#I'll have to edit my lore post because this makes everything worse than what I thought it was

[lizzybeeee]

THE ENTIRE DRAGON AGE AMA IS A DUMPSTER FIRE

They avoided all the high-rated questions with genuine criticism (not blind hate!) and went for questions that were safer and allowed them more leeway. After that awful IGN article and that treatment of Davrin...God, just put it down. I have no faith that BioWare will be able to continue Dragon Age or Mass Effect with the respect it deserves.

Edit - They had an opportunity for genuine discussion with fans who were concerned/unhappy with the way Veilguard was -> people unhappy with the story, the marketing, the lack of 'RP' options in an RPG, etc... Instead they just doubled-down even more, avoiding those critical questions, with no real acknowledgement that fans have very reasonable problems with this game.

Some Highlights & My Initial Ramblings Below:

The Executors

"They attempt to manipulate events in the most subtle way they can manage."

So, very clear that they're not simply observers of what is happening in Thedas: they're manipulators...

"Magical Illuminati Confirmed! Lizard People Did 9:30 Dragon!!!!"

All that complexity of character -> his hatred of Orlais, his experience as a general, his relationship with Cailain, and the influence of Howe...all diminished. Any influence from a shadow cabal is too much influence - all the humanity of Loghain's choices/consequences...God, what a waste.

Not to mention what this does to other events/characters in the series -> they imply they've been intervening as far back as the magisters breaking into the golden city. I do not find this compelling! At all!

2. Solas and the Executors

Oh my god, he sounds like such a fucking Mary-Sue I'm so sick of Solas at this point -> "Actually, I know more about the Executors than anyone alive - not even the rest of the Gods know as much as me."

("I'm also, like, an Ancient Elven God, I'm responsible for the Blight and the Veil, and I kind of locked the Gods away cause they were evil - but, like, I'm really sad about it. Also the Herald of Andraste thinks I'm cute <3")

<- Previous comments: massive oversimplification, obviously

But I miss the days when not everything was about Solas. It removes so much interest and wonder in this world when the fucking egg is behind it all. I loved him as a character in DAI and now I just feel this bone deep tiredness when I see his stupid face.

Don't you dare threaten to bring Gareth David-Lloyd back -> keep him away from this mess!

3. The Fate of the Rest of the Evanuris

Yay. I'm so looking forwards to "The Return of the Elves: Electric Boogaloo 2" - it was done so well the first time!

"It was the elves all along!"

The only character with any potential to be interesting is Andruil*, but how they handled all this lore was done so shallowly and so poorly that I find it hard to give a damn anymore. Not to mention that the game literally mentions Ghilan'nain mourning Andruil - so is this a retcon/redirection/or have you confirmed that one of the most interesting members of the Evanuris' is dead?

*interesting in that she's established in lore to potentially have a tonne of really cool things attached to her (the void armour, the great weapon she has etc...). The rest of the evanuris are nowhere near as well established as she is.

4. Southern Thedas, Sociopolitical Issues, and Future Games

NOW YOU WANT TO INCORPORATE GEO-POLITCAL EXPLORATION?? You avoided any meaningful discussion like the plague in DATV but now you're acknowledging it?? OkaY. okAy.

They couldn't even give us the long-term ramifications of the mage/templar war how the hell am I supposed to believe that they will be able to pull off 'elven gods are real' etc...? For a game series that totes : your choices matter -> they have not proven that they have been able to show that in a meaningful way. They literally cleaned the slate with this game to avoid doing that.

So, what, does that mean that the Veil is never going to come down now? Or are you going to have the entirety of Thedas build themselves up again just to have the Veil fall and send things into chaos once more?

What a fatalistic, miserable outcome for Thedas -> why the fuck would anyone bother to live in Thedas if you're going to keep throwing meteorites at them? By all means, change/conflict has to happen for the series to move forwards...but this is just so miserable at this point.

(The Elder Scrolls, at least, gives people room to breathe between crisis' or sets them up in different areas of the world! Bethesda treats past installments/your decisions with greater respect than DATV does.)

Even, then, if the Veil remains up, that means that the spirits are just trapped in the Fade being miserable for the rest of existence. The entire series has been humanizing spirits, from Justice to Cole, and now they're just throwing in the towel? I guess they can stay in the fade now! Problem solved!

What do you mean the Evanuris are not a threat anymore? IN A PREVIOUS QUESTION YOU LITERALLY SAID SOME ARE STILL POTENTIALLY KICKING AROUND THE BLACK CITY?

Weakened, sure, but Solas was 'weak' in DAI. You're giving yourself an out if you decide to go back to the elves again. Please do, I'd love more content on how the elves alone fuck everything up!

5. More Southern Thedas, the Chantry, and Tevinter

Thanks for the confirmation that things in the South are so fucked up that they have to work alongside the 'Slave Capital' of the known world to rebuild!

Slavery was one of the biggest things that caused a rift between the north/south chantry system -> one of the reasons why there were exalted marches -> a uniting belief in the south is that slavery is fucked. They didn't address slavery in DATV - what hopes are there that they will do so effectively in a future game?

Don't tell me that Dorian fixes everything off screen either -> either he solves slavery off-screen or the south is being forced to work the slaver-capitol because their land is nuked and they have no ground to stand on.

I'm so thrilled.

6. Solas and the Idol / The Blight

I will never get over Solas fucking curing the Blight off-screen and no one asking questions/giving a shit. Hello?? The Hero of Ferelden would like a word with you???

So the Blight is calcified in Minrathous, at least, but everywhere further away is still fucked! Once more, the South is doomed to suffer from the long-term effects that regular blights have -> not to mention the red lyrium (which still exists according to the AMA) across the south.

I don't care; it's lame. It's a lame way to conclude the blight and I hate it. This game did not earn 'cure the blight from thedas' at all. You could have had us learn how to soothe a titan and see how that can diminish the blight but you did it this way.

Another 'magical ritual' because Solas has such a good track record with them lmao.

7. The Agents of Fen'Harel / The War with the Qun / The Crows

Turned him against the idea of being a leader???!!

