#Cullen & Samson

[abyssal-ilk]

replaying dao and da2 will really make you think damn. sure wish samson was my advisor in dai! why is cullen here.

[chernychnyi]

templar shitpost

[nirikeehan]

How about 16: a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate

How about this bit from the World of Thedas, Part Two? Which heavily implies that when Samson was thrown out of the Templars, Cullen wrote an impassioned plea to Meredith to try to get the decision appealed, only for her to totally shoot him down. And then that Samson and Cullen were in contact afterward, Samson trying to get Cullen to smuggle him some lyrium, and Cullen sent him money instead.

I know Cullen isn't named here, but there's no other established Knight-Captain in Kirkwall during the DA2 timeline, and Cullen is the only character to admit knowing and liking Samson while he was still a Templar. I have written a lot about Samson and Cullen's friendship in Kirkwall, and this bit makes me happy that I'm probably not just inventing it wholesale. I also love the implication that Cullen might have caved and given Samson more lyrium if it hadn't been for fear of reprisal from Meredith. A smart move on his part, but it makes their falling out all the more fraught. Were there times in their past when Cullen was enabling Samson's worse behavior, and vice versa? Cullen's anger at Samson in Inquisition always felt to me like he was projecting a lot of his own self-loathing onto his former friend. So many juicy connotations.

Fandom asks here!

[notebooks-and-laptops]

I love my da2 companions. I love how every single one of them is a refugee of some sort, apart from Varric (but he will be by the end). I love how they're all stuck in Kirkwall because they needed to escape, or because they got lost, or because they just can't leave. I love how this is mirrored in the bad guys, how the Arishok wants to leave but can't, how Samson has been kicked out of the circle, how Cullen is running from Ferelden. I love how all the companions are seeking freedom but they've also lost so much. I love the overarching themes this creates. I love da2. I love the da2 companions. You can make this shitty city your home, but you can never go back to where/who you were before.

[literallybyronic]

egg kryptonite.

[princessstabbity]

The better best Red Templar AU. :D 

bigger render here

[daisymeade]

Cullen and his dog kicking in Samson's cell door: "GET UP, WE HAVE TO KILL MEREDITH."

Samson: "Did the lyrium withdrawal fuck your head worse? She's dead."

Cullen: "No, somehow Meredith is back. Now get your sorry ass up."

[theluckywizard]

Thirst

Art from World of Thedas Vol. 2

Summary: Commander Cullen Rutherford has had a shit few weeks. Headaches, tremors and memories dog him. His romantic hopes have crumbled. His blood feels empty and thin. With so many cares weighing upon him he's been wondering if he's still fit to serve, if he ever was. He should resign, shouldn't he? But perhaps it's not that complicated. Perhaps he's just one bottle of blue away from feeling right after all.

WC: 6,434

Relationships: Cullen & Samson, Cullen & Meredith, Cullen & Blackwall, Cullen & Rylen, Cullen & Rose Trevelyan Companion fic to Chapter 68 of my long fic In the Shattering of Things, though it is self-contained!

Excerpt below the cut: 👇

Standing across from Meredith in the sliver of piercing daylight that reflects off the bay through her narrow window, Cullen feels that same nervous itch behind his ears that’s hounded him lately. She levels a frosty gaze, handing Cullen an unexpected philter. He’d already had his customary dose this morning.

“An extra ration from now on. I need you sharp.”

She needs him. That much he knows. When Meredith’s darkest impulses reign and entire swathes of the ranks bristle at her intensifying rhetoric, the templars need to know there is still justice and temperance within the leadership. But Cullen could still reason with her and there is solace in that for those who fear her.

Cullen rolls the vial in his hand, its power a soft, cerulean incandescence. Doubling his lyrium intake is an odd move. The supply has been tight enough as it is. He wonders if he’d crossed her somehow, or whether she finds his performance substandard. The extra lyrium would calm his doubts and trivialize rest. It would make him feel bigger inside his skin. And oh how it would sing, sing like he could run on that melody forever.

He fails to hide his expression, his lips pressing into a thin doubtful line.

“You will do this for the Order,” she says evenly. Doubtlessly.

“Of course, Knight Commander,” he answers, stiff in his compliance.

Meredith eyes him expectantly. Cullen uncorks the extra ration and drinks it down. It quenches something he didn’t even know was there.

