Circle Mage in the Ansburg Circle before he was recruited to the Wardens by the Hero of Ferelden. He has served as a Warden for 17 years, but due to his ability and skill, has jealous enemies of higher rank which end up causing him to be where he is at the start of the game. His romance is with Lucanis Dellamorte.

I have split the lists in various ways based on what people may have a preference in reading.

Chronological

These are listed timeline chronology.

Spilled Wine (Explicit)

The Song

What Shapes a Warden

The Matter of Sleep

Bedside Vigil

Extra Dessert (Explicit)

Background

These delve into Ogden's character background

Spilled Wine (Explicit)

What Shapes a Warden

Character Study

These dig into his thoughts and character during the game

The Song

Ship Centric

These focus more on the ship aspect with Lucanis

The Matter of Sleep

Bedside Vigil

Extra Dessert (Explicit)

[broodwoof]

happy friday!! i'd LOVE to see your take on any character who experiences the calling + solas with “Shh. Wait for The Singing to pass.”

happy friday indeed! have some very unexpected loghain and solas (with faint loghain/solas vibes if u squint...) @dadrunkwriting 1141 words cws: none

Solas could not deny a certain… curiosity. Nor a certain sympathy.

As he had once explained to the Inquisitor, he did not know the truth of Ostagar. The Fade showed perspectives, interpretations, based on those who were there at the time. To some, Loghain was little more than a monster, an evil general who sought Cailan’s death and who had always intended to abandon so many to be slaughtered by the darkspawn. To others, he was a seasoned general and a man of the people who saw an impossible battle looming on the horizon and made a tactical retreat, trying to spare those lives he could. Solas did not know the truth. 

What he did know was how history shaped those who shaped it. He suspected there was truth—and falsehood—to both interpretations, that the reality lay somewhere in the very mortal center. He had never met someone who was truly evil. Even Corypheus was not evil as such—to view him that way erased his true motivations and invited a naive weakness the Inquisition could scarce afford. 

Evil was a comfortable idea. Something so absolute. An evil man could never be anything but; the monster of a morality tale. It was the truth that was always harder, always murkier. But history liked evil, for evil invited heroes. It was simple. 

It was never simple. 

So, no, he did not know the truth; and yet, he knew the truth better than anyone else, save perhaps the Inquisitor. Because whatever Loghain's impulse in the moment, history had martyred him, stripped him of his personhood no matter the direction of the telling, and what Solas was curious about was the truth. 

Not the truth of Ostagar. The truth of the man. Ostagar was a moment. A profound one, of course, but a moment nonetheless. It did not hold the truth of him. 

So when he heard that the famed Loghain, traitor-hero of Ferelden, would be helping the Inquisitor, his interest was piqued. And when he heard that the man would be staying briefly at Skyhold, he decided to seek some answer. 

But this was not what he had expected to find.

“Ah, I–” Loghain straightened, pushing sweat-slick hair back from his forehead. His eyes were unfocused as he frowned at Solas. “You are one of her people, are you not? Have you need of me?”

“Nothing that cannot wait,” he answered, Loghain only frowning deeper before scoffing.

“I see.” The way he said it, Solas thought that he likely did. He would not be the first one to ask about that time, nor would he be the last. 

“Is it the song?” He asked instead, and those eyes sharpened considerably. He also noticed Loghain's hands clenching tight atop his desk. After a moment he leaned back in his chair with a sigh, some of the tension leaving his body. Intentional, that. 

“I should not be surprised you know,” he muttered, “it makes sense that she would tell her people.” He looked away, towards the walls, and Solas felt his deliberate avoidance keenly. “Have you been charged with keeping an eye on me, then? Making sure I don't turn on all of you, betray you to Corypheus?”

“No,” he said simply, Loghain scoffing again. “Some Wardens have written of the Calling. Not many, but some. They speak of its appeal, its beauty.”

“Are you trying to tempt me?”

“Not at all. It is just… my studies have been limited, but am I right in assuming it waxes and wanes?”

“Oh, you’re one of those. Gonna write about the Calling in a book, preserved for future generations?” Loghain finally deigned to look at him again, then sighed. “Perhaps it would be for the best. In truth, I do not know. But to answer your question… yes. There are times when it is overwhelmingly loud.”

“Like now?”

“Mm.”

Solas debated with himself only briefly, but… if it was too much, he would be rebuffed and they would both go on with their lives. But if it could help, he felt obliged to do what he was able.

“I want you to focus on me,” he said, pitching his voice low and even. Loghain frowned at him, clearly taken aback. “Just me. There is nothing but the two of us. Do you understand?”

“I…” And then his eyes widened. A moment later he surprised Solas by grinning. “Oh, this'll be good.”

“Focus on me,” he said again, more firmly. Loghain nodded, but Solas stared him down until his grin faded and he nodded again. “You are seated. Feel the wood of the chair beneath you. Feel your desk under your hands. Pay attention to the sound of my voice, to the air flowing in and out of your lungs.”

“Okay, and now–”

“Do not speak,” he interrupted, still firm but without anger. Loghain frowned briefly, then nodded. 