Fen'harel's Call to the Elven People After the events at the Winter Palace, elves left the Inquisition under mysterious circumstances, as did elven servants across Thedas. None could say where they went, but those who believed the Inquisitor's story about Fen'Harel wondered just how large the Dread Wolf's forces were... and what the ancient elven rebel had planned. This is from the Trespasser Epilogue, Epler!

Your concept art for Joplin literally had him as a leader of a faction of elves. Just be honest that it's a retcon and you changed course - don't try to save face with this reasoning.

About the Antaam: "We needed some big mindless bad guys to fight and so we did this because we didn't want to address the Qunari War/Invasion we set up in Trespasser".

You had to canonize Sten as being alive and Arishok in order for this reasoning to work -> you didn't even come up with an alternative Arishok to take Sten's place.

Yeah, the exchange that set up the Crows we see in the game as "idealists" did not make the game. I can confirm that!

I'm sorry, "Caterina kept Illario in check?" as in, 'kept him an idealist and not the usual Crow'? The woman that beat him with a cane and starved him and his cousin to train them as Crows. Fuck off.

lmao -> tell me you're coming up with this on the spot without telling me that you're coming up with this on the spot.

8. World State Discrepancies - Isabela

Outright ignores the very real criticism about the marketing from this game and World States.

"there are absolutely places where we unintentionally suggested there was a hard canon (...that Isabela is always assumed to have joined Hawke's party.)"

Unintentional?

Excuse me, you have her talk about Merrill and the Kirkwall Crew as family - that was not unintentional in the slightest. Not to mention Sten, Blackwall, Sera, and Cole are canonized as being part of your world state no matter what.

You had a story you wanted to tell - one that only fit a few world states - and you went ahead with it and disregarded those choices. Don't try and lie about this all being a big misunderstanding.

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Edit - They could have taken the opportunity to address the very reasonable criticisms that people had with this game but they cherry-picked questions and avoided/minimized anything remotely critical.

They could have provided us some insight into the game development time but each time they approached the topic they settled for "we're happy with what we delivered and it was well optimized."

They had an opportunity to acknowledge that people were bothered by the handling of the lore/stories (to potentially mention they could course-correct/ rethink their plans) but instead they doubled down on everything that they did and even 'justified' some decisions. They doubled down on the Executors, Solas's changing motivations, the destruction of Southern Thedas, and the elves/Solas being at the heart of everything etc...

This AMA basically confirmed that the only reason they did what they did to the south was for a reset -> It's not a compelling or fulfilling narrative to have everything we've done reset back to ground zero off-screen. BioWare games differentiate themselves from other RPG's by their import system from previous games - it was compelling and exciting! With DATV they set the expectation that BioWare can outright throw out entire games worth of choices/build up, not solely retcon them.

Justifying your choice to water down the lore/world of your story by saying you'll address it in the 'next game' does not instill me with confidence, BioWare! It doesn't explain that lack of it in this game either!

They avoided every question that, rightfully so, pointed out the misleading comments made by devs in the pre-order period of the game:

the fact that there were only 3 imported choices from previous games was leaked by a reviewer -> BioWare was vague from the start about choices

that this game was the most 'romantic' in the series

that world states/ headcanons wouldn't be disrespected

that there are 'lore' reasons for bad darkspawn design

that there are lasting, impactful choices/consequences to be made in this game

that the lore/world was not watered or toned down

that companions are deep and you can disagree with them etc...

BioWare's behavior towards their customers in the lead up period to this games release was downright scummy. I absolutely felt misled after playing the game for myself and recalling what I read in interviews put out. While EA is undoubtedly poison, you can't hold them solely accountable for this.

I feel for the individual developers who worked on this in what was undoubtedly a toxic environment from EA - but I feel that it's pretty clear that BioWare itself has a lot of problems within and in their leadership/executives. Working for EA does not give them an excuse to mislead their customers.

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I already had a very grim outlook on the franchise from the end of DATV but this literally look my interest out the back and sent it to God. What a disaster.

[basket-of-cats-and-witches]

Dragon Age OCs

This will be an extensive post so obviously I'm going to put it under a read more and also tag it with spoilers... because not everyone has finished Veilguard!

That being said, I've put everything in order of most recent game to the earliest, that way if you're only interested in what weird shit I'm cooking for Veilguard, it'll be right there at the top.

EDIT: this got long. This post is Veilguard only. I'll put Origins and Dragon Age 2 in a different one.

This is mostly for my own personal reference as I continue to write banter and fanfiction, but I like posting it where people can see it if they get curious. This is all subject to change, as OCs can (and should) change as their writers do. That's progress and growth, babey.

Maybe someday I'll even include screenshots of my OCs. Dragon Age Origins my crusty beloved.

Don't care about this post but you're curious about the OC template I made? Just scroll to the bottom of the post!

Anyways, onto OC rambling!

Veilguard

Lanalath De Riva (he/they)

My currently canon playthrough. Not my current playthrough, just my canon Rook atm. This might change with time.

🐦‍⬛Stats🐦‍⬛

Age: 29

Race: Elf, non-Dalish

Faction: Antivan Crows my beloved

Class: Sword and Orb mage.

Specialization: Spellblade, lightning and fire focused. This was nuts to run, and I did it by accident.

Romance: Lucanis the disaster that you are

Birthplace: Seheron

Brief backstory:

Ngl this one was a hassle to work out. Originally Lana was a Lords of Fortune named Monarch, only I did a full playthrough and then realized Lana fit the Crows far better. And then I changed their entire backstory bc it no longer fit 😭

So Lana is, as you read, from Seheron originally. This is partially due to The Iron Bull's influence, I hyperfixated pretty hard during Inquisition.

Lana's one of many in that shitshow of a war-torn nation, probably made exceptionally worse now that the Antaam's separated from the Qun. Bioware give us more world politics and lore.

Their story is pretty straight to the point, and very DA2 and DAO inspired. In the endless war between Tevinter and the Qunari, some magister decided that a feral elf child from Seheron would make an excellent gift, and kidnapped them. Lana (a la Anders vibes) stubbornly refused to give their birthname, and was renamed by another elven slave aboard the ship.

