#WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

[heroinesofthedas]

Meh, I was bored so I thought I'd try and complie a small "Where are they now"? List for Dragon Age companions as of Veilguard.

Origins

Alistair

Dependent on player choices, Alistair can either end Origins as King of Ferelden, A Warden Commander or a Drunk living miserably in Kirkwall.

King Alistair seems to be the "canon" or at least default ending for him, as most Dragon Age extended media such as the comics have him as king. If he is king, Alistair can either rule alone, is married to his half-brother's widow Anora, marries a Female!Cousland warden (either romantically or the warden can push it politically) or have a non-noble female warden as his mistress. Due to the taint (and Anora's suspected infertility) the future of Ferelden's crown is in question as it is unlikely that Alistair will have an heir of his own.

If Alistair does not become king and does not leave the Wardens, then he will be Hawke's warden contact in Inquisition and depending on the player's choices, either he or Hawke can sacrifice themselves in the fade, it is assumed that they died but behind the scenes info from Veilguard suggested that they did plan on bringing back the Fade Sacrifice so keep an eye out for him?

If Alistair does not become king of Ferelden and leaves the Wardens, he can be seen in the Hanged Man sporadically in Dragon Age II as a bitter drunk, in Act 3 his step-uncle Teagan is there trying to convince him to return to Ferelden.

--

Morrigan

Depending on the players choices, Morrigan can end Origins as a mother, but reguardless she will leave the group after the Archdemon is killed. It is later learned that she has managed to get an Eluvian working and has plans, ending slides of Origins mention her as Empress Celene's Court Mage.

If romanced, Morrigan can have a normal son with the Warden named Kieran, or the Warden can chose to do Morrigan's Dark Ritual and seal the Archdemon Urthemiel's soul inside the fetus, Kieran will be an odd but otherwise harmless kid when you meet him in Inquisition, if the Warden does not do the Dark Ritual (either by themself if male, or by convincing their Warden companion Alistair/Logain to do the deed) then either the Warden or their Warden companion will die killing the Archdemon. If a romanced Morrigan is confronted by the Eluvian in the Witch Hunt DLC, the pair can enter the Eluvian together. A Morrigan whose a mother mentions that she has taken great pains to ensure that nobdy at the Orleasian court is aware that Kieran is her son.

During Inquisition, Morrigan can drink from the Well of Sorrows, embuing her with thousands of years of knowlege of the ancient elves, but also binding her will to the Elven Goddess Mythal, who as it turns out is her abusive mother Flemeth, someone Morrigan has been trying to flee ever since learning that Flemeth plans on body jumping into Morrigan.

In Veilguard, Morrigan seems to be on good terms with the Veil Jumpers, arriving to help them after Solas' ritual and somewhere in the interim between Inquisition and Veilguard, Mythal was sucessful in posessing Morrigan, we are lead to believe that Morrigan was fully consenting to accepting a fragment of Mythal's essence.

--

Leliana

Leliana is one of those characters that proved to be tricky to the writers of the game, there are two moments where the player can kill Leliana but despite that she is still very prominent in following media as a close friend and agent to Divine Justinia after the Fifth Blight.

If Leliana is killed in Origins (the opportunities are when she tries to force herself into your party, if you keep rejecting her she will get hostile and attack you. The other time if you decide to defile the Urn of Sacred Ashes and don't intimidate her into compliance) then when the Inquisitor talks to her in Haven, Leliana will mention her death and believes that The Maker was who brought her back to life, this could suggest that this version of Leliana is either an Abomination whose spirit posessed her at the moment of death and thus revived like Wynne, or a spirit that believes that they are someone else, like Cole. At the end of Trespasser, an "undead" Leliana's epilogue reads as;

Eventually, Leliana became distant and contemplative, often secluding herself in the rookery with none but her ravens for company. One morning, the residents of Skyhold awoke to a great beating of wings and a vast cloud of ravens blotting out the sky above the fortress. Those who investigated found both the rookery and Leliana's chambers vacant, with only a single message as explanation: "The lyrium sang thought into being. Now time is stale, and the melody is called elsewhere. Until I am needed, I am free."

If you didn't kill Leliana, then her serving her old friend and mentor; Sister Dorothea--later promoted to Divine Justinia--is less of a curiosity and depending on certain choices the player can make in Inquisition, Leliana can end the came as the new Divine of the Chantry; Divine Victoria, where she will go down in history as a reformist, allowing not only male members of the chantry to move up as "brother" status, but also allowing elves and dwarves to join as well as making the Chanticle of Shartan Chantry canon once again. Leliana also allows clergy members to marry and it is implied if not outright stated that a romanced Divine Leliana intends to marry The Warden when they return to Thedas.