“Good,” she says. “Sister Batilde will administer the new dose each morning with the others.”

Cullen has been preparing his own philters for years from a preportioned jar of powdered lyrium that lasted a week at a stretch. He grasps blindly, wondering how he’d earned such mistrust. Earlier in the week she’d reassigned two tranquil smiths, Maddox and Pier, to an unspecified project. She’d casually shut him down when he inquired about their return to regular duties. His curiosity simmered atop a deepening pot of anxiety. And then the lyrium quieted it as it settled in his blood.

“Thank you, Knight Commander.”

Read the rest here

@warpedlegacy | @rakshadow | @rosella-writes | @effelants | @bluewren | @breninarthur | @ar-lath-ma-cully | @dreadfutures | @ir0n-angel | @inquisimer | @crackinglamb | @nirikeehan | @oxygenforthewicked | @about2dance | @exalted-dawn-drabbles | @melisusthewee | @blarrghe | @agentkatie | @delicatefade | @leggywillow

[plisuu]

Samson being a bad influence on Cullen in Kirkwall? Impossible!

Drawn for the 2023 Templartations exchange :)

[chernychnyi]

knight-commander's unfortunate personal life

[nullphysics]

[abyssal-ilk]

someone reblogged my samson and cullen post saying that i played the da games without reading anything and just filled in the blanks with what i wish was there instead and then blocked me so. ok why are we being rude about this. i was being silly. can't say shit on the internet ig

[mightymizora]

Unfortunately for everybody writing about Samson has me thinking about the relationship between Cullen and Samson again

[daitranscripts]

Cullen Cutscene

Samson's Fate

Cullen Masterpost Related: Skyhold Sit in Judgement

The PC enters Cullen’s office to find him throwing knives at a training dummy.

Cullen: (Sighs.)

Cullen: Samson took everything from those templars. He corrupted their souls, twisted them into everything they stood against. Everything they would have hated.

He walks to his desk.

Dialogue options:

General: I feel sorry for them. [1]

General: He got to you. [2]

General: We can’t change that. [3]

1 - General: I feel sorry for them. PC: I know the red templars fight for Corypheus, but I feel sorry for them. Cullen: They’re barely human anymore.

2 - General: He got to you. PC: You’re letting Samson get to you. Cullen: And what if I am?

3 - General: We can’t change that. PC: There’s nothing we can do for them now. Cullen: I’m well aware of that.

4 - Scene continues.

Cullen: The red lyrium left Samson’s mind unaltered. He knew what he was doing. He dares speak as if it were a mercy? The man’s a monster.

Cullen (Samson serves the Inquisition): I pray his information is useful. His life is good for little else. Cullen (Samson given to Kirkwall): I sent word to Kirkwall. Samson will pay for his crimes there. I’m sure of it. Cullen (Samson imprisoned): Our dungeon was too generous an option. At least he’s out of my sight. Cullen (Samson given to Dagna): Dagna is far too kind a jailor for the likes of him. Cullen (Samson exiled): Will he feel any remorse before the woods take him?

Dialogue options:

General: It’s over. Let it go. [5]

General: No sympathy, then? [6]

General: Justice was served. [7]

5 - General: It’s over. Let it go. PC: Samson is everything you say, but it’s over. You have to let this go. Cullen: Over for us, perhaps. For Samson. Not for those still controlled by Corypheus.

6 - General: No sympathy, then? PC; You knew Samson. You don’t feel even a little sympathy for him? Cullen: I may have once. But after what he’s done… My sympathies lie with those he betrayed. They will extend no further.

7 - General: Justice was served. PC: Samson got what he deserved. Cullen: The man and women he betrayed—they deserved something better. Samson deserves nothing.

8 - Scene continues.

The red templars needed to be torn down. We’ve broken Corypheus’s army. I might have known some of them. If my life had gone differently—I might have been one of them.

He pauses.

Cullen: Do you ever wonder what would have happened if you had not been at the Conclave? If you’d never become the Inquisitor?

Dialogue options:

Flirt: If we’d never met? [9]

General: I’d have joined anyway. [10]

General: No way. You people need me. [11]

General: My life would be simpler. [12]

General: I don’t care about what-ifs. [13]

9 - Flirt: If we’d never met? PC: A life without you? Never. They exchange long looks, and the PC leaves. Scene ends.