This slaver ship got sunk before it could make it to port, and Lana was one of the ones that survived.

Through sheer luck, they made it to Antiva, and barely scraping by, made it to sixteen years of age.

And then a young Viago fell out of a window directly on top of them trying to escape someone inevitably trying to kill him, and a friendship was formed.

Lana stayed glued to his side since then, being his loyal shadow, until the Crows gave up trying to separate the two and just recruited Lana instead.

Viago's "canonically" (via datamined information) 32ish, so there's only a three year difference, making them have an incredibly strong rapport.

As a result of their childhood, Lana speaks fluent Qunlat and Antivan, and a handful of Tevene. This means the Crows send them to deal with the Antaam when needs must.

What happens if Lana doesn't become Rook/doesn't romance Lucanis:

It takes an incredibly long time, but Teia and Viago eventually get Lana into their bed (and into their hearts). Lana remains Viago's shadow, and helps Taash guide those who choose to split from the Antaam into better lives. Also helps deal with the sudden influx of Tal-Vashoth in Antiva. Even after the Antaam, you know population statistics are going to drastically change.

Other OCs Lana knows: Kaarash-Taar (later documented), Ghil'danan (later documented), Wren (later documented), and Riesel (later documented).

Ghil'danan Ingellvar (he/him, ftm)

My favorite punching bag. Idk why I love traumatizing him specifically so much, but I do. I've written considerably more for him than I have my other OCs, and I'm almost done with my playthrough of him. And by almost I mean like. Post the two dragon fight.

🪲Stats🪲

Age: 32

Race: Elf, alienage

Faction: Mourn Watch! My favorite goths.

Class: Warrior, sword and shield

Specialization: Reaper. It made sense for Mourn Watch. Surprisingly, not my favorite, though the death tornado is cool.

Romance: Emmrich, my beloved. I keep wanting to spell it "Emmerich". Old classy goth x Grungepunk goth energy. Sorry, dad.

Birthplace: Denerim! *Rubs hands together evilly*

Backstory:

I'll...try and keep this one short. I've been hyperfixating on him lately so his stuff's gotten out of control.

Ghil was born in the Denerim alienage, pre-blight. Raised briefly by his mother, he wasn't born Ghil'danan, it was the name he took later on.

Ghil's father was out of the picture from the start. His mother shared stories of his father growing up, so he's aware neither of them wanted to part, but there was a lot of baggage and kids learn young not to press on things that make their parents cry later.

Fast forward to the events of DA:O.

Ghil is more or less raised with Shanni as a sort of sister figure. Events begin steamrolling, his mother is one of the elves sold to Tevinter by Loghain (when I catch you Loghain Loghain when I catch you), and he's witness to all the horror of The Wedding. Those of you who played City Elf origin know what I'm talking about.

Ghil develops a hatred of Shems (he gets better, but those scars run deep, and I don't blame him), and things get dicey with Shanni. I'm tiptoeing around it because origins was very direct with Shanni's alcoholism.

The blight hits, the Alienage gets overrun, and Ghil flees. He loses Shanni in the chaos, and gets temporarily picked up and thrown into a tree by the overhead Archdemon, therefore cementing his fear of dragons and heights.

He obviously survives the fall, and runs past a human girl pinned in place by an ogre that was killed by a piece of fallen rubble.

He hesitates. Remembers that his mother would have wanted him to be kind to those in need, and with a LOT of effort, saves the girl.

They flee the city together. He learns her name is Wren, an orphan. Ghil is twelve as of the fall of Denerim. Wren is seven.

I'm not gonna get into the more mary sue aspects of Ghil's personality, but needless to say, it turns out Wren has the blight, Ghil willingly makes a deal with a spirit to transfer his brand spanking new magic to her to postpone her blighted condition, and they make it into Nevarra by sneaking through the Orlesian border. This is not easy, but they're children so it's easy...er. Easier.

Mourn Watch goes "hey that's some interesting magic you've got there" and takes Wren in who's like "hey fuck you take my brother too" and they're like "these two are definitely not related but okay"

And then they attend schooling together, until a few years later when Wren's condition begins to worsen again, because it's the BLIGHT, and she gets recruited into the Wardens.

This is where Wren and Ghil's paths split. More later on Wren. For now, my punching bag.

With Ghil's genius, fierce sister out of the way, he gets bullied RELENTLESSLY. Ghil's a smart cookie, but his grades begin to drop and he fully introverts.

Then, Hezenkoss takes him in as her student. Sort of. He's technically her student, but moreso she wanted a henchman to narrate at, and he got stuck doing a lot of manual labor.

Hezenkoss gets him trained up as a Reaper, especially as he shoots up like a weed and becomes The Second Tallest Elf Ever (I'm looking at you, Halsin Baldurs Gate 3), and transitions. Hezenkoss doesn't notice. He's not her Archnemesis Emmrich, so she doesn't care.

She also doesn't notice when he anonymously tips off the Mourn Watch that she's up to shit. Someone had to be the whistleblower, that's all I'm saying.

And from there, he graduates into a proper member of the Mourn Watch.

After a chance encounter with Professor Volkarin in the Memorial Gardens (with the tissue box, a la Clue), Volkarin comforts a grieving eighteen year old who has incredibly complicated feelings about the death of Shanni and being completely alone in the Mourn Watch.

Volkarin is unaware that this not only revives passion in the Mourn Watch in the Youth (this is actually pre-transition, oops), but plants the seeds of a budding affection.

Ghil then spends the next fourteen years trying to forget his first crush, fails miserably, wrecks several relationships in the process, and changes completely by getting tattoos and pretty much only ever hanging out with the dead.

And Myrna and Vorgoth.

Then the events of the game happen, and oh no! Guess there are Still Feelings for Volkarin, and now Ghil is helpless to fall head over heels in a proper, adult love.

What happens if Ghil isn't Rook/doesn't romance Emmrich?:

Let's be honest. Ghil would always romance Emmrich. But in the course of "never became Rook and Emmrich old man yaoi'd with Strife", it's...hm. A bit sad.