“Good. Focus on these feelings. The scent of the air as you inhale.” He approached slowly, letting Loghain hear each step. “I am going to take your hand,” he told him before reaching out and settling his atop the back of Loghain's palm. The man flinched slightly but did not pull away. “Focus on my hand. Define it, the warmth, the weight. Learn it.”

He fell silent, giving Loghain a chance to do as he'd bid. He was surprised when after a few moments the hand beneath his turned so they were palm to palm, strong fingers settling against him. Loghain's eyes had closed and his breathing was even and steady, but now it was Solas who was having to keep himself calm. 

Strange, to be so affected by a touch. It meant nothing, but he had been without for so long that he found himself strangely desperate to maintain this. 

“Tell me, do you usually hold hands with enemies of the state?” Loghain's eyes were closed but his lips had quirked up into a faint grin.

“Only when it helps,” he offered after a beat. Loghain squeezed his hand before releasing it and pulling away, and Solas stepped back, trying to not miss the warmth. 

“It did.” Loghain met his eyes now, searching them for something. “You are a strange one.”

“So I've been told.”

“It is quieter now,” he said. “I thank you for that. At times, it is hard to hear anything else… I appreciate your assistance.”

“Feel free to seek me out again. We can wait for the singing to pass together.”

“That is kind,” was all Loghain said, and Solas suspected he would not see him again. The time would come that he would leave Skyhold, and he did not seem the type to rely on others, even when they made themselves available. 

If he hoped for another opportunity, then that was his own concern and likely his own regret. For now he simply nodded and left.

[dellamortethelesser]

Please Mahanon Tabris... I want to know.... about.... him........ I am so intrigued

oh lord okay. Mahanon Tabris is my canon Hero of Ferelden and he started out as a character study and a criticism of the "perfect victim" narrative. Being trans and being a city elf are the two most defining social characteristics that he brings to the narrative of being a grey warden and he approaches the joining as a chance to live a new life.

death and rebirth and the cycles of trauma are huge themes in his story, and although he considers himself to be "the paragon of a grey warden" in the aftermath of origins, his whole approach to being a grey warden is antithetical, given that his motivation is living at any cost rather than being willing to offer death as a sacrifice.

he handles the fifth blight as an angry, desperate twenty year old who has no mentorship and no real support--everyone either tacitly agrees with your plans or argues with them, but the burden of the choice is still on you (a consequence of the medium that i enjoy incorporating narratively). he makes choices he thinks are necessary; he kills connor at redcliffe, destroys the werewolves out of a familiar vengeance, he defiles the urn and becomes a reaver. this escalates to the point of recruiting loghain and being aghast that alistair would abandon everything then.

in my personal headcanon for mahanon, alistair comes back at the last minute and sacrifices himself which is something that mahanon cannot and does not forgive and remains angry about to the point where he really can't think about it. loghain goes off to orlais leaving them with a very terse formal stilted relationship. mahanon does romance zevran but time and distance means they're more off and on.

i'm torn how he will handle awakening lol--i waffle between he fucks off and comes back just to burn amaranthine or he stays around and still burns amaranthine before fucking off. great character

he ties into nadasa thorne, my rook, as the role of his mentor and fucks him up in new unique esoteric ways that varric and everyone else get to deal with. mahanon is a horrible person and i love him for it.

[fancytrinkets]

i finished veilguard

My thoughts are still a bit scattered and I think I'll be spending time carefully reading all the codices and letters over the next week or so.

The fight through Minrathous was fun. I bumped the difficulty back up to Adventurer in order to enjoy the battles more thoroughly. And for the first time in a Dragon Age game I found the darkspawn emissaries to be fucking TERRIFYING. Their flesh-tether Blight attacks are excellent and horrible. 10/10 for that

I liked assigning teammates to different roles. Taash to fight the giant construct at the gates, Neve to disable the wards, Lucanis to slay the Venatori mages. Davrin to split off and join the front lines before the climb to the archon's palace. And Bellara, returning from what seemed like certain death to take control of the Blight herself. It felt really moving in a way I liked.

Dorian and the romanced Inquisitor standing side by side and having a caretaking conversation with each other before the final fight was really gratifying for me also.

Seeing Solas turn into a giant wolf was both required by this point and very satisfying. The Solas redemption ending was satisfying for me also. Seeing my Inquisitor kneel at his feet, having Morrigan show up, while Rook produced the statue from Mythal... just from a cinematic perspective—and with the Inquisition's music from Trespasser coming forward in the score and then taking over—I found it really moving, a fitting end to the Inquisitor's story with Solas....

That said, I do have critiques about how disconnected the characters and events and environments often felt from the lore of previous games. I think other people will delve into that better than I can right now

For now I'll just say I have questions. If Andraste really was a previous incarnation of Mythal, before Flemeth, then what was the Maker? Another of the elven gods? Another powerful old spirit? Or a story Andraste told to help her people make sense of their brutal march to war?

What does it mean that the Veil is restored? Has Solas come to trust other people—these new and "lesser" people—enough to believe that they will caretake for spirits (who presumably still can slip through the Veil in some ways) rather than continuing to fear them and drive them off? Or is he just ready to admit that it ought to be out of his hands? He couldn't fix it or undo his errors and atrocities, so he needs to try something new...

