#Malcolm Hawke lives!

[oftachancer]

Tranquil Week Continues!

New chapters of Aisles of Memory and Regret are up! Here's a taste:

Fire coursed beneath his skin. He could feel it like a hand gripping his heart too hard, flaying his lungs, and boiling his eyes until he was blind.  Karl dropped to his knees, covering them to keep them from exploding free of his skull as his head pounded and his bones screamed.  “A few adjustments…” Enchanter Malcolm was speaking, but the words held no meaning. For a moment, Karl felt a reprieve - a pleasant mist of contentment and fog, but then- He screamed, gasping, curled on the paving stones in the dark. It smelled of salt and sweat and blood. He could taste copper on his tongue. Feel it pulsing like a kicking frog inside of his mouth. His knuckles and palms were scratched. Searing. “Stop- please stop!” he tried to beg, “Please!” But all that emerged was a wordless, agonized scream that tore at his throat.  Until there were hands. He knew those hands. Anders. He knew the feel of them - callused and strong and smelling of linseed oil. But they were grasping his shoulders, holding him - no- “-trying to keep him steady-” “Anders,” Karl rasped, clinging to him even though the lights burned his eyes and his blood was melting him from the inside. “Anders!” Help me- help me- But the words failed him.

@tranquilweek

[misfit-alley]

surana (mage, ♡ alistair) // hawke (rogue, ♡ n/a) // lavellan (rogue, ♡ cullen)

@kibellah tagged us for our dragon age elves in this picrew so !!!!! :)

[bluerose5]

Hawke and Carver opening the letters during the Family History quest, only to find a bunch of love letters written between Malcolm and Maurevar. They ask Leandra about it and the conversation goes something like:

[herearedragons]

Hello! For the character building questions…

13, 21 and 45, all for your Hawke? :)

(or anyone you'd like to answer for)

13. When do they fake a smile? How often?

Really often, actually. Secret's whole thing is built around the idea of "fake it 'til you make it" and she's also a trickster by nature, so that means a lot of smiles that aren't entirely genuine. I guess I can split those fake smiles into two main categories: one is what Malcolm taught her, finding something to smile about when everyone expects you to be distressed (I guess this is more forced than fake, but I'll say it counts for the question), and the other is her being over-the-top on purpose, turning her charm up to eleven to distract people from something else that's going on. This could be anything from chatting up some guards as a distraction to going out of her way to become the most popular recruit at Ostagar despite being an apostate who, theoretically, shouldn't draw attention to herself at all.

21. What common etiquette do they disagree with? Do they still follow it?

She got plenty of criticism for being "too cheerful" in the wake of Malcom, Bethany and Leandra's deaths, respectively, exactly for the reasons detailed in the previous answer. This was especially ironic in Malcolm's case, because this version of Malcolm was the kind of guy to have "come up up at least one good joke about my death after I'm gone" as a last request. She knows that most people don't approach heartbreak the way she does, but she keeps doing it, and honestly, maybe that's why she comes out of the events of DA2 a little less haunted than some of my past Hawkes. (at least in theory. here's to hoping that things don't suddenly become Super Tragic once I actually play her)

45. What’s something unimportant / frivolous that they hate passionately?

I actually don't think she's the type to hate something passionately, especially small things. Secret tends to turn even the biggest bad things that happen to her into jokes and stories and just another part of the lore she's building around herself, so if she did have a pet peeve, it would probably just be some kind of inside joke.

Thanks for the ask!

ask me about my OCs

[amatres]

what if part of hawke hated malcolm for leaving the family behind (he died) and leaving the role behind that they had to fill in

[thedragonagelesbian]

cant talk im thinking about how malcolm hawke loved cyrus soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much and how even so that love wasnt enough to keep cyrus from feeling like it was his job to protect the family even when he was still a kid and how staring down malcolm's ghost in legacy, all cyrus can think about is how he failed his father (all while I know that malcolm would never once want his son to feel that way.................................................................)

[ramblinganthropologist]

Oh, I just got 1 AM feelings about Avery Hawke and the idea of a feral cat vs a cat someone kicked out of the house.

Some might say she's feral - she'll hiss and she'll growl and be on guard. But that's people she doesn't trust.

Give her love, companionship, and a soft place to rest and you'll see she's just scared and betrayed. She can see people aren't all bad.

I might have to write Anders reflecting on this as he is the resident cat guy and can see the similarities between her and the cats he takes care of in Darktown.

Only he'll never tell her - she's a dog person. Damn Fereldens.

[vaguely-concerned]

listen I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore but on this playthrough of DA2 I found myself once more entranced and heartbroken to see hawke reenact their relationship with their mother with the entire cursed city of kirkwall. you can never do enough for leandra, and you can never do enough for kirkwall. leandra is proud of you, and kirkwall uplifts its champion, but no matter how hard you try for them you can't fix everything there that's broken, no one could, and even the fact that anyone would feel the burning responsibility to take that task on is a huge warning sign on its own. leandra will easily allow you to sacrifice yourself on the altar of the family's continued well-being again and again, even when she'll beg you to spare the twins from the same thing. it's such a sad, painfully realistic thing because I truly don't think leandra meant to fuck up her kids, and yet she primed her oldest for an abusive toxic codependent relationship with an entire ongoing dumpster fire of a city state better than she ever could have if she had meant to.