If Leliana isn't made Divine, then she will remain in service to the Chantry as the Left Hand of the Divine, though primarily offering her services to the Inquisitor in locating Solas and his forces.

--

Zevran

An Assasin that was sent to kill you, fumbles the ball and survives on charm afterwards.

If you don't kill Zevran after his botched Assasination attempt and recruit him, Zevran will join the party and if you got his approval high enough, will even turn his back on the Crows fully when they come to "clean up his mess".

A datamined letter to The Warden, where he expresses that he wishes he could be with them but these pesky Crows have made their move as well as his cameo Quest in II where he's running from the Crows, suggest that despite his very stern resignation from the Crows, they won't let him retire and he has had to spent a few years of his life fighting them off, if Hawke helps Zevran fight the Crows he will be there during the battle with Meredith to help fight her too.

There is a bug in II where a romanced Zevran will accept Isabela's offer to sleep together because of their past romance (an Isabelamanced Hawke will join in if they so chose) but Zevran is meant to turn her down if romanced, however if you never learned that this was a bug, not a feature and thought Zev and the Warden just had an open relationship, then god for you.

If romanced by the Warden, it is implied that he's joined them on their journey off continent in search of a cure for the Taint, he is the only romanced character to do so (because he has no big important plot elements in Inquisition).

Zevran will be alluded to a few times in Veilguard, though treated more as an embarrasment than anything else, we can assume that house Aranai eventually learned to stop sending people after Zevran after they lost too many assasins to his charm and companions helping him fight.

--

Wynne

During Uldred's uprising against the Circle of Magi during the Blight, Wynne was killed. But she got better. Within the game it is revealed that at the moment of her death, a spirit of Faith came and reached out to her, posessing her and efectively "jumpstarting" her body, after the Blight and as thanks for herservices she was allowed a breathtaking amount of freedom for a Mage during this time and was allowed to roam Thedas, often with Shale for company. After Anders' bomb and the ensuing Annulment of the Kirkwall Chantry, Wynne--who was always a Circle Loyalist--was enlisted by the circles to effectively go on tour and try and talk the other Circles out of rebelling, with mixed results considering many felt like she was a hypocrite to tell everyone to keep to the status quo while she lived free.

When Pharamond, an old friend of Wynne who was made Tranquil and discovered the cure for Tranquility was murdered and the Lord Seeker claiming that the murder weapon belonged to Wynne's estrained son Rhys, Wynne--with the help of Cole, Leliana, Shale and Divine Justinia acting as a distraction to the Seekers and Templars--destroyed the phylacteries of the Orlesian Circle and all hell broke lose as the mages battled for their freedom agains the Templars. During the conflict Rhys' lover, the templar Evangeline was felled in battle and Wynne passed on her spirit of Faith to Evangeline, ultimately sacrificing her life to bring another person back for her son.

Wynne is also a character that can be killed by The Warden in game, this is never adressed in following games.

--

Oghren

Divorced Widow the Paragon Bianca, a recruited Oghren will end up joining the Grey Wardens after the events of Dragon Age origins and reacts to nightmares about as well as anyone whose never dreamed a dream in their life does. Depending on whether or not you do Oghren's personal quest, you will learn that he joined the wardens to avoid fatherhood, his hookup with his past love, Felsi, having resulted in a chid, who he affectionately calls "Nugget" and names after the Warden.

Depending on choices made in Awakening (such as if you have him lead the defence of the keep or not, and if you've fully upgraded your keep for that fact) Oghren can either die in battle or survive. There is no futher mention of him after Awakening.

If the Warden kills him in Origins, he will still show up in Awakening, looking to join and if the Warden mentions that they killed him, Oghren will just shrug it off and say how he woke up with nothing on and compliment the Warden on trying to kill him.

--

Sten

Sten can be rescued by the Warden in Lothering by a number of means, or left to die.

After the events of Origins and the Blight, Sten eventually becomes an Arishok (Qunari Warlord, for lack fo a better term) and it's safe to say that he is the reason why the Qunari have sent and allowed some of their own numbers to join the Grey Warden's ranks after witnessing the importance of their role.

It is Sten-Now Arishok, that teaches Alistair, Varric and Isabela about the belief that Qunari are descended from Dragons, when Alistair and Sten-Arishok end up fighting at one point, Varric lies to the Antaam that Alistair was dubbed "Basilit-An" and thus they could not interfere in the battle, after the fight Sten-Arishok concedes that he does, infact, reguard Alistair as an "Outsider worthy of respect" and thus confirms Varrics lie.