Wren dies in the end (unless she's Rook). So Ghil fully closes off to the living, and spends the rest of his life with the dead. He still has a living friend in Lana, of course (to be explained in Wren's backstory), but that's the most of it. I'd like to hope that Ghil falls in love with someone else. Do I, the writer, think he will? No. Ghil has been spending fourteen years trying to fight his own heart. He's one of those people who wants to move on but just can't. It's the inherent tragedy of his life.

Where the hell is Ghil's dad in all this?:

He's one of the Greater Dead. Literally cannot leave the Necropolis, got the love of his life pregnant and kicked it. Ghil has no idea, and Etheldredd also has no idea that his child is a part of the Mourn Watch.

The Necropolis is vast. Maybe they'll find each other posthumously.

Other OCs Ghil knows:

Lana, Wren (to be documented, but also duh), Riesel (to be documented). Very vaguely Din, a HoF OC, because she was at The Wedding and lived in the same alienage.

Wren (she/they)

She's baby and I love her. Too bad I'm addicted to the inherent tragedy of the plot. I'm not goth for nothing.

🦅Stats🦅

Age: 27

Race: Human!

Faction: Grey Wardens, my favorite narrative punching bag. Or Bioware's, besides the elves.

Class: Mage, whackin' stick staff.

Specialization: Death Caller! I haven't played it yet but I plan to for her playthrough. Seemed appropriate.

Romance: Undecided. Maybe Bellara, because Neve's already planned for someone else and I managed to make Harding disapprove of me A LOT in the beginning of my Wren Run.

Taash is also definitely on the table. As I said, undecided.

Birthplace: Denerim! Same as Ghil.

Backstory:

The majority of Wren's early childhood can be referenced in Ghil's long-winded backstory. So this'll hopefully be shorter.

Wren was the illicit bastard of a Chantry sister and a Templar. Thus, she got dropped off on the orphanage's steps and summarily forgotten.

Despite this, Wren had a pretty happy childhood! Sure there was the occasional haunting and blood magic and slew of murders in Denerim, but that's pretty normal.

...right?

She knows who her father is, simply because his conscience is more guilty than her mother's. Her father stopped by to check up on the orphanage regularly on his circuit, and she often got cheap gifts from a father who was rarely there.

Still, she dreamed of being a Templar when she grew up.

Flash forward, Denerim, the Blight, everyone dies, and she finds a brother in Ghil'danan.

For a while, Wren remains one of the top students in the Mourn Watch. She grows up, attends lectures by Volkarin who becomes a mentor figure to her, and perfects her magecraft.

And then, her blight symptoms get worse.

Wren collapses on her way to class, and is found by a Grey Warden, who offers to recruit her and stay the Blight's hand a while longer.

She agrees. (This is where her particular backstory gets a fuckton of content warnings, so I'm going to keep it light. To be blunt, my OCs are often a dumping ground for trauma, and Wren got a lot of the heavier ones. Trigger warning for grooming and abuse. There'll be red text like this when trigger warnings are over.)

Wren is trained specifically by one Warden, the one who saved her. He's an older Weisshaupt veteran who's well-respected, and encourages her as she grows.

And when she turns eighteen, he tells her that due to her young age, it could reflect poorly on him that he made her do the Joining so young. He tells her that if she wants to remain a Grey Warden she'll marry him, and she owes him for it because he saves her life.

And for a few years, this works. She endures a very abusive relationship.

And then, Ghil finds out.

Because of her Warden husband's venerated status, he's hard to bring to justice, so Ghil just takes the swifter path.

He hires a Crow, a young one named Lana De Riva, and although they're reluctant when they find out it's a Warden that's the target, context for the hit makes them agree.

And together, they make it seem like an accident.

Wren's highly conflicted at first, but over time, settles into her new, freed role. She becomes a Warden librarian, for lack of a better term, and finds herself. She still keeps a low profile in the worries that someone will find out what her brother did, but remains relatively at peace even as her Calling slowly creeps closer.

What happens if Wren isn't Rook/doesn't romance anyone?:

Well, Wren's a strong independent nonbinary who don't need no man, but she's also got the constitution of wet paper in a typhoon. So when she's not Rook, she participates in Weisshaupt. While she survives, the aftereffects of adding more blight to her system is what eventually does her in, much to Ghil's grief.

I like to think she becomes a spirit of Kindness or Joy. Or good ol' fashioned Wisdom.

Did the Templar father make it?:

If he did I'd make him kick it at Therinfal Redoubt. But no he doesn't. Wren still has his Templar cloak that he gave her, once. She's got mixed feelings on her father.

OCs that Wren knows: Ghil (duh), and Lana.

In the circumstances where she dies, Lana and Ghil pull a favor with Riesel to get her HoF father to accompany Wren to the Deep Roads, as he's her idol and an uncorrupted part of the Wardens. So technically, she meets Lithe Surana, my DA:O OC and canon HoF.

Kaarash-Taar (he/him)

Finally, a bulwark of maturity and a breath of fresh air in the Trauma Squad. I'm very excited to play Kaarash in a later playthrough. Because I've been focused on the Traumatized Three, I haven't given too much thought to him yet. Just basic sketches of ideas.

🐍Stats🐍

Age: 31

Race: Qunari, Vashoth

Faction: Shadow Dragons

Class: Warrior, two-handed

Specialization: Slayer, I think! Give me back Reaver, Bioware.

Romance: Neve. Honestly bc I'm a gay transman I almost never go for the female LIs, but Neve... she's cool as hell. I wanna see what she's like. Incidentally when I made Kaarash I forgot Neve belonged to the Shadow Dragons factions LMAO

Birthplace: he doesn't know! Most of his young life was spent at sea.

Backstory:

Kaarash-Taar is an orphan, picked up by an old Tal-Vashoth sailor nicknamed Beres.

Beres, who grew up under the Qun, did what any ex-beresaad would do - drag the kid onto his Captain's ship and teach him the ways of the world and the Qun.

Ironically, this happened to be Isabela's ship.