What happens to the South? Are Southern institutions so broken by the Blight that they need to accept help from this new Northern alliance that seems to be coming together? Will this alliance fracture and lead to wars again? What are the politics at play? (Lol, I guess the game didn't give us as much bureacracy as I might have liked.)

I am most happy to have given Bellara the Archive and happy that she survived to keep studying it. I still find the Veil Jumpers to be a strange and disconnected-from-the-world sort of faction. But I like Bellara's story within it. As a character, she grew on me.

The Davrin romance was sweet and right for my elven Shadow Dragon Rook. I liked the Grey Warden's story arc, probably moreso for having read The Last Flight. And I'm happy that he survived and Harding didn't. Not because of the romance, really, just because it felt more significant to kill off another returning character, and another of Trevelyan's friends....

I'm happy with Mae as archon. Trevelyan and Dorian deserve a break from the spotlight for a while... (I'm going to have to rewrite their retirement story however, now that Varric is dead. I'm also imagining Trevelyan, Hawke, and the Hero of Ferelden teaming up to fight together in the South during the events of Veilguard, so that's been giving me some writing interest already... we'll see where my writer's brain goes with it)

I have other thoughts, but that's where it's at right now.

[mumms-the-word]

Bound by Blood - Ch. 1

Ch. 1 - Ostagar

Characters: Alistair, fem!Surana, Zevran, fem!Tabris, and basically the rest of the DAO crew Plot: Seventeen-year-old Nyssa Surana never expected to find herself a Grey Warden - let alone one of three surviving Wardens, one of which is her own cousin, Velle Tabris. She's the last person anyone would ever choose to save the world. Young, inexperienced, deeply anxious, and only just out of the Circle Tower for the first time in a decade, she's convinced she's as unlikely a hero as unlikely heroes come. But someone has to save Ferelden from the Fifth Blight...and keep her cousin out of trouble...and try not to fall in love with the charming Alistair Theirin, all at the same time. Three impossible tasks, but she's determined to succeed, even with the odds stacked against her. A/N: I figure that Duncan can't be in two places at once, so while he is off recruiting Velle, whose recruitment experience follows the game's canon, Nyssa has a different experience.

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Nyssa Surana was one of the youngest women in all of Ostagar, and no one would let her forget it.

It didn’t matter that she would be eighteen in two months. It didn’t matter that she had completed her Harrowing only one month ago, a test that was as much a rite of passage into adulthood as it was into being a full mage. It didn’t matter that some of the knights in the king’s army had squires as young as fourteen and that the camp quartermasters had elven messengers barely out of their teens running messages to and fro. No, because she was young, and a girl, and an elf, and a mage, it made her somehow different than everyone else, though she couldn’t fathom how or why.

If you asked the mages she had traveled with to get there, or if you asked the soldiers who stared at her as she walked through the camp, she was far too young to be in a place like Ostagar. She was only seventeen, after all, and an army camp was no place for children.

But she wasn’t a child. Though some days she felt about as naive and foolish as one, the robes she wore were proof that she had passed her Harrowing and was a full mage now. Perhaps not an enchanter like the other mages of the Circle that were there to assist the army, but not an apprentice either.

Still. Some days it didn’t seem to matter. She was young and every day she spent at Ostagar was a visceral reminder of that fact. Stares, whispers, and snide remarks all seemed intended to make her question why she had ever agreed to come here, rather than stay warm and safe in Kinloch Hold in the middle of Lake Calenhad. The enchanters tolerated her presence, but the soldiers and warriors in the army? She could feel their eyes burning into her back. She could hear their whispers following her as she walked from the purple tents of the Circle mages to the makeshift clinic run by the Chantry.

They let a girl like that walk around camp alone? Looking like that?

Shut up, mate, she isn’t some knife-ear messenger. She’s a mage, she is. Can’t you tell? Robes and staff?

You can’t be serious. She’s too young. They don’t let mages that young out of the tower.

Look, if you want to risk her setting your bedroll on fire, be my guest. I wouldn’t touch her with a ten-foot tent pole, no matter how she looks. But if you want to play dangerous games…

For a pretty thing like that? I just might, once this battle is over.

She shouldn’t have come here. But she was here now. And despite how the stares and whispers made her nervous, it was easy to ignore them when she reminded herself that the alternative would be to stay trapped in that tower forever.

In Kinloch Hold, she was just another mage studying magic. And sure, it was safe, secure, and familiar. But here, she felt as though she could breathe, as though she were a little more alive than when she was shut up in the tower.

Here, she could see the sky and the mountains, which loomed so large and so close that she felt a little dizzy every time she looked up at them. She could touch the bark of strong, healthy trees with her hands, marveling at how they found the strength to grow up from the flagstones that paved most of the ground around the ruins. She could walk freely among the crumbling walls and broken arches of Ostagar, studying the remnants of architecture that must have been breathtaking, in its heyday. She could breathe in the fresh air, though here it was tinged with woodsmoke and the smell of dozens of mabari hounds at all hours.

It usually didn’t bother her much. She couldn’t get that heady mix of beauty and decay or that combination of fresh mountain air and pungent musk in the tower, after all. She ought to appreciate it all while she could.

Ostagar had stolen her breath away when they had first approached it. Though ruined by time and weather, the shells of the fortress halls, arches, and towers nevertheless soared high overhead despite the ages of neglect, casting long shadows with ease, their stones weathered and rugged. Kinloch Hold was tall too, but it was only one building. Here, the towering walls and columns seemed to go on for miles, but with everything open to the sky, it never felt like a prison.