I think what leandra actually, deep down wants from you is something you can never ever give her and that is cruel to ask of anyone, but especially your kid -- to bring her back to a time when she was happy. to reclaim when you were all happy, when nothing was broken that couldn't be fixed, before malcolm died, before you had to leave behind bethany or carver's broken body on the ground. to get her childhood back from where she left it and found it all gone and in ruins when she returned. 'this is all your fault'. this is the tragedy of parenthood sometimes I think, that capacity to define a life: she said that once, in a moment of profound pain, and she probably wouldn't have said it under other circumstances and she apologizes later, but now hawke has to live with that forever. leandra can't bear her own emotions without letting them spill over onto someone else so she won't have to hold the discomfort of them anymore, and hawke is left to shoulder that burden and responsibility again and again, handed the impossible task of making it all okay again, somehow -- of stopping anything bad from ever happening again in the Nr 1 Bad Things Constantly Happening capital of thedas.

and then at the same time there's the mirror of how varric's whole family wants orzammar back (and to him orzammar is just a ghost he's seen in their eyes -- there's something in his voice when he says 'That stupid plate was the whole city of Orzammar to him' that gets me every time, how much he understands that he doesn't understand and how lonely that makes him among them, and on top of it all he's frustrated and ashamed and sad that he just doesn't get it and can't meet them on it -- like it's a betrayal that he actually belongs up here, when varric wants so badly to be loyal), just as the hawkes want happiness back. (I don't think it's Lothering in itself that longing is for, it's for being together. Lothering was just the place they stayed the longest.) they're all in exile, even as they try to make a new home out of that exile.

(varric and hawke's real 🤝 quality across all personalities, affinities and choices is 'parentified child' lmao. so much of varric's character makes perfect sense once you know he grew up supporting a mother who was an emotionally volatile alcoholic, honestly. between varric, the hawkes, isabela, seb if you have him and merrill's whole Situation with marethari I feel like DA2 covertly is to mommy issues what ME2 is to daddy issues fjsdjfa)

basically I think I'm trying to pick apart exactly why the fact that leandra is clearly proud of hawke and tells them so several times doesn't feel like it helps at all, almost feels more like a cage even though it's clearly meant well? and what I'm getting is that it's because my sense of what hawke actually needs, in general but especially from a parent, isn't admiration or approval but to be loved and supported and understood. I don't believe leandra ever quite understands them, and it scares her because it makes her think she maybe never even understood malcolm. (that's the subtext of a lot of what leandra will say about him in legacy, at least. he's slipping away from her as the years pass after his death and she fears she never really had him in the first place, if he had secrets like these.) she consistently treats her oldest more like a partner or peer than as her child, which considering hawke is always described as being very similar to their father… I mean I totally see how that could be easy to slip into for her after he died especially, but it doesn't make it any less fucked up or unfair.

the real leandra in legacy is. she is SO absurdly self-centered, if you really pay attention. I don't want to keep dunking on her because I don't think she's like this on purpose, but it boggles my mind. if you do the quest in act 1 she gets so upset and overwhelmed that the kids just sort of sit there like :( at the end, which adds to the trend that through the game you constantly see hawke comforting leandra, and you pretty much never see leandra comforting hawke, beyond some light vaguely encouraging comments in passing. if you do legacy in act 2 while she's still alive hawke comes to her, tentatively asking if malcolm ever spoke to her about any of it -- clearly requesting some sort of emotional support or help to make sense of it. she then expresses her side of it, but never once does she say anything to the effect of 'hey that was a lot to go through, are you okay after all that?'.

instead she essentially hands them the responsibility of having a good life, to repay what malcolm did for all of them. and in theory that's not the worst takeaway I suppose, malcolm probably would want them all to be happy, but in the moment it only feels like more expectation heaped upon you somehow? especially since you don't really get to express anything about how it made you feel before she goes to the 'ah no use complaining' zone (after SHE got to express her grief at feeling like she's losing more and more of that old life, and hawke barely got to say anything fhsfalkjfs). in general she really doesn't do much like. parenting, does she haha. there is so much love there in that relationship, and yet so little comfort. Oh, those days. All of us, in that simple place. Well, that's neither here nor there, is it. This life, we have to make the best of it. And thanks to you, and him, I will. Oh well, mum, I'm uh. I'm glad you feel better after that, at least. Nice to be of service.