Beres was a part of Isabela's old crew, pre DA2 events. He heavily respected his captain, and expected the same of his adoptive son.

When Isabela's ship was wrecked in the reefs, Beres and his young son survived, being taken aboard a ship while adrift at sea.

This was seen as a miracle, until they learned it was a slaver's ship, and the two were supposed to be cargo.

That didn't go to plan. Years of work as Beresaad and then with Isabela made Beres a wickedly sharp warrior, and Kaarash was much the same way. They managed to corral the slaves, enact a plan to overthrow the slavers, and successfully executed it, taking over the ship.

For the first time, Beres was a captain, and for nearly ten years Kaarash stayed by his father's side.

Later, when it turned out Isabela was alive, Beres joined his crew to hers and went back under her captaincy. But by this point, Kaarash was a young adult and hotblooded, feeling the energy of the revolutions happening around him.

Around this time he separated from them, drifting from place to place, helping refugees and freeing slaves. Around this time, he met Riesel, a young elven woman with an impressive family legacy, and decided to travel together in search of like-minded people.

Eventually, they found it in the Shadow Dragons.

While Beres doesn't necessarily agree with his son's revolutionary actions (he thinks it'll get Kaarash killed), he reluctantly supports his son nonetheless. After all, Kaarash has proven time and time again to be a tactical leader, and as time passed on, cool-headed under pressure.

What if Kaarash doesn't become Rook/doesn't romance anyone?:

He's still fighting with the Shadow Dragons. Maybe he'll romance Hal or something, that guy's fried fish does seem like it's worth being a little gay for.

OCs he knows: Riesel, Lana. Technically he knows Ghil, but like. Distantly. They don't talk, really, but they get along well enough.

Riesel (she/they/doesn't care)

Riesel's actually the oldest in terms of how long she's been in my brain for! I made her back in 2018, when I played Dragon Age Origins for the first time. She was baby then. Now, like many of us who did the math and realized our Wardens' children are grown adults in Veilguard, she's a fully fleshed out OC.

She's also probably the only one I'm not going to do a playthrough for, because....well, maybe. Idk. We'll see.

🐍Stats🐍

Age: 28ish

Race: Elf (non-Dalish)

Faction: Shadow Dragons

Class: Rogue, stabby

Specialization: Duelist! It looks incredibly fun and fits her backstory.

Romance: If she absolutely had to romance someone from the party, it would be Davrin, I think. He's got his shit mostly....together.....and Emmrich's too old for her tastes.

Otherwise she'd romance, idk, the Viper or something. Or Tarquin AND the Viper, which would drive her father to an early Calling.

Birthplace: Amaranthine City. For those of you who played Dragon Age: Awakening, you know where this is going. Probably.

Backstory:

*cracks knuckles excitedly*

Riesel was born to two loving, wonderful elven parents doing their best in an arling that hates elves. Like most of Ferelden. And the rest of Thedas, unless you're Bioware and suddenly pretend that the racism from your last three games doesn't exist.

And then, her parents died in the assault on Amaranthine city.

She was left wandering the rubble, crying loudly and dragging along a stuffed nug, until some tall man in shiny armor came and picked her up and tried to help her locate her family.

And he did, but they were in less than stellar condition, so he said "I guess you're mine now" and swept her away.

His husband, the ex-Crow, was exasperated but too smitten with his new spouse to tell his darling Warden "no".

(but really, Zevran did actually want to take care of her as much as Lithe Surana did.)

And so the pair raised their little girl lovingly. Riesel grew up fluent in Orlesian and Antivan, learned to throw knives, and sneak around so that her fathers didn't know what she was getting into.

(They did, but only interrupted when it was actually dangerous.)

Over time she learned a few rules.

1. Never be a Crow, Marry a Crow, or Hire a Crow. Fuck them Crows.

2. No joining the Grey Wardens. There are no griffons, and it'll make your uncle Alistair really sad.

These truths were ingrained in Riesel, and eventually she grew up to be a relatively responsible and level-headed adult. Who wanted to be a Grey Warden, but wasn't allowed to, so she settled for the next best thing.

The Friends of Red Jenny. This is who she was with before she met her best friend Kaarash-Taar.

Together, they traveled together to try and help people while her dads were away trying to cure the Blight, and eventually the pair joined the Shadow Dragons together, remaining a bombastic dynamic duo.

What happens if she doesn't become Rook/doesn't romance anyone?:

Romance is dead, or will be shortly, if Zevran has anything to say about his precious baby's relationships. Also Riesel doesn't care. Regardless, she's off saving people with the Shadow Dragons and doing things that will definitely send her parents to an early grave.

OCs she knows: Lana, Kaarash-Taar, Ghil, and Wren if Wren goes through the Calling.

TEMPLATE IN CASE YOU WANNA WRITE YOUR OC SHENANIGANS

Name:

Age:

Race:

Faction:

Class:

Specialization:

Romance:

Birthplace:

Backstory:

What happens if [pronouns] doesn't become Rook/doesn't romance someone?:

Other OCs they have connections to:

-----------------

Anyway, that's it for this humongous OC dump! I hope you enjoyed, and if you use the template, feel free to tag me in it! I love hearing about people's OCs.

Have a good night, and happy Dragon Age!

[vitaliadev]

Out of Control. v0.1 & TalTech jam results

2024.10.15, 2:48am

So, 48 hour jam is over, this is the version I posted. It was a local event, a lot of like-minded people, was quite fun.

I had bigger plans for the project, but I got lost in the environment design and a bit of chatting ( kind of wish I had more time for that one).

After having good sleep before last day, I realized I'm ready to join a team next time. I could see where the other members could save up time, even tohugh in theory "I could do it all myself".

I was lucky to figure out how to fix my template, and that I didn't need any new knowledge to make this project. I used mostly everything I tried already with previous jams. Camera issue is one thing I'll need to research in length, other than that I can work on small simple games or even dabble into visual novel / cinematics.

SuperGrid was a huge help in my location design, I learned couple new tricks working with it. So good for prototyping, even though modeling a location separately would have been a better choice (this is where team members come into play).