In some places, she could all too easily envision what it must have looked like before, when people still roamed and lived in the fortress. In one corner, an old cathedral or temple stood empty, its roof almost completely gone, but if she stood among the columns there, following them upward as they stretched three or four stories high, she could picture them bearing aloft a vaulted ceiling, perhaps one that was painted with frescos or patterned over with beautiful mosaics. Elsewhere she could see evidence of former gardens and walking paths, places where bits of natural beauty must have poked through in courtyards and around fountains, spaces that had now given way to the trees that sought to take over the area.

It must have been beautiful before it fell to ruin. It was beautiful now, in a tragic way, even with all the modern scaffolding and army tents that cluttered the spaces between. What she wouldn’t give to linger and study the architecture, to try and discern some kind of secret or two from the worn stone arches and crumbling walls.

But that wasn’t why she was here. Nor was she here to amuse soldiers or be stared at like a caged animal. She was here at the behest of First Enchanter Irving, who had sent her with the other Circle mages to assist them as they prepared to fight alongside the armies of King Cailan. Her job was simple. Work alongside the Tranquil to gather items the enchanters and senior enchanters needed and then provide support spells to protect the soldiers and scouts of the king’s army before they headed out into the Korcari Wilds to scout the area or, eventually, into battle.

She was not, under any circumstances, allowed to enter any battles. Irving was very clear about that. She was to assist the enchanters and the army and to stay out of trouble. That was all. Those were the terms with which she had been allowed to leave Kinloch Hold, despite having only completed her Harrowing days before their departure to Ostagar.

She had promised Irving she would obey him to the letter. But she had already broken that promise several times over in small ways.

For one thing, technically she wasn’t supposed to be helping with the Chantry clinic. Though the Chantry wasn’t armed with healing spells, they had plenty of potions, poultices, and bandages for conventional healing. They didn’t need her, and generally speaking, they didn’t much trust her. But Senior Enchanter Wynne had suggested she might be of more use there, attempting to soothe the pains of the dying with her spells. Nyssa wasn’t sure whether her suggestion was meant to keep her farther away from the soldiers or away from the mages preparing complex rituals for the upcoming battle, but in the end it didn’t matter. It gave her the excuse to walk the camp and be of use to someone other than the enchanters.

She just wished she was better at healing. On her first day at Ostagar, she realized just how ill-suited and ill-prepared she was to be an army healer when she saw the first man come in with wounds deep enough that she could see the soft, wet flesh of his organs. She had nearly fainted when they laid him on the cot beside her. Her hands had trembled terribly as she handed the Chantry sister the poultices and bandages they had used. In the end, the poor man died before they even finished trying to stitch his wound closed.

She had gone off shortly after to be sick in the bushes and returned, teary-eyed but determined to ignore the pitying or judgmental looks of the Chantry sisters. After that, each bloody wound still made her feel ill and woozy, but she pushed through it. She wanted to be helpful. She didn’t want to be sent back to the mages, and then from there sent back to the tower. She had to be useful.

She asked Wynne to teach her a healing spell or two and went right back to work in the clinic.

But for some soldiers, it didn’t matter. Not even her healing magic could offer relief to those who came back from the Korcari Wilds sporting wounds tainted by blackened darkspawn blood. Try as she might, the best she could offer them were cool drinks of water and something to dull the pain. The Chantry sisters at the clinic could offer no more than she.

“Wynne,” she asked at one point, after a long day of working at the clinic. “Are there really no spells to help with tainted blood? Nothing at all?”

“I’m afraid not,” Wynne said gently. “Nothing short of becoming a Grey Warden, that is. Only they know of ways to counteract the effects of being tainted by darkspawn blood.”

“But all of them are staying outside of the ruins,” Nyssa said, her heart sinking. “I’m not allowed to leave.”

“And I doubt any of them would answer you even if you asked.”

Nyssa frowned. “There has to be some way…”

She had felt Wynne’s gaze on her as she thought through ways of possibly sending a message to one of the Wardens, to arrange a meeting of some kind. Eventually, Wynne made a thoughtful noise.

“Perhaps you might try asking Ser Duncan, once he returns from his visit to Denerim.”

“Ser Duncan?”

She remembered briefly meeting Duncan, the leader of the Ferelden Grey Wardens, at Kinloch Hold the day after her Harrowing. She had walked into Irving’s office to find Irving, Knight-Commander Greagoir, and Duncan discussing the need for mages in the army because at that time the king had none. That was when she had first heard the word Blight to describe the threat brewing to the south.

The power you mages wield is an asset to any army, he’d said, speaking partly to her and partly to Irving. Your spells are very effective against large groups of mindless darkspawn. I fear if we don’t drive them back, we may see another Blight.

He’d said mages were necessary. Not helpful, not convenient, but necessary. Vital. It was a far cry from what she usually heard about magic.