it's varric's ghost-leandra who actually acknowledges what a burden hawke has taken on, that shows an understanding of why they're doing it, acknowledges the loss they've been through and also reassures them in their sense of belonging that still can't be taken from them, despite it all -- The best of him is still with you. The best of all of us. It's what makes you try so hard. You'll always have that. We'll always be family. (you can't take 'loved' away, huh.) you get a bit more of a reconciliation/reconnection between hawke and their dad's memory by being reminded he got like this too, you know (implicitly you're not alone). varric through leandra is the one who tells them what they probably would have wanted and needed to hear from a parent right then -- It's going to be alright. that's what Hawke, The Champion means to everyone else, and for once they get to be the one to hear it. except only in a kind dream that never really happened. I. it. hmmmmmm. crushing. that is crushing. but also so incredibly tender from varric's side, and so moving to me that he's seen all this stuff and so desperately wants to give them that comfort. anyway DA2 is about love in some of the realest and thus messiest and most human ways I've ever seen and it makes my brain go wild it's my favorite game of all time goodnight

[wicclan]

Thinking about how much pressure Leandra has always placed on Hawke. It's like when Malcolm died, Leandra lost the person who took the leader / protective role of their family, and since our Hawke was the eldest born before the twins and clearly would eventually be as powerful if not more than him, Leandra basically forced Malcolm's role onto Hawke.

So Hawke watches over the twins and Leandra, and since Leandra doesn't seem to know how to take on any blame or responsibility for their unpleasant circumstances of their life now that Malcolm is dead because of (probably mostly) shame. Exactly what her parents were worried about happening basically happened and she was stuck with 3 kids, an ocean and a country away from her old family and noble roots.

Leandra blames Hawke when the first twin dies, like immediately. Hawke just lost their sibling, same as Leandra lost her child, and Leandra's first instinct is to blame Hawke, when Hawke wasn't even near the twins and Leandra. Leandra was right there. Bethany/Carver dies while protecting Leandra.

Yet then she blames Hawke, saying "how could you let this happen?"

Later, If you take your surviving twin to the deep roads and they either die, or are saved by the Wardens, Leandra blames our Hawke yet again, despite the fact that whichever twin is still with you, gets pissed if you don't take them. They insist on going and if you relent and agree, Leandra blames you. As if you're the one still in "charge". Like you all aren't a family, with fully grown adults making their own choices now.

Then when Leandra dies, the game nearly tells you without saying outright that it's basically your fault because you're the one investigating the murders as your mom is being targeted as the next victim.

And if you weren't out galavanting through Kirkwall, making the money your now 2 person family's needs ( Gamlen doesn't count ) to keep living in your fancy mansion - you might have noticed the suspiciousness of your mom's new "boyfriend", or perhaps if you'd been one or two days faster in your investigation, you could've saved her!

The Hawke family is tragically poetic, and i hate that if you make a certain series of choices, everything that Leandra threw in Hawke's face and blamed them for...would seem true.

But I think that it also comes down to the fact that maybe actually Leandra just blames Malcolm for dying and leaving her all alone with the life they were supposed to have together - a life she doesn't know how to live without him.

She's grieving, and Malcolm is gone, but Hawke? Hawke who is supposedly the spitting image of Malcom, and very similar in personality and even power is right there. The only thing Leandra probably loves and hates and resents and adores all at once. Bitterness is all she really seems to know when Malcolm dies, and Hawke being the oldest, took the brunt of it all until Leandra herself died and left Hawke all alone with the guilt.

[tossawary]

I mentioned before that I think DA2 is perhaps the most appealing to me for a Time Travel AU. This is in part because Hawke as a protagonist doesn't have to worry about an impending apocalypse in the same way that the Warden and the Inquisitor do, so there's arguably more space for slow-moving character work, and I think it would be fun to explore Hawke's relationship to Kirkwall.

You can take Inquisition-era Hawke, sacrifice them in the Fade, and then handwavy magic happens there that sends Hawke back for a Time Travel Redo. (If it's irrelevant to the rest of the story, let's skip going into depth on the time travel method! It does not matter!) If you want to avoid time paradox concerns, given that time magic actually exists in this series, this can actually be a Dimension Travel AU as well, sending a Garrett Hawke back in time to another dimension where there's a Marian Hawke instead or something. Two Hawkes!

I prefer sending a mage Garrett Hawke "back" into this alternate dimension because he is absolutely going to look like his own father, Malcolm, to the young Hawke family trying to escape Lothering. And that's some delicious angst.

Another reason that I think Hawke in particular would be interesting is that I think it would be interesting to have a time-traveler (dimension-traveler) be upfront about what had happened to them. A tired Garrett Hawke reveals at least the basics of the "future" to his friends and family (all of whom are strangers to him and it hurts) because he wants to keep them safe, and then the butterfly effects of canon divergence ripple out from there.

There are so many time travel fics where the protagonist confides in no one or only does so very late in the story. There are often reasons for this. 1) They will not be believed. 2) They are surrounded by enemies. 3) They are focused on changing a very specific event and do not want things to change before that. 3.5) They are unwilling to share their knowledge and give up some measure of control over the future. (These control issues are often in-character!)