I forgot to post a list of assets I used (everything free), I didn't have time to import Metahuman character & nothing was textured or adjusted beyond prototyping (even the water wasn't added, just similar stuff from assets already there).

Maybe it is due to scalable option instead of highest resolution, but my game ended up being 600Mb (compared to 2Gb of a smaller project I did for Bluebeard jam), and it didn't show up in Unreal engine visually the same way as when it is launched from a package. Despite the assets used were obviously for prototyping, it still ended up looking quite nice visually and relatively easy to understand what's up. A lot can be improved, but for a jam entry, this is one of my best ones (including soundtrack & a text-based space game).

Major lesson to learn though, is rest and preparation. For me the jam fell between my night shifts (I work 3 rotating shifts), and I went into first day with 1 hour of sleep. RedBull, despite what people think, doesn't help much and may end up making you feel worse (caffeine + sleep deprivation is actually a bad mix, you need to drink water instead).

Some more lessons: consider teaming up & plan a smaller game or prep better, because socializing on such events is potentially more valuable than working on a project.

I wasn't expecting to do anything significant on the jam and even participation in it was under a question, but now IO have something that will probably divert my attention from Bluebeard (partially because the project is messed up for some unknown reason and needs to be edited to original condition). But this game is something that overlaps with an idea I had for Jack's story that isn't heavy on the lore and is basically Doom style game. Maybe this game will end up being what I'll concentrate on as my first commercial release. I'd say this is all thanks to the theme being very broad to adapt to.

Overall, each new jam is easier for me and makes me more sure that gamedev is something I could do as a career. It is very easy to get immersed in a process of learning Unreal Engine and enjoy tinkering with it, but I also have no luxury to study for fun, because in half a year or so I'll have to decide if I can safely be a gamedev/art freelancer or I'll need to look for employment.

[deanswaywardgirl]

Keeping Faith (Having Faith Part 2)

A/N: Okay, so this is part two to the Having Faith mini-series. I hope you guys enjoy it. I know it took awhile for me to post, but there was quite a bit of editing to be done: adding, deleting, things like that. Enjoy! :)

Six months. Six months of searching and worrying and barely sleeping. Every night, Dean dreamt of her. Faith, the woman he loved in the lethal hands of Michael, the archangel. Every night, she died in his arms, just when he'd found her again, Michael killed her again and again, and Dean awoke in soaked sheets and the images replaying in his head.

Swallowing hard, he threw the blankets off and got up out of bed, turning his attention to the alarm clock, hidden behind several empty beer and whiskey bottles, and noted that it was only a little after two in the morning. He licked his lips and headed out of his room to the library, needing to get started again. He had to find her. Going without her was only sending him to an early grave.

Dean swallowed hard again, and was slightly surprised to see Sam awake, already reading up on angel lore, his laptop open with a police scanner on the screen. Dean smiled softly. Sam loved her too, they were practically siblings at this point. Sam always called her the smallest Winchester.

"Hey," Dean croaked, approaching the table where everybody's initials stared at him. The 'FD' mocked his pain, making his heart clench in his chest. He then forced his eyes to his brother. "Find anything?" he asked.

"Not yet, but I'm looking. I've got other hunters out, I've got Jody and Donna on the look out. It's like Michael's taken her underground or something. There's just nothing." Dean swallowed hard and looked at all the lore before shaking his head and sinking into a chair. "Dean.."

"We have to find her, Sam. It's been six months and there's been nothing." He looked at Sam, only to catch his eye. "Why'd she do it, man? How could she make that deal?"

"She did it for you, Dean," Sam said quietly. "Yea, and look at me now. Did she really think I'd be okay with her gone? That I could shrug the loss off and keep going like...." he shook his head and dropped his eyes to the floor. "No, but at least you have a chance to save her. Which is more than she would've had with you at the bottom of the ocean. Dean, she loved you. You were everything to her. And she knew I couldn't lose my brother."

Sam swallowed hard and ran his hands through his hair. "Dean, we will find her, I promise you. We won't stop til we do." Dean nodded and stood up, headed to the kitchen. He wasn't sure if he believed Sam or not, the images from his nightmares plaguing him once again. He rubbed his eyes as he set upon making him and Sam breakfast, because he needed to do something. Hearing the iron door open and close, he moved back to the library and saw Castiel decend the stairs. "Anything?" Dean asked, clenching his jaw. Castiel sighed and shook his head.

"Nothing. I'm sorry, Dean." The elder Winchester nodded and went to walk away before sweeping every book off the table and walking away. Sam jumped and closed his eyes for a moment as he listened to Dean's footsteps fade down the hallway. When the silence took over, Sam looked up at Cas who looked as sorrowful as he felt. "We have to find her, Cas, I'm not sure how much longer we have before Dean goes out looking and probably gets himself killed." The angel nodded and turned his blue eyes to the exit Dean took, then glanced back at Sam. "Sam, we will find Faith. I won't stop looking. Just don't lose-" "Faith? I'm hoping we haven't already." He leaned back against the table and folded his hands in front of him before looking at the laptop screen, at the police scanner that announced every day random violence, but nothing that concerned them in their current predicament.

It was then the iron door opened once more and a girl, bloodied and broken appeared, barely conscious. "Sam? Cas?" It was then she fell, her eyes falling closed. "Faith!" Sam called. Castiel disappeared and reappeared at the top of the stairs, catching the girl in his arms and looking down at her. He gently brushed the hair out of her face and looked down at Sam, with a nod. Sam took the stairs two at a time, meeting him at the top, an unconscious Faith in his arms. "We need to get her to the infirmary now!" he said and lifted the girl into his arms. "Go get Dean, I got her." Castiel nodded and took off in the other direction in search for the older Winchester. Sam laid the girl down carefully and started assessing her wounds, every now and then watching her face. He breathed heavily, unable to keep the hint of a smile off his face. "Don't worry, Faith, you're safe now."

