#Samhal Lavellan

[rederiswrites]

I should redo the letters and meetings with the Inquisitor, just as a very strenuous exercise in creativity. Because the levels of He Would Not Say That are just.... Poor Arden. If he's my "canon" Rook (for me all that means is the ones that fit all in one contiguous narrative) that means he gets Samhal. Which means I have to imagine an older, more mature Samhal that might conceivably be helpful in any way whatsoever, other than by being bitter together.

[flowers-for-elgarnan]

Some sketches of a few of my favorite boys. Feat. my canon inquisitor, Samhal Lavellan

[mysdrymmumbles]

Mysdrym’s Fanfic Writer Appreciation

Hey! So. This is in no way a complete compilation, mostly since I haven’t been reading nearly as much as I want to, but here’s a quick list of some of the writers and their fics that I’d like to give a shout out to:

The Fire and the Flood by @ma-sulevin, a romance between OC Rose Wedgewood and Cullen Rutherford <3 Also, The Life and Times of Sophie Amell is an amazing read.

Little Fox by @rederiswrites, an awesome take on the inquisitor’s tale with one of the least heroic and most assholish characters ever. Samhal is awesome <3

A Class Act by @slothquisitor, a completed modern au where Cullen Rutherford and Mara Lavellan are school teachers trying to save their school. They are my otp <3

Anything @momopichu writes is amazing. They write a lot of overwatch stuff, and I don’t know much about it, but every piece I’ve read is awesome <3

@commandershepardvasfuckit writes ME fics, and while -- again -- I don’t know so much about it, her work is always amazing, and she writes well enough that you don’t need to have played the games to get what’s going on and all that. <3 A Galaxy Apart is definitely worth the read!

The Revelation of All Things by @ellenembee is another great retelling of the inquisitor’s story, as a dalish mage who ends up romancing Cullen. 

Acts of Reclamation by @thesecondsealwrites is another awesome mage!inquisitor x Cullen fic, and totally worth the read. 

The Lion of Skyhold by @cometeclipsewriting is also amazing. It’s a retelling of sleeping beauty using DAI characters, and it’s awesome. All of her fairy tale stories are <3 

Anything by @welseykels is awesome, too. She writes a lot of DA fic, with Alistair and Cullen, and The Ballad of Alistair Theirin is pretty cool. 

Lastly, I mentioned her last year, but Herbrarian over on Ao3 writes some amazing DA fic. She does so well filling out Blackwall’s backstory <3 <3

These writers are all amazing, and I wanted to thank them for the stories they weave <3 Ya’ll are awesome

[allenvooreef]

Day 926 - I believe tomorrow is @rederiswrites birthday so I felt it was high time I picked up on reading her wonderful fic Little Fox and draw the magnificent Asshole Inquisitor: Samhal Lavellan! 🦊

[goldenapplebeads]

Inked Samhal, for some contrast to today’s daily drawing nightmare.

[thetaiwanesedartjob]

@rederiswrites‘ Samhal Lavellan from her fic (which I am, personally, entirely too invested in and I want you all to suffer with me because Samhal is the sarcastic asshole Thedas deserves and non-creepo Dom!Solas and tormenting Cassandra and just too many good things to list here) Little Fox.  Go read it.

Now.

[hallahideout]

A quick and foxy Samhal Lavellan for the talented @rederiswrites. Don’t ask why he’s naked, I have no excuse. 

If anyone hasn’t already, go read Little Fox ‘cause it’s pretty rad :3

[rederiswrites]

Great thing is that this changes almost nothing I might write to finish Little Fox. Like, I was right on all the relevant lore and Veilguard has nothing to say on the Inquisitor except that (to Samhal's signifcant sorrow but not surprisingly) they continued to lead a small group and be a powerful figure in the south. Samhal would absolutely NOT have said the shit the Inquisitor said in Veilguard, or at the very least not the way they said it, but functionally he would still have done what had to be done and certainly he would still have wanted to save Solas. (And whatever thoughts *I* might have on the subject, he would not want the Veil to come down.)

[rederiswrites]

This came to me in a vision, and so I give you this snippet of (poor) Arden meeting Samhal. I can't give you entire conversations because you still don't know how things turned out for Samhal. But he's still...him.

___

The tiny man across the table was putting down food in a way that made Arden question whether he was the main attraction of the visit. Sensing the lull in the conversation, the Inquisitor looked up. He grinned, mouth still full, and finished chewing before he said anything.