Sometimes, I am persuaded by these reasons and find them compelling and sympathetic. Sometimes, I find the protagonist's insistence on doing everything alone frustrating and even cruel.

I think that if Hawke had the chance to do a Time Travel Redo, it would be incredibly cruel if they did not at least TRY to share some of their knowledge with their companions. I don't think Hawke's companions would believe them immediately, of course, but they live in a world with strange magic. If Hawke was willing to be calm and vulnerable, they could at least give their future friends some potential leads in their individual quests (being open about the fact that this world may be different to their own).

Like, let's look at Fenris. Fenris would not trust some strange mage talking about fucking time magic, of course. But after knowing each other for a month or so, Hawke might be able to approach Fenris and say, "Hey, I have a really weird story to tell you." And then Hawke could share what they know about Fenris' past according to their own world, so that Fenris can maybe look into that and prepare himself. Because keeping that information away from Fenris is a dick move! Fenris deserves to be able to decide what to believe, what to investigate, and what to do for himself.

I also don't think I could suspend my disbelief if Hawke let Anders and Justice just... play out again over the course of years. I think most Hawkes wouldn't be able to resist confronting Anders in some way! Even Hawkes who end up saying, "I'm going to personally murder Meredith this time." Is a mage-friendly Hawke just going to let characters like Karl Thekla be made Tranquil and be killed again?

Do Merrill and Isabella and Varric and Aveline not deserve to try and avert some of the tragedies in their own lives?

Like, it is totally reasonable for Hawke to be focused purely on their own family or the companions they like, rather than try to save every person in the city. I think it's more than fine if there are tragedies a protagonist just doesn't care about averting. Hawke is not even going to remember everything.

And it is VERY normal for people not to want to give up some measure of control over their lives, especially someone as traumatized as Hawke. I do often find it realistic that a lot of time traveling characters in fanfiction are kind of "control freaks" who don't want to be vulnerable, even if it's "safe" to be. I'm imagining that this future-sharing from Hawke would stem in large part from 1) exhaustion, 2) loneliness, and 3) Hawke being used to celebrity, due to the "Tale of the Champion", and somewhat blasé by this point about all the fucking shit they've been through.

And I think that spilling everything (or even just the basics) would not necessarily go well for a Hawke. I think Varric would take even limited information about Bartrand's future very badly. As strangers to Hawke, I think all of the companions would be upset and disbelieving. (I'm currently imagining a mage Garrett Hawke who previously romanced Merrill, so that he and Past!Fenris were barely friends, because Fenris didn't like this mage Hawke hanging out with a blood mage and Hawke kind of thought Fenris might turn him in to the Templars someday. Past!Fenris was more Isabella's and Varric's friend.) I think these new companions might go on to make some BIG mistakes trying to avoid the future that Hawke has described, as much as they might avert tragedy.

I also imagine that Hawke's relationship with this new Hawke family might be very strange and awkward, even if both Carver and Bethany live. Garrett looks like Malcolm and everyone thinks it's weird; Leandra is probably the happiest and most practical about it, but Garrett can't forget how his own mother died horribly and also blamed him for his own Bethany's death. Neither Garrett nor Marian know what to do about each other; Marian doesn't like some new person waltzing in and taking control of situations. Garrett unconsciously treats this Carver as older and Carver loves it, but Marian doesn't like it. Bethany likes having a mage sibling, but Garrett is awkward because he's used to Bethany being the Hawke family's perfect dead sister. And Leandra's shitty brother is not fucking helping any of this!!! And what's that about Leandra maybe getting murdered by a serial killer in the future???

By saying all of this, I mean to make clear that I really don't think "communicating" would immediately fix every problem for a perfect "Time Travel Fix-It". I do think it would fix SOME problems. Emotional conversations and immediate canon divergence also appeals to me because I like reading those things.

What I mean to make clear is that I think it would be fun to write something that explores autonomy, authority, agency, and control. There are many issues in the world that stem from people unwilling to give up control of a situation for a variety of reasons, and other issues that stem from people believing they have the authority to dictate other people's lives.

What right would a new Garrett Hawke have to withhold information and try to manipulate all of their strangers' lives? Especially from people like Anders and Fenris, whose stories are so deeply concerned with freedom of choice? To conceal backstory information from someone with amnesia, like Fenris, is a choice, and I think it's a cruel one, even if Fenris might not like what he hears and might react badly. Can Garrett Hawke really claim that he "knows best"? What if he doesn't know what's going on with this version of the world? What do you do when freedom means standing back and allowing some of the people you like and love to make "bad" choices?

Some time travel fics seem to me to be incredibly lonely. The protagonist trusts in no one. The other characters can be written as predictably following a timeline to the point of being shallow caricatures of people. It's just not to my taste.