"Faith?" Dean called, coming into view. Sam immediately backed away as Dean took his place, cupping her face in his hand and looking her over. "My god, what did he do to you?" he whispered, his breathing shaky. "What happened?" he asked, not taking his eyes off her, sliding his hand into hers. "There's no telling, Dean, she just walked in and passed out. Cas caught her," Sam said as he circled around to the other side of the bed. Dean nodded and leaned down, kissing her forehead tenderly, letting his lips linger for a moment before he kissed her again. "You're safe now, sweetheart. We're all here," Dean whispered, setting his hand on the top of her head and rubbing her forehead with his thumb. "You're gonna be okay," he whispered, afraid that she'd disappear before his eyes if he let go of her. A tear fell down his cheek as he was unable to believe she was here. She was home. "Sammy, clean her up, I'll be back."

"No, you should be here in case she wakes up. I'm gonna go make some calls," Sam told him and smiled down at Faith, then leaned down and kissed her forehead tenderly as well. "Welcome home, sweetheart," he whispered to her before clapping Dean on the shoulder and leaving the room. Dean sat on the edge of the bed and started cleaning her wounds, making sure to be gentle as some were deeper and worse off than others. He shook his head and sighed when he heard his name.

"Dean?" a soft voice whispered, earning his attention. A smile crept across his lips as he locked eyes with the most beautiful pair of blue eyes he'd ever seen. "Hey, sweetheart. Shh, just get some rest. You're alright, now, you're safe." The girl gazed up at him and let the tears fall, her breathing shaky as her grip on his hand tightened. "I'm home?" she asked, her voice just a whisper. "You're home, Faith. Right where you belong," Dean told her and stroked her cheek with his free hand. Faith leaned into his touch and closed her eyes, holding his hand to her face. "Can you sit up?" he asked, earning a nod. He helped her to sit up and gently pulled her into his lap, cradling her head to his chest, rocking her back and forth. "I gotcha, sweetheart, and I'm never letting you go again," he told her, kissing the top of her head before setting his chin there.

He let her cry, and just held her, whispering reassurances to her to keep her calm and remind her that he was there beside her, never to let her go again. Faith buried her face in his neck, clenching his jacket in her fist, her knuckles white as she cried. It was an hour before she'd cried herself back to sleep in Dean's arms, but Dean couldn't bare to part with her as he watched her sleep so peacefully in his arms. He kissed her forehead tenderly once more and glanced up when Sam came into the room, swallowing hard. "She okay?" he asked, quietly. Dean shook his head and glanced down at her, then set his chin back on top of her head.

"Doubt it. She's resting, but..." Dean glanced down at Faith, who had started whimpering. "Shh, sweetheart, I'm here. You're safe, I promise," he whispered and kissed her forehead once more. Licking his lips, he turned his eyes back to his brother. "I don't know what Michael did to her, but I will find out.." "Dean, you should stay here. When she wakes up, she'll need you. We'll worry about Michael later," Sam said, his eyes falling back to Faith as he sighed. "She doesn't look good. Almost skeletal," he said, swallowing hard. Dean swallowed hard as he turned his eyes to his brother.

"Sammy, go make her something to eat, would you? Maybe something light. Who knows how long it's been since she last ate, I don't wanna overdo it," he said and clenched his jaw. Sam nodded and watched the two of them together, then left the room. Dean took her hand into his and stroked the top with his thumb. Bruises littered her skin from head to toe and it only made Dean angrier at the archangel responsible.

"I promise you, sweetheart, I will make him pay. If it's the last god forsaken thing I do, I will make him pay. As long as you come back to me. I don't know what you went through with him, I'm not sure it'd do me any good to know, but I need you to come back to me. I will help you through it, I swear. No matter how deep the scars are or how long it takes, I will help you get through all of it. You've always been there to help me through the crap, Faith. The nightmares, all of it. Let me help you for once. Just come home and we'll get through it together." Dean swallowed hard as he watched her sleep, then kissed her forehead again.

It was a few days before Faith said a word to either of them. She spent most of her time sleeping or eating, mostly at Dean's request. She always ate as much as she could stomach, stopping at the slightest hint of queasiness. Dean didn't like it, but he acquiesced, biting his tongue. TWO WEEKS LATER

"Michael, no! Don't hurt them, take me!" Faith screamed, and turned over, arching her back before rolling back onto his side. "Please! Please, no! Dean, Sam! Take me!" she cried, a death grip on her pillow.

Lightbulbs exploded in her room and down the hall. Dean and Sam glanced at each other as the bunker rumbled, both of them bolting for her room. They both tried the knob, but the door didn't budge. Dean glanced at Sam and back at the door before counting to three, both of them delivering their strongest kicks, breaking the door down, each man taking a side of the bed. "Faith, sweetheart, wake up!" Dean called, taking her wrists and pinning them down. Faith's eyes opened, a glowing blue, and before Dean could resist, he went flying outside the room against the wall. "Castiel!" Sam called. The angel appeared and placed two fingers to her forehead, knocking her out completely, the room going silent.

"She'll sleep now." Sam moved to his brother and helped him to his feet, both of them moving towards her bed. Dean clenched his jaw as he watched her. He didn't blame her. He had no idea the Hell Michael had inflicted on her, in more ways than one. But it had obviously left scars that he couldn't heal in a matter of hours of her return. Glancing up at Castiel, he breathed deeply.

"Tell me you found him," Dean growled, his whole being shaking in fury. Castiel sighed, his eyes still on Faith's sleeping form. "I haven't. He's disappeared, Dean, completely." "We have to find him, we have to dream root her head, something. She can't keep going like this. We have no idea what he did to her, and we can't help her until we figure it out," he shouted, swallowing hard. "I can't leave her like this, I won't." Sam licked his lips and sat on the edge of the bed, and wiped his hand over his face.

"Maybe we should use dream root. Ask her straight out," Sam suggested, then turned and looked at his brother. "Okay, then that's what we'll do," Dean replied, swallowing thickly. He turned his eyes back to his sleeping girlfriend and breathed deeply. Both of them glanced at Castiel. "Are you coming with us?" Dean asked. Castiel glanced at Dean, then at Sam, then at Faith. "No, you two should do this. You're her boys, her family. I'll stay here and keep watch. If she got away without him knowing, he could be looking for her." Both boys glanced at each other and back down at the sleeping girl. "If he is, it doesn't matter. He's not taking her again," Dean growled, clenching his jaw. Sam sighed and nodded.