In The Veilguard, there is a codex that mentions that the Antaam working against you and with the Evanuris broke off from the Qun and have gone rogue, opting for a more "Kill anyone whose not us" approach to the teachings of the Qun while the Sten-Arishok's views were more for overall conversion to the Qun, it was this schism and breakoff that suggests that the rogue leaders of the Antaam (I.E The Dragon King and the Butcher among others) attacked Sten-Arishok and left him in critical condition.

--

Shale

A Golem that fought alongside Loghain and Alistairs dad against french colonists, Shale spent a couple of decades in stasis until the Warden came along and woke them up, with nothing better to do after murdering their former master, Shale follows the Warden, potentially learning that they used to be a dwarven woman named Shayle Cadash (Some relation to Inquisitor Cadash, who in The Descent DLC can even mention Shayle being the reason their family was banished from Orzammar when they made a ruckus about Shayle's disappearance) turned golem.

After the Blight, Shale accompanies Wynne around Thedas and sets up shop with the rebel mages in Orlais after Wynne's death to keep an eye on her son.

During Dragon Age II, the barkeep of the Hanged Man can comment that apparently the pigeon population of Ferelden is in sharp decline and wonders who could be killing the pigeons. It's Shale.

--

"Barkspawn" A.K.A the Mabari

Your faithful Mabari companion, its stated that after the Blight, the Mabari population was crippled due to exposure to the taint and thus, the Mabari was put to stud to repopulate Ferelden's beloved dog breed. There is a codex found at Weisshaupt in Veilguard that mentions a Grey Warden's mabari named Ostagar who is supposedly descended from Barkspawn.

--

Loghain

Hero of the River Dane, Tyern of Gwaren, Father of the Queen of Ferelden, fucked the previous Queen of Ferelden, most likely fucked the previous King of Ferelden too. And depending on the player's choices, he'll either be remembered a hero or as a villain.

The most common fate for Loghain is execution in combat at the Landsmeet, but before then both Anora and a warden contact, Riordon, plead his case to join the Wardens (Maker knows you need more Wardens, and someone who knows how to lead an army). If you do recruit Loghain, Alistair will leave the party. You also don't get this option if Alistair is the one to fight Loghain in combat as Alistair will kill Loghain.

If Loghain is recruited, then he can be talked into doing the Dark Ritual with Morrigan, ensuring the Wardens wont be instantly killed by felling the Archdemon, or not and either he or the Hero of Ferelden die landing the final blow against him.

If Loghain survives this, he will be Hawke's Warden contact in Inquisition and can be the one sacrificed in the fade, see Alistair's paragraph for that.

Phew, that took longer than I thought, I'll do sperate ones for II and Inquisition later.

[sowhatifiliveinfukuoka]

My former life...

Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England (flickr)

The women of my eighteenth birthday

[iero]

I still cannot reblog Winona Ryder content without thinking of that anon a while back who sent me hate because I said Winona Ryder is h*t. Let me speak my truth!

[so-much-for-subtlety]

whatever happened to them?

[misskelley]

I thought no one watched women’s basketball?

[thekittyfox2999]

I miss those otp videos from 2015 where a love song would play over images of a ship.

[sodaft-potato]

Sorry to bother but, have you ever drawn julius? The tuxedo cat who in technical terms can be considered a third Disney brother? He’s even more Forgotten then oswald (which is crazy to think about)

But half his cartoons is considered lost media by this point so there’s that

This is perfectly timed! I've been watching early Disney cartoons tonight and spotting Julius/similar cats everywhere. He's so much like Felix that it hurts (he frequently removes/transforms his tail for gags, and there was one instance I noted where he literally did the Felix pace). But tbh I love and support him regardless, and he developed more identity later in life. I've never drawn him, but I probably will soon.

[shadesofmauve]

I want to step away from the art-vs-artist side of the Gaiman issue for a bit, and talk about, well, the rest of it. Because those emotions you're feeling would be the same without the art; the art just adds another layer.

Source: I worked with a guy who turned out to be heavily involved in an international, multi-state sex-slavery/trafficking ring.

He was really nice.

Yeah.

It hits like a dumptruck of shit. You don't feel stable in your world anymore. How could someone you interacted with, liked, also be a truly horrible person? How could your judgement be that bad? How can real people, not stylized cartoon bogeymen, be actually doing this shit?