“Sorry. Food in the south’s terrible. Only gonna get worse for the next few years, given how much cropland’s gone under. Enjoy this–” he gestured to the table, which was spread with an astonishing collection of cheeses, charcuterie, dolmas, olives, and pastries, “--while you can.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.” Arden sighed, carefully choosing a pastry that looked like something he’d had with Lucanis in Treviso. That one had had a chocolate hazelnut filling. This one turned out to be sesame seed, and a bit overwhelming.

“Wait’ll you’ve done this for over a decade. You’ll be thinking of the most tedious shit imaginable, all the time.”

“Maker, I hope not!” Arden exclaimed.  

Samhal looked up sharply and grinned. There was something shockingly predatory about it, emphasized by the prominent canines. Arden wasn’t sure how a man that came to his chin managed to look so dangerous.

“We’ll see. Beats all being dead.”

“Right. That’s not what I meant. Sorry.” Arden was trying to re-find his footing. This was not at all what he’d imagined, even after Varric’s warnings. Stories. Maybe warnings was the right word after all.

“So. Was June a colossal asshole, too?” Samhal asked, talking around an entire stuffed grape leaf.

“Sorry, what?”

Samhal gestured to the pale lines tracing across his face. “Just curious. Don’t worry–I picked his vallaslin for the look.”

“Ah. Um. I assume so? He hasn’t really come up much, sorry. He did make the Eluvians, though.”

“Those are pretty great. Got me eating Rivaini right now. Got you popping up all over northern Thedas like a bad penny. I’ll take the win.”

“Any wins we can get,” Arden replied, finally on safe conversational ground. “Weisshaupt was terrible. Fenedhis.”

The predatory grin was instantly back. 

“Fenedhis. From the elvhen. Means wolf dick.”

“Oh,” Arden said, faintly. “OH.”

“Yeah. Fun times!” Samhal gestured to the table. “Here, try the sponge cake. It’s got an orange syrup to die for.”

[rederiswrites]

OC Height Comparison Chart

@opal-bee​ did this nifty chart (site here) and I wanted to play too.

I just used my Dragon Age characters. Canon love interests are there in grey for comparison, except Annis’ Alistair, who I also accept as being 6 feet, same as Cullen, who is there. 

The site works in metric, but here are their heights in feet and inches, which is how my brain understands height.

Zevran I’ve put at 5′4″, short for an elf but also, to my mind, unusually broad-shouldered.

Aedan Cousland is fucking huge by any reasonable standard, 6′7″ and built like Thor. He throws the whole damn chart off visually.

Annis Amell is 5′2″, but what the chart won’t let me show is that she’s also fat and stacked. She doesn’t get any lighter hiking around and fighting, just stronger.

Jeannie Hawke is slim and lithe, and just over 5′4″

Fenris I didn’t really have a specific height in mind for and I don’t remember what canon says. I just see him as being...average elf dude height? So I put him at 5′6″

Ainsley Trevelyan, the only one here who isn’t in the Little Fox canon, is also 5′6″. She’s built sturdy, not particularly curvy but solid.

Cullen Rutherford I put at 6′, which I think fits well enough with the information we’re provided.

Samhal Lavellan is my smallest guy at not quite 5′3″, small even for an elf. He’s not built as narrow as the base model male elf, with shoulders and, at least initially, some padding over smooth dancer’s muscle. He gets pretty rundown though.

Solas I’ve made tall for an elf but not for a human, and put at 5′9″

[rederiswrites]

Re-read a big chunk of Little Fox the other day and reminded myself how frustrating Samhal could be for me as a writer sometimes, specifically because he doesn’t trust, he doesn’t go out of his way to make friends unless its strategic, and he doesn’t poke into people’s personal stuff. But especially in fanfic, we usually indulge and let ourselves love on characters we as authors like, and so when a character gets shafted by the writing, it does tend to feel like the author doesn’t like them.

I adore Dagna. Samhal thought she was fucken weird and a little creepy, and then dismissed her from his mind. I adore Cole. Samhal doesn’t remember him a lot of the time. Samhal doesn’t know about Dorian’s dad until it comes up, doesn’t ever discover Vivienne’s personal business, takes a total surface read on the whole Bianca thing, and very reasonably doesn’t trust Iron Bull. He’s a useful mercenary. Blackwall is a good captain who takes initiative with the soldiers, and that’s about it. 