"Agreed." He stood up and moved to the door. "I'll go get the dream root. Dean, grab a couple strands of hair, I'll be back." Dean nodded and turned back to her, taking her hand into his. "We're gonna get you back, sweetheart, just stay with us, alright?" he asked, and stroked her cheek, then leaned down and kissed her forehead tenderly. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, I should've found you sooner. Protected you. But, I'm here now, alright? I promise. I'm right here."

It was then Sam returned with two mugs of African dream root. Dean plucked two strands of brown hair from Faith's head and dropped a strand each into the dream root. He took one of Faith's hands, Sam, the other, and the two downed the dream root, laying beside her. Cas put two fingers to both Winchesters' heads and left the room, closing the door behind him.

A/N: Let me know how you liked it and if there should be a part three...I’m putting together of details right now, and could really use the help. Thank you!

@ellewritesfix05 @chevyharvelle @jawritter @winchest09 @whispersandwhiskerburn @dean-winchester-is-a-warrior

[empressxmachina]

Inquiries on WIPs, lore, and what to do with both

Hi!

I hope y'all are well! I didn't expect to make a journal today, but here I am! I do hope I get some answers because I do have some thoughts and questions.

word wall under the cut

First off, I've done a lot of proofreading and re-outlining lately.

How I keep coming up with ideas, I don't know. Why I can never sit down and write prose except for when I'm meant to be doing something else is even more unknown. But at least I'm thinking, I guess. I like what I'm pondering.  I have done some intensive writing, though.

I made a manip that's been done and in the queue for months, and I liked it so much that I've made a whole novella (novel?) idea for it. If I do it right, then I hope to get about twelve (12) parts from it - they're all now planned - of which I've completed seven. I'm closer to eight (8) than not, so that's good, right?

Since the pic is done and so is its relative part in the story, should I just release it/them, or should I wait until it's all done?

I've even made a Wattpad/book cover for it; that's how much I like what I'm doing.

Regarding Welcome Home, Sasha, specifically, it's been plotted for months, too. But I'm having some issues with writing an expository soliloquy, aka the explanation of what the fuck happened to Earth.

The actual information is cut-and-dry, but I don't know how to best frame it. I find Ki to be an analytical person - sensible for a scientist, I suppose - but with a flourish. Putting his brotherly, almost fatherly love of Sasha on top complicates things further since he wouldn't want to break his heart... and the answer will definitely bruise at the very least.

Luckily though, how he'll react and everything after that is as straightforward as an apocalypse can be. Will I ever write it, though?

I technically have three (3) or four (4) continuations to long fics, but I don't know why I'm not releasing them. I want to, yet I don't? Is this my mediocre perfectionism in action? Is this normal?

Syntrophy has changed in my head, like, four times, regarding the relationship between the two MCs. Their separate stories have maintained but not how they connect to each other.

I wish I was kidding. There's so much I've deleted.

I've been adding excerpts to my manips and making visuals to go with stories. Read more about that in the next section.

Secondly, I've been conceptualizing visuals like mad!

Ideas just keep coming, and they don't stop coming.

The queue is probably at peak fullness, which is cool. I was hoping I wouldn't have to widen time between posting stuff because as much as popularity doesn't affect whether I make something, I wouldn't want y'all to just forget about me. You know?

I know some people don't even have a schedule or set up expectations, so I might just say "Fuck it," and leave submission dates to RNG. It hasn't been a problem, but I don't want pressure from time restraints to become a problem. We'll see.

Like the unnamed, new fic way above, some of my ready works are images from tales not-yet-released. I've done that before numerous times, but one in particular literally happens in what would be the literal next part to post, and I'm not done with writing it, yet, at least to where I'd like it to be.

Should I post the pic anyway, despite context being right behind a corner? I kind of want to, but I've already been putting it off so much...

I just really need to get motivated and focus using Pomodoro or something. Maybe I'd knock everything out if I did.

My most recent completion from literally this morning might just be my favorite in all my years of manip-making.

Meanwhile, the one finished right before it might be the worst thing I've ever made, and its excerpt just makes it worse. I enjoyed it thoroughly, though, which makes me question myself as I'm seeing patterns...

I want to draw/paint again. I've done stuff for IRL projects but not size content.

I need inspiration to just sit down and pen for hours or days.

Would y'all mind me doing sketches again? That'd be quicker.

Lastly, the real reason why I chose to make a journal:

I'm really considering putting expanded, not-yet-seen lore for my stories on my blog site (on WordPress), and I feel like I've pondered this before.

As repeatedly mentioned, I have too many ideas but not even drive to collect them all into something worthwhile. But I'd like to get them out there somehow so others can indulge in my babies as much as I do. Some creators have blogs just for certain stories and their characters, settings, etc. that I adore, and I want to feel that in a way, too. However, most people don't have ten (10) or more stories at once that they equally love. Fuck, I need to edit my blog with more pages for more things I've conjured but isn't there, yet.

I feel that by doing so on my site,

People who do want to know how a plot of a tale will go, because I write as quickly as molasses runs yet have an outline for everything, can know.

It'll be organized as I see fit but my own control (unless WordPress does something drastic).

In addition, the data wouldn't be directly attached to the works on other sites like here, either, in case ideas change or people are averse to spoilers and want to stay away.

Reading all this over, couldn't I put the same data/lore in DA journals, Tumblr posts, etc., too, adding tags or titles to mark what's what? Couldn't I also put the works themselves that are here or even the damn music list on my site, too? Should I?

Am I overthinking this? I think I'm overthinking this.

That's it, I think.

Does any of this make sense? Please let me know your thoughts on anything but mostly the blog stuff if you can.

(I've also put this on DA if you'd prefer to respond there.)

Stay safe, and Happy Equinox! I'm glad I'll see flowers blooming again soon.

~J