It could be nice to explore Hawke finding new sides of companions that they missed in their previous "run" (which was very much not perfect and full of strife). It could be nice to explore an exhausted Champion learning to trust in other people and have them step up to help solve these shifting problems. DA games are so much about making choices for everyone around you: on behalf of your companions, on behalf of entire kingdoms, on behalf of the entire world. It might be fun to explore an exhausted older Hawke giving up some control and being pleasantly surprised on some fronts as paths diverge.

[dalishious]

i dont have access to be able to play the game anymore (v sad about that, da2 was my absolute fav game to replay over and over) and i cannot find anything online but does da2 ever state what leandra did while the hawkes lived in lothering? i dont know if im somehow mixing someones fanon into the canon info the game provides but i swear i remember something about her sewing to make money??

WoTv2: "Malcolm found work as a farmhand, and Leandra put her needlework skills to good use by mending torn items of clothing for a few bits apiece."

[justcallmecappy]

One of the criticisms I've seen DA players have in response to Anders' actions at the Kirkwall Chantry is some degree of, 'his actions forced innocent mages into a war they had no choice whether or not they wanted to be involved in'.

What a lot of these players seem to miss is this: The mages were already involved. They have been involved since childhood, when their magic manifested.

If you are born a mage in Southern Thedas, you are marked. The Templars will find you, or your neighbors who were conditioned by the Chantry to fear magic will turn you in, and you are brought to the Circle where you are at risk of Tranquility, or Annulment, and subjected to a Harrowing. Your children born to you in the Circle will be taken from you to be raised in a Chantry orphanage (like Wynne's child was). You are not allowed to get married, or start a family, or own land. You are not allowed to leave your Circle ever, unless conscripted to fight in the army (like in the Fifth Blight) or fulfilling some whim or need of those in power (like Malcolm Hawke being made to entertain nobles at a party). You might be thrown into the dungeon and left to starve to death, like the mage child Cole (and other mage apprentices of the White Spire) did. You are at risk of physical and sexual abuse, like the mages of the Gallows were.

Innocent mages were already involved. They were already being killed, they were already fighting for their lives for centuries since the inception of Circles, long before Anders' actions.

Also, in the case of the Gallows specifically, Knight-Commander Meredith had already called for the Annulment as early as the beginning/mid of Act 3. The mages' lives were already in danger, even before the Chantry was destroyed.

Anders tried for six years to make people listen and show how magic is not meant to be feared and can be used for good -- by publishing a manifesto, by providing free magical healthcare in Darktown -- to bring people's attention to the plight of mages and change things for the better. It took the imminent threat of his people being slaughtered wholesale for him to resort to what is aptly titled 'The Last Straw'.

If players want to blame anyone for subjecting mages to a conflict they did not want, look no further than the Chantry and their system of exploitation and oppression over the mages. Put blame on the Chantry for forcing mages into lives they did not choose, and asserting methods of culling and control over them, simply for how they were born. It was the Chantry that gave them no choice whether or not they had a say in staying alive or dying.

And if DA players would still say that the mages could have tried for a more "peaceful route" to alleviate their circumstances (despite seeing how Anders' manifesto, his Darktown clinic, and years of trying to negotiate with Elthina failed and Meredith was calling for Annulment anyway): very rarely do the oppressed win change by pandering to the morals of their oppressors.

Innocent mages were already suffering and being murdered in droves, for centuries. Innocent mages were already involved in this struggle, whether they wanted to be or not. And Anders' actions at the Chantry was like a rallying cry: If we're going to die anyway, then I'd rather die trying to take them down than giving them what they want.

(Also, I have not yet gone into detail on what actually started the mage-templar war, which was the Seekers hiding the cure for Tranquility, and Lord Seeker Lambert's decision to dissolve the Nevarran accord and take the Templars hunting for the free mages across the countryside because he decided dead mages were better than free mages -- because that's a whole separate post.)

[xxdoompatrolxx]

INTRO POST!!!