After years of listening to mages and Chantry sisters and Templars debate about the usefulness of magic as well as all of its many, many dangers and whether it was a gift from the Maker or not, to hear that magic could be so important…it had drawn Nyssa in. When Irving mentioned that they were considering sending a few mages to answer the king’s call for allies, Nyssa had asked to join. It was a rare show of impulsivity for her—she normally kept her head down. Even now she didn’t know what possessed her to ask, but she was glad she did. Irving hemmed and hawed and said he would consider it, but in the end, Duncan had agreed with her.

“If this is the girl you’ve told me about,” he’d said, “then it seems a good idea to let her go. She has earned that right, I think.”

Nyssa still wasn’t sure what he meant by those words. And when she met him again in the library, slowly perusing the books on the shelves, she was too much a coward to ask directly. So she asked to learn about the Grey Wardens instead.

“I once heard that the Wardens accepted elves among their ranks,” she’d said. “Even to the point that the last Warden to slay an Archdemon was an elf.”

“You refer to Garahel,” Duncan said, nodding. “It’s true. The darkspawn threaten everyone. They do not distinguish between the races, and neither should we.”

She had been a little surprised to hear such thoughts from him. “Not everyone agrees with that,” she said softly.

“No, unfortunately not.” He paused, studying her for a moment. “Has being an elf in the Circle been difficult for you?”

She shrugged and looked away, rubbing her arm absently. “A little…”

It could be worse. Given what she knew from letters from her parents and from her Uncle Cyrion, elves seemed to have it worse out in the cities, where they were crowded in alienages and forced to work long days for only a handful of coins. Though they didn’t live in an alienage like her uncle and her cousins, her parents were servants of the Howes in Amaranthine, a destiny that she would have shared, had she not unexpectedly developed magic at seven years old. She thought about it often, what kind of life she might have led if she had never had magic. It was hard to imagine.

At least in the tower, she could pretend she was someone’s equal because she had equal or better magical talent than them. In the tower, she had a bed to herself, even if she’d had to share a room with twenty other female apprentices, and her meals came ready-made, if a little bland, in the tower dining hall. She never had to worry about not having a bed or a hot meal, though privacy was never guaranteed and she often wished she could hide away somewhere just to give herself room to think or breathe. So, she supposed, she ought not to complain if someone occasionally called her a knife-ear or insinuated that she was using cheap tricks to get ahead. It was simply…how things were.

But Duncan’s voice had been soft, almost gentle when he responded. “It is hard to change perceptions. I have tried to reason with many, and failed. If one has always seen elves as less than human, it’s hard to imagine them as anything else.”

Nyssa pursed her lips slightly. It wasn’t a truth she wanted to hear, but she knew it well enough. “I know. I shouldn’t let it bother me, but…”

She stopped before she could find herself pouring out her heart to this complete stranger. She wasn’t ready to embarrass herself that much just yet. So she simply ended with another small shrug.

“Do not let it discourage you,” Duncan had said. He leaned in and she glanced up to meet his dark eyes, finding in them a sense of determination and encouragement. “Let it temper you and make you stronger. That is how you can survive in this world, no matter where you are or what you are doing.”

She hadn’t known what to say at the time. But ever since then, his words, his kindness in that library, had stayed with her.

Let it temper you and make you stronger, he’d said. She tried to. Every time she felt ill at the clinic, or heard the soldiers whispering foul things about her, or a Chantry sister looked at her with open disdain, she tried to let it temper and not discourage her.

But such things were easier said than done. And she had never been particularly strong.

She wished she could ask Duncan for advice again, but he wasn’t around. But if he was really returning, like Wynne said, then perhaps she would get her chance. Perhaps he would even know a solution for treating tainted soldiers. If anyone knew how to help the soldiers dying of darkspawn taint, it would be him.

But she had to wait for his return. So she waited as patiently as she was able and tried to be useful in the meantime. She cast support spells on scouts and soldiers before they ventured into the Wilds, hoping it would be enough to protect them if they encountered small bands of darkspawn. She ran errands for the enchanters and worked as much as possible in the clinic, even though it regularly made her feel faint or ill. In her downtime, she sometimes visited the kennel, speaking to the kennel master and watching the mabari hounds. And she tried to take Duncan’s advice to heart.

There was a noticeable shift in the air the day he returned. The eve of battle was looming ever closer and there were whispers that the king was ready to launch the attack almost as soon as the Warden Commander arrived. She could see a noticeable difference in the tempo of camp life that day. It was as though everyone was suddenly moving at twice their normal speed, eager to don arms and armor, set up fortifications, and prepare the hounds.

Duncan should be back today, was the whisper around the camp. I guess he’s brought another Warden recruit.

She was rolling bandages for the Chantry sisters when she saw him walking through the camp. A young, dusky-skinned elven woman trailed along behind him, looking sullen and quiet. Something struck her as familiar about the elf, but with a quick word to Duncan, the woman split off and disappeared into the camp, while Duncan made his way over to a bonfire to sit and rest.

This was her chance. She finished rolling the bandages, set them in a basket for the sisters, and prepared herself.

It was time to meet the Warden Commander once again.

[wardentabriis]

23, 27, & 30 for the Rook questions!

23. What do they do after an absolute crisis?

Lin keeps going. No matter what. He'll act like nothing is wrong and wipe the blood off his face (literally or metaphorically) and trudge on. There's isn't time to break down. When he contracted the blight in the Anderfels, he marched his way to Weisshaupt until he physically couldn't walk. It's probably one of the reasons Varric recruited him, even if it's not the healthiest habit.