You have to sit with the fact that you couldn't, or probably couldn't, have known. You should have no guilt as part of this horror — but guilt is almost certainly part of that mess you're feeling, because our brains do this associative thing, and somehow "I liked [the version of] the guy [that I knew]", or his creations, becomes "I made a horrible mistake and should feel guilty."

You didn't, loves, you didn't.

We're human, and we can only go by the information we have. And the information we have is only the smallest glimpse into someone else's life.

I didn't work closely with the guy I knew at work, but we chatted. He wasn't just nice; he was one of the only people outside my tiny department who seemed genuinely nice in a workplace that was rapidly becoming incredibly toxic. He loaned me a bike trainer. Occasionally he'd see me at the bus stop and give me a lift home.

Yup. I was a young woman in my twenties and rode in this guy's car. More than once.

When I tell this story that part usually makes people gasp. "You must feel so scared about what could have happened to you!" "You're so lucky nothing happened!"

No, that's not how it worked. I was never in danger. This guy targeted Korean women with little-to-no English who were coerced and powerless. A white, fluent, US citizen coworker wasn't a potential victim. I got to be a person, not prey.

Y'know that little warning bell that goes off, when you're around someone who might be a danger to you? That animal sense that says "Something is off here, watch out"?

Yeah, that doesn't ping if the preferred prey isn't around.

That's what rattled me the most about this. I liked to think of myself as willing to stand up for people with less power than me. I worked with Japanese exchange students in college and put myself bodily between them and creeps, and I sure as hell got that little alarm when some asian-schoolgirl fetishist schmoozed on them. But we were all there.

I had to learn that the alarm won't go off when the hunter isn't hunting. That it's not the solid indicator I might've thought it was. That sometimes this is what the privilege of not being prey does; it completely masks your ability to detect the horrors that are going on.

A lot of people point out that 'people like that' have amazing charisma and ability to lie and manipulate, and that's true. Anyone who's gotten away with this shit for decades is going to be way smoother than the pathetic little hangers-on I dealt with in university. But it's not just that. I seriously, deeply believe that he saw me as a person, and he did not extend personhood to his victims. We didn't have a fake coworker relationship. We had a real one. And just like I don't know the ins-and-outs of most of my coworkers lives, I had no idea that what he did on his down time was perpetrate horrors.

I know this is getting off the topic, but it's so very important. Especially as a message to cis guys: please understand that you won't recognize a creep the way you might think you will. If you're not the preferred prey, the hind-brain alarm won't go off. You have to listen to victims, not your gut feeling that the person seems perfectly nice and normal. It doesn't mean there's never a false accusation, but face the fact that it's usually real, and you don't have enough information to say otherwise.

So, yeah. It fucking sucks. Writing about this twists my insides into tense knots, and it was almost a decade ago. I was never in danger. No one I knew was hurt!

Just countless, powerless women, horrifically abused by someone who was nice to me.

You don't trust your own judgement quite the same way, after. And as utterly shitty as it is, as twisted up and unstead-in-the-world as I felt the day I found out — I don't actually think that's a bad thing.

I think we all need to question our own judgement. It makes us better people.

I don't see villains around every corner just because I knew one, once. But I do own the fact that I can't know, really know, about anyone except those closest to me. They have their own full lives. They'll go from the pinnacles of kindness to the depths of depravity — and I won't know.

It's not a failing. It's just being human. Something to remember before you slap labels on people, before you condemn them or idolize them. Think about how much you can't know, and how flawed our judgement always is.

Grieve for victims, and the feeling of betrayal. But maybe let yourself off the hook, and be a bit slower to skewer others on it.

[charbroiledchicken]

"you're the writer, you control how the story goes" no not really. i wrote the first sentence and then my characters said "WE WILL TAKE IT FROM HERE" and promptly swerved into an electrical fence.

[kiryuing]

[mysillycomics]

[cyarsk52-20]

You cannot pay me to give a flying fck.

[talesfromthecrypts]

They actually make physical media for a much larger percentage of movies than they ever did in the past. Often with a lot more care than any small release was treated in the early dvd days. Its just if you only watch streaming stuff or the big new recent box office hits you won't see that. It is so ridiculously easy to get physical media for movies that even 5 years ago you couldn't even find. Like yes Netflix is a stingy bastard but so many things are available on disc WITH special features than ever before

[chaichai-draws]

Personally I think that Telemachus permanently and irreversibly changed Athena for the better, more on that at twelve

[sondu]

/canon reality x second chance/