Hello! I'm Kaleigh but you can call me Kay if we are close :) she/her any are fine though (16) Bisexual Favorite things: Video games (OLD GAMES ESPECIALLY), Horror/Comedy movies, True crime cases, Poetry, Anatomy, Old things, Fanfiction, Cards, Weapons, Video game Emulators, Music, Animals, and TV shows. you can ask for my socials if you want to become friends I mostly use Discord, but my messages are open. I don't have really any dni's but one I have is don't be racist or I'll just block you if you don't take to my liking. FAVORITE GAMES: Postal, Doom, Playboy Mansion, GTA, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater/Underground, Sally Face, South Park: The Fractured But Whole, Emily is Away, Half-Life, Scribblenauts Unlimited, Roblox, Nintendogs, Pac-man Party, etc TOO MANY. FAVORITE SYSTEMS: Nintendo 64, SNES, NES, Every PlayStation But PS2 is amazing, Xbox 360, Xbox 1, WiiU, and Wii. FAVORITE MOVIES: Natural Born Killers, Almost Famous, Every American Pie, Every Jackass, Every Austin Powers, Buffalo '66, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1/2, Scream, Bride of Chucky, Butterfly Effect, Saw, The Sandlot, Stand by Me, The Breakfast Club, Dumb and Dumber, and My Friend Dahmer. FAVORITE SHOWS: Eastbound & Down, Daria, Clone High, Malcolm in the Middle, Hamtoro, Family Guy, Breaking Bad, South Park, Aqua Teen Force, King of the Hill, Fallout, F is for Family, Big Mouth, Friends, Wonder Showzen, Full House, Moral Orel, That '70s Show, Freaks and Geeks, MTV Cribs, Rock of Love, American Horror Story, Beavis and Butt-head, Saturday Night Live, The Tom and Jerry Show, We Bare Bears, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, and Pokemon. FAVORITE MUSIC: Nirvana, KMFDM, Rammstein, Prodigy, Nine Inch Nails, Descendents, Seether, Beastie Boys, Korn, Etc. Spotify: neon.dogg SHOUTOUTS TO THE BEST FRIENDS: @contraculture and @nyaturalbornkiller and @scoutingout5 :3

[amaryllis-sagitta]

So, where is the "secret ending" at?

This shit almost looks like some planetary alignment. We've already had Elgar'nan hasten a moon somehow to trigger the eclipse (???), but originally the gods were waiting for a celestial alignment. They needed the magical properties of an eclipse.

This kinda messes with the series' approach to the role of the hero. So far, we've had individuals rise to the occasion, however they could under their circumstances. That the Executors are actively scheming kinda shifts attention to the Kairos (the critical timing) itself and brings in a more fatalistic feel, through this supposed convergence of events into what comes next.

Yet, if we review the plot while looking at all the slides showing their influence, they mostly seem to have had an interest in the Blight.

FIve (?) priests by an altar with human sacrifice under the image of the Golden City, and the Tevinter sigil on the left - that's supposed to represent the Magisters Sidereal. They broke into the Black City, now revealed as a "quarantine zone" for the Blight. The goal might have been to free it all, but only a fraction of the Blight returned with the magisters to the world as a result. According The Dread Wolf Take You, Fen'Harel has recently thwarted another attemptto break into the Black City.

The Blighted Evanuris, imprisoned in the place of Regret, tried to control darkspawn in the world, gathering them around their Archdemons. Humanity devised a way to kill the Archdemons, and the order of Grey Wardens guarded the secret recipe and carried out the duty. Four Blights were ended with their respective Archdemons' deaths, rendering the bound Evanuris "mortal". As a result, most Evanuris might have withered away in their prison since.

It turned out that Grey Wardens kept Corypheus, one of the Magisters Sidereal, imprisoned under the Vimmark Mountains. They hired an apostate named Malcolm Hawke to renew the wards on the prison.

The Fifth Blight begun, and during the first battle of Grey Wardens aided by Ferelden and the local Circle of Magi, Teyrn Loghain ordered the retreat of his forces from Ostagar. As a result, Fereldan Grey Wardens were almost wept out. The family of THAT Malcolm Hawke was driven out of Ferelden.

Flemeth had to send her daughter and future vessel of Mythal, Morrigan, on a mission to accompany the remaining two Grey Wardens of Ostagar (and, as we learn later, to find an opportunity to carry out the Dark Ritual and purify the Old God's soul through an "Old God Baby". Thought that state was discarded in DATV). With Morrigan's defiance and drive to learn her mother's secrets, Flemeth was killed in her dragon form... or something else happened to her that prompted her "respawn" at the Sundermount in DA 2. In retrospective, there's a feeling that Flemeth being weakened somehow mattered here, and that Morrigan might have been sent away from the Korcarri Wilds as... a means of protection.

Flemeth's weird conversation with Hawke about fate and a leap into the abyss hints that she foresaw Hawke's role in The Plot. Hawke was taken to Kirkwall, where they looked for odd jobs as an immigrant and ended up going on a treasure hunting expedition in the Vimmark Mountains...

The red lyrium idol had lied dormant under the Vimmarks, inside a Titan's corpse, the presumably first discovered vein of blighted red lyrium. With DATV reveals, it doesn't seem like a coincidence that Flemythal checked up on the Dalish who lived in the area and probably also other things.

The Tethras Brothers' expedition with Hawke onboard found the idol and Bartrand stole it, having his mind twisted in the aftermath. Bartrand eventually sold the idol off to a woman who turned out to be Knight Templar Meredith Stannard herself, whose reign of mage terror and paranoia was likely fueled even further by red lyrium. These events snowballed into the doom of Kirkwall and were a major contributor to the outbreak of the Mage-Templar war.

Hawke pursued the trail of their father, and they discovered imprisoned Corypheus. Despite Hawke and Varric thinking they defeated Corypheus for good, he sneaked out, having hopped into one of the Grey Wardens present at the site.