27. What was their life like before the events of Veilguard?

He's from a Dalish clan originally (Clan Then'hima, one I came up with for my worldstate), which mostly traveled around Ferelden before the Blight. Being a young child during the Blight is one of the reasons he became interested in studying it, though the Keeper discouraged him from that course when his magic manifested and he became their First.

Instead, he became very interested in ancient elven history and magic, especially after the events of Trespasser. Chasing down rumors of a tome belonging to Ghilan'nain in the Anderfels is what led him to contracting the blight (a particularly virulent strain since it came straight from an item that once belonged to Ghilan'nain). He leveraged his knowledge of elven magic and the blight to convince the Grey Wardens to take him in, and spent most of his seven years there as a researcher.

30. What's your favorite thing about your Rook?

I have no idea how I managed to make him look so pretty in the character creator and he's my special little guy.

No but really, I love how I managed to weave his story in with my Hero of Ferelden's! They're family and there are a lot of interesting parallels I could make between them.

[mel-hath-no-fury]

Writing Pattern Tag Game

Thanks @darethshirl for tagging me!

I’ll tag @dustdeepsea , @cyansyrup , @sky-kiss , and anyone else who wants to jump in!

Rule is I have to share the first line of my last ten fics and see if there is a pattern.

I only have 9 fics total on ao3, so I’ll be one short. I’ll start with my oldest fic because I’m curious to see whether things changed over time.

Heating Up:

The sun beat down on Tenpines Bluff like a migraine.

The Mannequin:

“No, get it out of my house.”

On the Damp Old Stones

The Hero of Ferelden was dying.

Sunshine from Out of the Blue

Hancock’s soulmark had been ice cold since the day it appeared.

The Devil You Know

Tav should have known she was getting more than she bargained for the moment she walked into the Caress that fateful day.

Fear Me, Love Me, Do as I Say

The bhaalspawn that escorted me through the temple was a jittery sort, slinking and slithering like a rat through the blood-drunk bowels of the city.

Forged from the Heart

Dammon leaned down to study the dark stone sitting in the palm of this stranger’s hand, frowning at its smooth black surface.

Pretty as a Painting

Rolan frowned at the reflection in the mirror, arms wrapped tightly about his waist to hold his silk robe shut.

Phantom

When Dorian and the Iron Bull arranged a meeting with the Viscount of Kirkwall, the last place they expected to convene was in a dingy bar called something so cheap as “The Hanged Man.”

Analysis:

I think the most obvious change is my move away from these short, punchy openings in favor of these longer, scene-setting lines. Reading through them all, I do think I like the latter type of opening better. I’m especially proud of my opening for Fear Me Love Me (which as far as quality of writing goes, I personally view as my best work to date).

As far as patterns go, I tend to start right off the bat with characters (Heating Up being the exception). Which makes sense, because my writing is very character-centered (as most fanfic is really).

For a while, I was writing openers that set up plot right away (the hero of Ferelden is dying, Hancock’s soulmate, etc) but I seem to have moved away from that as well. My latest stuff seems to start with characters in the process of doing something (which I like).

I also write people frowning often. Too often actually. It’s one of those writing tics I have to watch out for.

Anyways, that’s what I’m noticing!

[niofo]

canon compliant amell-hawke family tree. feel free to use it as a base for your own. characters we don't know anything about and i named for my uses are revka's husband and their 5 children, that are all mages. (kinloch hold amell would probably be a bit younger than 22, as they're only getting their harrowing, but it wasn't fitting my timeline otherwise)

under the cut some background on the characters in my worldstate:

marian started as blue hawke, then aften death of carver in lothering and bethany in the deep roads she moved to red hawke. she's still kind to everyone she considers her family, but very protective of them, and often rude to outsiders. supports mage rebellion and anders' actions. she's a lesbian in a poly relationship with isabella and merrill. her weapon of choice is two handed ax, but she's proficient with all melee weapons.

lucas marin, son of antivan small-scale pearl merchants. his parents went into conflict with a competitor who had contacts amongst the house nero of antivan crows, who were then contacted to eliminate marin family. lucas managed to escape antiva fearing for his life, and in kirkwall met revka amell and tried to start a new life. when his eldest daughter showed magic potential and was taken by the templars, and soon after his wife's family collapsed and revka herself disappeared, he took remaining four children and kept moving: first across the marches, then to ferelden and finally orlais, but every single one of his children showed magic potential and ended up being taken by the chantry no matter how he tried to protect them. when he lost the youngest, twins, he decided to stay in orlais, not seeing the point of running any longer.

aderyn, eldest amell daughter, was taken into the gallows at some point in 9:10. by the time of 9:30s she was an enchanter specializing in force magic, she was also involved with the mage underground, helping other mages escape, especially ones that had the biggest threat of being made tranquil. she had the opportunity to escape herself, but stayed to secure a few more escapes, and was killed in the templar raid in 9:37, soon before anders blew up the chantry, at the age of 42.

yorath, the 2nd child, was brought to the ostwick circle where he befriended idris trevelyan and vivienne. unfortunately he was not skilled with magic enough for the circle's high standard and the templars decided him not able to attend his harrowing. he was made tranquil in 9:16 and worked in different circles since then. in 9:41 he was the first person to have his tranquility reversed by the inquisition, using the knowledge found in seekers' book of secrets.