10 - General: I’d have joined anyway. PC: I’d still ne here. Well, maybe not here. But I’d be down in the barracks with the other volunteers. I couldn’t just sit idle. Cullen: No, I don’t imagine you could. The PC leaves. Scene ends.

11 - General: No way. You people need me. PC: Please. The Inquisition would be lost without me. Cullen: Then perhaps it’s best not to consider the alternative. PC: My thoughts exactly. The PC leaves. Scene ends.

12 - General: My life would be simpler. PC: Sometimes. My life would be less complicated. Less dangerous. Cullen: Or it could have been worse.

Cullen (continued lyrium): People’s lives aren’t simple or safe anymore. It’s been far too long since they were. Cullen (quit lyrium): There would still be chaos and—that was meant to sound comforting. And I can see how it wouldn’t. At all.

Cullen: You’ve led us this far. many owe you their lives. Whether or not the Maker sent you, you were needed here. The PC leaves. Scene ends.

13 - General: I don’t care about what-ifs. PC: Why would I care about what might have been? I’m here now. Cullen: And Corypheus is still out there. PC: Until we stop him, yes. The PC leaves. Scene ends.

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

Okay so: Izuku as Inquisitor.

We keep everything from the last post. Izuku is actually the child of Solas and fake Mythal, the gods are actually not the Evanuris who pretend to be, Solas worshiped as Fen’Harel is a god now as unlike the fakes he is the only one. Izuku and his friends leave their world because society has just kept going and nothing changed.

But this time they get to Thedas before the explosion, and Izuku makes it his mission to bug his father about not going through with it. He ignores it, and argues back. It ends up coming to be Izuku runs to try and stop the Temple from blowing up but can't.

No instead he's now the Herald of Andraste and like… Izuku has ALREADY pulled together a country and fought in a war. Sure he came to Thedas knowing he might need to kill his birth father, but for the LOVE of THE GODS, are you joking?

His friends laugh at him and he is Problem Child Forever.

Now he's got to run this stupid organization.

He hates it so much.

Izuku does his best though. He tries to be a fair person while also shoving his father’s face into the changes of the world.

I do think he'd be slower to confess the truth of him being from another world here. He would eventually do so because he has to. (he would not continue to lie to those who have bled for him).

Solas instantly runs with the narrative he was trying to find his son since he went missing, and Izuku just is angry he's not doing anything but he won't rat out his dad. Not unless he has to.

I think there would be a lot of confusion and a lot of eye opening but everyone accepts it. They even accept Nezu who is thrilled he gets to walk around like normal without the cloak. They figure out someway to make it acceptable to others (AKA Cole messes with their minds to make them accept it).

Izuku would just be the kindest Herald/Inquisitor to those in need while also RIPPING apart Orlais and Ferelden and everything he can.

“This is BULLSHIT,” he says at the Winter Ball before he goes off and blackmails Celene and Gaspard while handing over everything he has to Briala so she can rule through them.

“I fucking HATE this,” he grumbles when he's dealing with Nobles. Ugh.

(Aizawa hates dealing with Fereldens and their dogs)

I'm also gonna talk about the others to:

Yaomomo is a fucking Goddess who helps Josie. I also am saying she ends up with Dagna and when Sera joins in (encouraged by Ochako) chaos reigns. When the secrets are out, Dagna and Harrit basically beg for all the help. Sadly she can't make the more fantastical elements but steel? Wood? She can. Silks to.

(she takes over the entire winter ball cause those are ugly as hell uniforms)

Aizawa works as an advisor and helps spread rumours when he can. He'll slip out and lurk in corners being a ‘drunk’ while picking up info. Also he's trans and upon learning Krem is goes: same.

They then proceed to spread rumours Solas and Aizawa are Eri’s parents for the hilarity.

But yeah Aizawa is his grumpy self.

Midnight I am 100% pairing with Blackwall and she susses out the truth early. Convinces him to confess but work to rebuild. He regrets what he's done it's obvious. And frankly, look at the Templars and their abuses. Yes what he did is horrific but he does better training people to fight back and defending the weak. She and Blackwall now run a minor training boot camp for the ambush fighters.

Nezu is Nezu and happily plots with Leliana who delights in her new friend. Perhaps he is the one to help her back into the light to.

Hitoshi works with Josie as an assistant and she finds he is just as good as her at reading people. I already mentioned how she gets him losing her voice differently then the others. Hitoshi isn't just his Quirk and his ability to speak and manipulate are things she gets. It's very adorable.