Around the year 9:40, Fen'Harel decided he must re-join the world of living, regain his powers, and tear down the Veil ASAP. He set now-freed Corypheus onto the trail of his Orb of power. Corypheus chose the Conclave, called by Divine Justinia Vth in Haven to end the mage-tempalr war, as his opportunity to tear the Breach in the sky and return to the Black City. With the ritual interrupted by the future Herald of Andraste, Inquisition's events ensued. Fen'Harel joined the Inquisition undercover to grant them resources of his former rebellion and nudge it towards success, as he needed someone else to kill Corypheus and let him close enough to his Orb.

In the secret ending, Flemeth is shown in a slide next to Corypheus and the Breach. And we realize that, once again, Flemythal was weakened. After defeating Corypheus, it turned out that Fen'harel's orb got destroyed, and that he could not recover his powers from it anymore. In the DAI post-credit scene, he admitted his mistake of giving his Orb to Corypheus to Flemythal, and she offered him her powers (the final statuette mural in Lighthouse seems to lend this scene a tone of underlying conflict or reluctant consent on Mythal's part, rather than apology and sorrow). Flemythal with experience of entire centuries was no longer an actor in history, even if Morrigan salvaged her legacy and whatever memories of Mythal she could.

The red lyrium idol, now imbued into the red lyrium husk of Meredith, got stolen. Through trickery described in The Assassin's Tale in The Dread Wolf Take You and the intrigue of the comic books from Knight Errant to Dark Fortress, the idol found its way back to Fen'Harel's agents. It was purified into Solas's dagger, as recognized by Rook's vision of Varric in DATV.

According to Luck in The Gardens from Tevinter Nights, an eldritch being named Cekorax haunted Minrathous at some point. It was neither from "this world" nor from The Fade. It had very Void-y things to say about embracing peace in blindness.

Fen'Harel abandoned the Inquisition after Corypheus's defeat. Ten years of distractions, double crossing factions, planting his agents and work undercover followed to ensure the success of his plan. During a crucial meeting of spies at the Teahouse, he made an appearance in disguise, among agents who want to share intel... about his plans specifically. And an Executor was among them. Fen'Harel killed several birds with one stone: petrified the Executor before they revealed to others what they knew, killed the Carta assassin and the Mortalitasi. The agent of the Inquisitor begged for her life, and Fen'Harel granted it - but not before sending Charter away with a warning about the Executors. He also hinted that a greater threat to "all existence" urges him to carry out his plan no matter what.

Varric Tethras established a new network of connections that eventually discovered Fen'harel's hideaway in Minrathous in the nick of time, just as he was moving the remaining two Evanuris to a new, more stable prison before taking down the Veil for good. Rook, informed solely by Varric so far, makes a quick call to interrupt the ritual while Varric tries to talk Solas down. Events of Veilguard ensue. Having swapped with the Evanuris in the Fade prison, Fen'Harel grants the Veilguard the resources of his former rebellion and nudges Rook towards success, as long as it benefits him. He needs someone else to dispose of the Evanuris for him and get his ritual dagger back.

The Veilguard learns about the origins of the Blight and Mythal's and Fen'harel's involvement in it. In retrospective, Mythal commissioned a weapon that would stop the Titans from retaliating for the elvhen firstborn stealing lyrium to make bodies for themselves. By tearing the Titans' spirit essence ("dreams") from them, Mythal corrupted them, which spawned the Blight. Mythal buried the secret of the Blight and tried to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.

But some people might have found the Void of their own accord and splintered from the Evanuris. These were erased from history and deemed the Forgotten Ones. When Elgar'nan usurped all the power, Mythal turned her back on Fen'Harel to be closer to Elgar'nan instead, where she assessed she was more needed as the gods' Peacekeeper. Ghilan'nain joined the Evanuris in her pursuit of an ultimate transgression. Fen'Harel stepped at Elgar'nan's ego so effectively that the Evanuris wanted to embrace the blight to defeat him???? Mythal gatekept the knowledge again, so Elgar'nan got rid of her. [I'm not sure of this part to be fair, I'm probably missing something. DATV Act 2 was terribly hazy for me]

This prompted Fen'Harel to carry out the Great Betrayal, lock out the Evanuris, and quarantine the Blight in the Black City. The Veil, kept up by the Evanuris's own life force, was established together with the Black City, but it also pulled all the celestial spirit essence to stick to one area, which became the modern Fade. Thus, the Great Betrayal weakened the world's magic and doomed the elvhen race to the Quickening. It seems that Fen'Harel did not expect the full extent of the Betrayal's consequences, and the Veil was doomed to slowly deteriorate on its own anyway. As we learn, the Archdemons being killed in their respective Blights likely led directly to other Evanuris' demise. Fen'Harel feared the Wardens preventively killing the remaining Archdemons in DAI because, before taking all the "precautions" and preparations between DAI and DATV, he must have expected this to abruptly end BOTH "veils" and make the Black City burst open.