Once you’re in the gate with him, he is ride or die, but so far that’s like...three and a half people. Which is still more friends than he’s ever had before and frankly more than he knows what to do with. Everyone else is guilty until proven innocent. (Except Alistair, whom he had an instant hero crush on. Who can blame him?)

[rederiswrites]

Hi, don't know if that prompt list was one you wanted ask prompts for. If not, just ignore me. If yes, I choose "Flamboyant", please

Sure, lemme see what I can come up with.

--

“Is that...are you quite sure that outfit is appropriate for the occasion?” Cullen’s face didn’t quite know what to do.

Samhal surveyed himself in the mirror, turning to make sure the pants fit right in the back. He wiggled his eyebrows and blew his reflection a kiss. “Appropriate?” he mused. “According to what, a Fereldan?”

“I’m afraid a Fereldan is all I can be. Still, I have spent enough time in the Free Marches to know that...this... is also not customary there.”

“You don’t think I look good?”

“Oh you um I. You look well enough. Perhaps the gold is a bit...excessive?”

“No such thing. I’m fucking amazing in gold, don’t play.”

“Very well, as you say. But the uhm...well, I have never seen a ruff so large with a collar so low. I don’t think I even know the words.”

“It’s a statement, Cullen.”

“Err...precisely what does it say?”

“’Suck my dick’, obviously. Don’t worry, it’s perfect.”

[rederiswrites]

God I miss all my character babies so much. Looking at @thetaiwanesedartjob 's art of Samhal got me loving him so hard. Man, please always take any chance you have to commission artists that are already fans of your character! "Oh no, not blasphemy!" kills me every time, and that was her idea, not mine. And I'm always so glad to have at least one art that shows little individual details like his prominent canines and tongue piercing. And the bloody one is his expression after doing one of his accidental full-contact walking bomb spells that he could Really Live Without and is also very dear to me.

[rederiswrites]

I really truly am working on the next chapter of Little Fox, I swear. I know everyone’s forgotten what’s even happened so far, but I WILL FINISH. Someday. I promised myself, and I owe it to the characters. Anyhow, this chapter is the Winter Palace, and as I hope you’ve come to expect by now, it doesn’t go like any of the in-game options. Here’s an excerpt:

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

Cullen had known this was a mistake the moment they’d stepped through the doors. Him, that was--he was the mistake. He didn’t belong here. Not like the others. Leliana had fluttered away like her namesake nightingale already, smiling at some stranger and laughing behind her fan. Cassandra looked angry, but angry like a disapproving foreign dignitary--which was actually what she was supposed to do, as he understood it. Josephine, of course, was in her element.

Samhal looked... perfect. He somehow combined his dancer’s grace with the thoughtless swagger of a man who owned everything he surveyed. He moved through the crowd with Cassandra and Josephine at his shoulders, and as tiny as he was, he was unmissable, shimmering green and gold in the light from the chandeliers. Abruptly, Cullen’s memory brought up a vision of Samhal sitting on the end of his desk, feet swinging, reciting Josephine’s etiquette instructions in a terrible Orlesian accent. He still never knew what to expect of the man.

When the Herald announced, “Samhal Lavellan, of Clan Lavellan, Herald of Andraste,” Samhal strode forward and greeted Celene without a hint of his usual accent and as if he had as much right to be there as did she. Cullen knew Samhal and the Mark well enough to know that it didn’t normally shine so visibly. He also knew that it hurt Samhal to make it do that.

[rederiswrites]

I honestly forgot that my contribution to @rhodaperdition 's graphic novel (just out! Check her out!) came with a sketch, and this gorgeous contemplative Samhal stopped me in my tracks. My heart is full.

[rederiswrites]

Little Fox, Ch. 52

Read it on AO3

Excerpt: 

Samhal sighed. “Well, go back and tell her that if she thinks I won’t give my own brother a roaring case of the shits for a little fucking privacy she’s paying less attention than she thinks. I’m sure you can sell her on that.”

“Sure. You did it when we were kids, for less reason. But it’s not like you can pretend people aren’t out to kill you. What do you think, you’re bladeproof?”

“And you are?” Samhal snapped.

“No! But I’m also not the Herald of Andraste!”

“Fen’harel’s fucking ass, what the fuck does that even mean? What, are you gonna die for me and then I’ll eulogize over your redemption and send gold to your weeping widow and brats?”

“Gods, you’re unpleasant.”

“Yes, thanks, it’s intentional! Now fuck off!”