gareth was early showing an impressive talent for spirit healing and learned under the tutelage of senior enchanter wynne even before taking his harrowing. yet soon after he helped his friend jowan escape, which marked him as a potential blood mage. knight-commander was still undecided whether to sentence him to tranquility or sent to aeonar along with initiate lily, but he decided to wait for the return of the templars and mages dispatched to ostagar. as soon as that happened though, uldred rebellion started, templars locked the tower until the arrival of the hero of ferelden. as tabris cleared the tower he encountered gareth fighting for his life, and learning about the situation, he invoked the right of conscription to get him away from the tower. gareth didn't go through the joining, but his close friendship with the warden and his actions during the blight granted him temporal immunity from the accusations. later he joined the rebellion alongside most of kinloch mages, and then became inquisition's main healer.

hefina was sent to the white spire and studied elemental magic under senior enchanter adrian, who also recruited her into libertarian fraternity. after the rebellion started hefina was dispatched to look for any displaced or abandoned mages andtranquil around the free marches. she was ambushed by a group of templars, but surprisingly saved by two passing antivan crows. the crows had an ulterior motive as they needed a help of a mage in their current mission and traded her life for assisting them. incidentally she also learned that her father was not, in fact, hunted in antiva, the hit was just for his parents and there was nothing personal going on. hefina helped the crows and then decided to stay in antiva to work with them more, giving the mage rebellion useful ties to the organization.

merfyn, twin bother of hefina, went to montsimmard circle where he aligned himself with the loyalist fraternity. he was progressing in his studies to become a knight-enchanter when the rebellion started and he joined first enchanter vivienne as a part of loyal mages staying with the chantry. he encountered a group of antivan crows who first took him for his sister hefina, which was when he learned that she is with crows, but he assumed that she was kidnapped. he asked vivienne for permission to go rescue his sister, hoping to recruit her to their cause, which vivienne allowed. when the twins finally reunited hefina explained that she is actually working with the crows willingly, and more than that, she is also a part of the rebellion. they were in the middle of a political argument when the news of the conclave explosion reached them, pushing their discussion to a later date.

[shouldaspunastory]

The Muses: Marina Amell

Marina spent most of her life in Ferelden's Circle. Though somewhat sheltered and naive to the ways of the world beyond Kinloch Hold, she is possessed and guided by an innate certainty of right and wrong. This, and well-earned praise of both her magical talents and character from First Enchanter Irving, were what convinced Duncan she would make an excellent recruit.

[World State One]

Game decisions/deviations

Companions: Recruited all, Returned Sten's sword, acquired the Grimoire peacefully, Had Majorlaine killed, Helped Alistair find Goldana, Explored Cadash Taig with Shale, Found Wynne's old apprentice, Alistair remained with Marina & the Gray Wardens, Did not complete Morrigan's Dark Ritual

Broken Circle: Supported the mages, Irving survived, did not agree with Cullen's request

Nature of the Beast: Brokered peace, Brought Cammen & Gheyna together, Saved the Halla, Didn't tell Athras wife's fate, Found Ironbark for Varathorn, Returned Deygan to camp

Paragon of her Kind: Defeated Branka, Dagna left to study, Helped Orta join the Assembly, Killed Ruck said he died heroically, Proved Legion of the Dead had noble connections, Helped Zerlinda reconcile with family, Returned tome to Shaparate, Bhelen rules Orzammar

Warden's Keep: Slayed Sophia, Allowed Avernus to continue ethical experiments.

Denerim: Ser Landry lives, Told Bann Sighard about Oswyn, Brought scrolls to Sister Justine, Helped clear out the Pearl, Handled the Crimson Oars, Gave Alfstanna her brother Immeric's ring, Returned Amulet to beggar in Alienage

Redcliffe: Helped Redcliffe prepare & fight, Freed Bevin & returned sword, Helped Owen's daughter escape, Conor alive & not possessed, Isolde alive, Bella left to start a brewery

Urn of Sacred Ashes: not poisoned

Landsmeet: Alistair executed Loghain, Queen Anora rules

Battle of Denerim: Marina took the killing blow, survived (miscarried).

Relationships

Alistair Theirin - Lover, Husband Morrigan- friendly Sten- neutral Zevran- friendly Leliana- friends Shale- friendly Wynne- friends Oghren- neutral Loghain- enemies

Basic Information

Full name: Marina Amell

Pronouns: she/her

Aliases: Sometimes uses her sister Leandra's name when she needs to travel under the radar.

Title: Hero of Ferelden, Commander of the Grey

Occupation: Grey Warden

Date of Birth: 16th of Justinian

Orientation: Demisexual

Libido: Moderate with those she's in love with

Religion: Largely Agnostic

Threat level: 7/10, incredibly intelligent/quick-thinking, stubborn, dangerous when angered

Physical Information

Face claim: Gaia Weiss

Height: 5 ft, 8 in.