The Veilguard slays the two remaining Archdemons and two remaining Evanuris, and no matter the outcome for Solas, he is bound with his life's blood to keep the Veil up - by choice, by trickery, or by force. Wardens near Hossberg hint that the Blight might have started to respond to some other "song", that Antoine sensed underneath the Archdemon/ Evanuris song.

In his "good" ending, Fen'Harel vows to do whatever he can to soothe the sundered Titans' blighted dreams, though he cannot heal it completely. Still, his Dinan'Shiral is far from complete.

CONCLUSION: The Executors seem to show keen interest in the quotient of the Blight in the world, its power, its gatekeepers and its enemies. They might try to snatch control over the Blight once it has started to sing "something else" than the Evanuris. And thanks to a cascade of events that led up to DATV, the Taint is virtually everywhere. Its greatest gatekeeper Flemythal is no longer active and Morrimythal isn't nearly as experienced and competent to fend off cosmic threats. Fen'Harel has been bound to fuel the Veil.

PERSONAL TINFOIL THEORY: The Blight channels whatever is the strongest currently manifest will of the Void. First, it was the corrupted spirit/dreams of the Titans themselves, then, the Evanuris used the Blight as a weapon and made the Archdemons their proxies in the Blight's "song", now it can be the Executors, or the returning Forgotten Ones. Perhaps the Black City has formed a will of its own, even - the Blight eruptions we dispatched across Hossberg Wetlands seemed to be eerily more intelligent than the "regular" Blight.

[vigilskeep]

see i think there's a whole potential Thing in mage hawke being Aware they aren't the mage their sister and malcolm were, like good but never great, and personally i imagined my mage hawke tried to make up for it by learning melee combat/actually using their staff as a polearm a lot of the time. but like as things get worse in kirkwall, the idea of hawke trying to learn more magic to be able to protect their friends like they failed to protect their family and just knowing as they struggle that bethany would have gotten it by now (and for the thousandth time thinking it should've been them that day instead and her here in kirkwall befriending apostates and living as lady amell and having some taste of freedom) idk it's juicy to me but i also played mage hawke first so i'm definitely biased 🤷‍♀️

yeah i get this. it’s definitely the angle i’ve gone for because of this specifically. it just bores me a little to play bc im like well i could have bethany here doing this cooler and that also means i would have bethany here... i think it doesn’t help that i’m very accustomed to my dao mage being a high damage power trip so switching to mage hawke is just like. ugh this loser jgshsjsks

[elvhenmage]

thoughts on carver, everett, and malcom that i'm transferring over from twitter in an attempt to also preserve my ramblings here 👍🏼

tweeted 8/9/24

spent my entire shower thinking about how everett never truly got a chance to mourn carver because she had to be the one in charge and take care of leandra and bethany while they grieved, and carver was before kirkwall so she didn't even have any friends to go to. she had to be the strong one and because of it she couldn't properly mourn the loss of her little brother, and i know that rocky relationship is going to knock the fucking wind out of her someday when she's thinking about him again in the wake of leandra's death. reminiscing about the family to anders who never really got to know any of them except for bethany, a little

carver always felt like he was living in hawke's shadow, even more so for everett personally i feel because he already couldn't compete with bethany being a mage, but now he can't even make a name for himself as a warrior/soldier because his big sister's always there. idk the specifics of their time in cailan's army but i imagine everett was by his side constantly because she was worried about him

i think malcolm raised her to be the man of the house because he wanted his family taken care of in the event he died or was taken away, and that absolutely messed everett up as a kid. it's why she doesn't let herself cry in front of the party and why she lies about how she's feeling or otherwise keeps it to herself. but because malcolm raised her that way, she mothers the twins a lot and where i think bethany appreciates it, carver hates it because he thinks hawke is being patronizing

it's such a shame they were never able to reconcile that. i'm sure everett's haunted by the fact that it always seemed like carver didn't like her and she could never figure out why until they were older but by that point the damage had been done and she didn’t know how to undo it, especially not after malcolm’s death, so they sort of just sat in limbo

she's also haunted by the fact that she'll never get to tell him how much she loved him and how proud she was of him and how she knows malcolm felt the same. one of her biggest fears/regrets is the idea that carver died thinking he was unloved or out of place in his family

another thing is that i think that the reason carver would nail bethany's braid to the bed when they were children stems from him seeking attention from malcolm, whether good or bad. idk what his relationship with leandra was like but we know from carver that he felt neglected by malcolm (though i can’t find the dialogue so idk what he says specifically)

and there’s also my personal canon being that carver is the spitting image of leandra where everett got malcolm’s hair and bethany got his eyes, so he doesn’t even have that tying them together. the only thing carver has from malcolm is that malcolm named him. bethany was his little mage and everett was the family guardian, and that left carver feeling like the odd kid out even when malcolm trained him similar to the way he trained hawke iirc. and he was never able to move on from feeling like the black sheep and resenting his sister(s) because he died so young :(