Tenya and Shouto work as inner circle folks and help Izuku. They also run around as his messengers and as intimidation because Izuku is still damn short and knows it's cause he's an elf.

Ochako? Ochako is inner circle and causing CHAOS as much as she can. Her quirk is so good with bombs and weapons and getting into position on a roof. She is the ‘DEATH FROM ABOVE’ Queen. Sera loves her so much.

Eri of course is being cute but she's also being portrayed as Izuku’s sister which gets attention. Luckily she has Cole around who will stab. She also works with the doctors and when her secret comes out uses her powers. Carefully, oh so carefully with Cole right by her side. Just in case.

I think romances would stay the same. Bull/Aizawa, Tenya/Shouto, Izuku/Dorian, Ochako/Sera and all that to. It's just like… as Inquisitor Izuku is more involved and more willing to dig down roots. He doesn't get a choice. It's not just murder your dad and fuck off. No it's serious. He has to build firm bonds with these people.

Here he sits down and listens to Vivienne more, tries to understand Cassandra’s faith. He sits with Cullen and they work through the bullshit he has internalized (I run with an AU Cullen in my head because otherwise I could not get through the game and my head version actually admits his faults). He talks with Sera and learns of Pride Cookies. He sits with Bull who fears madness (but will never regret saving his men). He holds Blackwall’s hands and say he is a good man. He stands by Dorian, facing down a monster who hid behind kindness. He helps Cole learn who he is. He sits with Varric as he tells stories and tells his own, eventually being hugged by a man who thought he'd lose his friend. (Izuku wouldn't let it happen. No, not when Iida can run faster then anyone else, can cause a distraction so that they all get free. No never. Hawke and Alistair live, both of them)

Izuku is himself and shines so brightly. And the others want to shine to. Vivienne still believes in the circles but now thinks of a school system like the ones from their world. Cassandra believes but also knows that the ashes of corruption can linger so it is best to be careful. Cullen begins making amends more and more (a letter sent to a mage who makes her partner read it, the Antivan elf carefully speaking the apology from within, the mages harmed in Kirkwall, Templars so scared of him dropping to their knees in shock). Sera who learns to bake. Bull who figures out he is not a monster. Dorian, who does not speak well of slavery but speaks against it, plotting to tear down Tevinter with his bare hands. Cole who stays both human and spirit and is all the better. Varric who laughs and smiles like he once had.

And what of Izuku’s friends?

Tenya and Shouto who lost everything (Tensei choking on his own blood after refusing to give up valuable intel. Fuyumi blowing herself up with Dabi to beat him. Natsuo dying trying to protect Rei who died to. Endeavour still around with NOTHING changing) being happy again. Laughing and getting married with everyone they love there.

Ochako who lost an arm and refused to back down, who lost Tsu and mourns her so badly. Who nearly was killed because her naivety over Toga’s manipulation almost cost her life.

Hitoshi who lost his voice and only got pity, no help. Now he's regained it in a way, working with his wife who loves him dearly to be able to be the diplomat he was born to be. (and who makes it stylish to learn sign language)

Momo who is burned and hurt. Whose girlfriend left because they could not keep up, she's to much. Who was taught to keep her head down. She's creating things again. Laughing and smiling. Is kissing someone oh so sweet who has the same mind.

Midnight who lost her sex appeal and caused people to toss her aside. Acting like she's not human anymore. She's now happy with a man who ADORES her and all she is. She's smiling again.

Nezu who has tried over and over again to change the world. He now has in his paws the chance to help and make a difference. Who joins the Chantry when Leliana is Divine and helps shake things up. He's happy.

Aizawa who lost his husband and mourned so deeply. Who felt useless and broken. He has a purpose. He's working to help others, has a man who helps with aches and pains, who loves and accepts him.

Eri who was a lab rat and who had to learn to smile. Her smiles are bigger and wider here, her laugh echoing in her joy.

Izuku did this. He brought about change and happiness. He feels good.

He still hates Orlais.

@dark-elf-writes the second option if you want!

[lavellanvibes]

Extremely proud to drop my first fanfic in almost a year. Please mind the tags, I wanted this one spicy.

❤️‍🔥Read Anointed, a Samson and Inquisitor one-shot. ❤️‍🔥