Eye color: blue

Hair color + style: Blonde, long, often pulled back in a braid(s)

Dominant hand: left

Distinguishing features: Has a birthmark that vaguely resembles a bird on the inside of her wrist

Accent + intensity: Ferelden, mild

Tattoos: A rose on her ankle, done by Zevran

Scar(s): Scratches on her right shoulder from a fear demon that snuck up on her, a few others from various encounters with Darkspawn. (Various others during and post DAI)

Piercing(s): none

Glasses: none

Background Information

Hometown: Kirkwall

Current residence: Ferelden

Language(s): King's Tongue, can read some Orlesian

Social class: Middle

Education: Ferelden Circle

Parents: Aristide Amell & Bethann Walker

Siblings: Leandra & Gamlen Amell

Pets: Bones (Mabari)

Adopted?: No, but First Enchanter Irving became and Wynne both became something of psuedo-parents to during her time in the Circle.

Personality Information

Jung type: INFJ, "The Counselor"

Archetype: The Chosen One

Enneatype: One, The Reformer

Moral alignment: Lawful Good

Temperment: Composed

Intelligence type: Logical

Neurodivergence(s): N/A

At risk: Tainted after joining Gray Wardens

Vices & Habits

Smokes? No

Drinks? Rarely

Drugs? No

Violent? When necessary

Addicition(s)? None

Self-Destructive? No

Hobbies: Experimenting with new magical skills/schools

Likes: tea, sunrises, music

Dislikes: injustice, unnecessary violence, beer

Tic(s): worries inside of her bottom lip when nervous or deep in thought

Miscellaneous Information

Zodiac: Toth

Vice: Arrogance

Virtue: Ethically/Morally driven

Element: Ice & Earth

Mythological creature: Griffon

Animal: Cat (Shape-shifting)

Mutation: Tainted

[crosaidi]

[   CARRD  | MEME TAG  | HEADCANONS | CHAR SHEET ]

—— #CROSAIDI.  by  rowan  (  30+,  he/him) . CRUSADER. independent  and  selective  original character.  medieval fantasy based but verse  flexible  (  dragon age, baldur's  gate  3, modern, general  fantasy,  game  of  thrones,  wheel  of  time,  divinity, dragon's dogma, etc  ).

[ PAERIN RIVERWIND. ] paladin. warden. half-elven. apostate. crusader without a crusade. a study in: falling and picking yourself back up again and again and again. fuck the gods. survivor's guilt. denying your roots and being anchored by them anyway.

affiliated with: @f4rgd traveling companions / mains ! @feuerwizard + @deathswcrn + @littlehoundthings + @mythlike

current brainrot verses: baldur's gate 3 & dragon age : verse tldr under cut.

quick stats for bg3 / dnd: half-elf (wood elf) oath of vengeance paladin. largely lawful neutral. assumes good playthough by default. mixed development and canon. tav or companion verse, happy to write with other pc/tavs, default to companion when writing w/tavs. quick stats for dragon age: grey warden, recruited during the fifth blight. companion in all verses. not the hero of ferelden, hawke, or the inquisitor. verse notes link! FOR VEILGUARD: rook or companion verses available, verse notes here.

[savingthrcw]

Neria Surana, elf mage and Grey Warden, canon divergent. promo by @ part of my multimuse.

"(...) she's the type of person who has night terrors, next day gets out of her convertible, walks into her therapist's study with Starbucks, sunglasses and 'fam, you wouldn't believe the night I've had'. Then she has an anger attack mid-session. Later will go shopping with the girls (that includes Dog). Hoodie says 'fight the power!'. Might dye her hair pink and call it a spiritual change, she's back to red by next week. Like that, but in Ferelden." Wanted connections: Dragon Age characters (including other Heroes of Ferelden, she has a follower verse too), especially those who appear in DAO. Other characters who can interact with her without changing her backstory. With a touch of: all-loving hero // family of choice // I just want(ed) to be free // calculative cutie // trying to be reasonable and cheerful but will beat you up if you try her // "I thought Irving was my mage-dad and I brainwashed myself into loyalty to the Circle but he's not and now I'm really mad and embarrassed about it // Hate the System // going back to a previous save

Info in my pinned post!

[rock-teh-elf]

AFTER OBSESSINGLY STUDYING THE DRAGON AGE TIME LINE !! Here is my (MOSTLY) canon timeline

Dragon 9:06 Gavin hawke is born

Dragon 9:11 Anya surana is born

Dragon 9:16 Circe Trevelyan is born

Dragon 9:19 Trevelyan twins are born

Dragon 9:21 Lysander Trevelyan is born

Dragon 9:29 Lysander gets sent off to the circle

Dragon 9:30 begining of dao

Dragon 9:31 battle of denerim/ the circle of starkhaven burns down, Lysander is relocated to Kirkwall/beginning of da2

Dragon 9:33 the hero of ferelden goes missing

Dragon 9:34 Circe attends a university at orlais/Trevelyan twins are sent off to begin templar training

Dragon 9:37 mage rebellion begins/ Lysander goes missing

Dragon 9:40 conclave/end of da2

Dragon 9:41 end of inquisition

Dragon 9:44 trespasser

Also character ages !!!

Circe Trevelyan: 26 (dai)

Lysander Trevelyan: 21 (dai)

Trevelyan twins: 23 (dai)

Anya: 19 (dao) 30 (dai)

Gavin: 25 (da2) 36 (dai)