#also?? she kicked the Inquisitors' asses

[slecnaztemnot]

Representatives of factions in Veilguard

Apart from our companions, it seems that each faction in the Veilguard will be represented by a pair (or more?) of main NPCs. Some of them already appeared in the trailer!

Antivan Crows

Viago de Riva and Andarateia Cantori (Teia)

Fifth and Seventh Talon of the Antivan Crows, respectively. We met them both in Tevinter Nights and in the comics (Deception, The Missing). Viago is bastard son of Antivan King and master poisoner. Teia is an elven thief and seductress. Her raise in ranks was considered controversial, since she had no connections and is not of noble blood.

They are dating (kinda sorta?)

Grey Wardens

Evka Ivo and Antoine

Evka is a formerly Orzammar dwarf who was saved by a Grey warden and joined their ranks. Antoine is an elf from Orlais, who was tainted and saved by Joining. We met them in Tevinter Nights, protecting a village from a very non-Darkspawn threat, in short stories on Bioware website and in comics The Missing.

Shot from the trailer:

They got engaged in the short story, its seriously cute!

Veil Jumpers

Irelin and Strife

Irelin is a Dalish elf from clan Morlyn. She is a shapeshifter mage. Strife is a former city elf from Starkhaven who joined Dalish as adult. He is a capable archer (and older, at least 50-60). We meet them in Tevinter Nights, short story on Bioware website and in comics The Missing.

They were both confirmed to appear in GameInformer article, which I sadly can't link due to GI being shut down. Irelin also appears in the shot of the trailer.

Images from comics

Mourn Watch

From now on, this is speculation, nothing confirmed in trailer or other media. For Mourn Watch, I think the representative NPCs will be:

Audric Felhausen and Myrna

Audric is a formerly city watch member who now works for Mourn watch and guards/catalogues library. We learn something interesting about him in Tevinter Nights! Myrna is a mage who we meet in the same story he appears in.

Possibly in this shot next to door, as spotted by a friendly redditor!

Lords of Fortune

Again, no confirmation. We meet one Lord of Fortune in Absolution, though Bioware said the cartoon is its own thing and not connected to Veilguard.

In Tevinter Nights, we meet two possible candidates:

Hollix, nonbinary Lord of Fortune, who is expert at disguise. We might have already met them, but we wouldn't be able to tell! Probably human, but its unclear?

Bharv is a dwarf and experienced Lord of Fortune from Rivain.

No pics here either!

Shadow Dragons

This group is most enigmatic, as its completely new to us! It was never mentioned in any of the Dragon Age media before Veilguard. We do meet Neve in Tevinter Nights, though she isn't a member there yet (or she doesn't mention it).

Of course, one has to wonder if we weren't shown any NPC members bcs they will be some of the returning companions. Options include:

Dorian, our beloved companion from DA:I, who returned to Tevinter to fight injustice. He has the advantage of being always alive (unlike other companions, like Iron Bull).

Maevaris Tilani is a character from comics and also appeared in Tevinter Nights (and was mentioned in War Table mission). She is a Tevinter Magister, trans woman and also kin to Varric through marriage. She kicks ass and I sincerely hope we meet her!

Fenris, our beloved companion from DA2! He is a former elven slave and recently appeared in comics as someone who helps others escape slavery, which aligns with Shadow Dragons missions. He can die in DA2, but only in a very specific case - so I wonder if Bioware will pull Leliana with him and just say his lyrium tattoos saved him from death.

What do you think? Any opinions? Who are you most excited to meet?

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Sword gays showdown, round 1, bracket two

Propaganda:

For Dave:

(tw meteors and child abuse) after being cloned by his best friend, dave is sent on a meteor to earth (with a pony), where he is found by his "bro" (actually kind of his dad). bro proceeds to SPEND THE NEXT 13 YEARS OF DAVES LIFE beating the everloving shit out of him, and also teaching him the use of the blade. as a result dave becomes very good at strifing, and his strife specibus is swordkind (basically he is Assigned Sword By Universe-Destroying Game). he goes to space and meets aliens and has a bisexual crisis! yeah thats right the blond guy with sword symbolism is BISEXUAL we keep on winning and dave deserves to win this poll too

his swords are sharp and awesome and are swords. 

Dave uses Multiple swords throughout canon. Starts with a katana, switches to a broad sword, and alchemizes multiple variations of said broadsword! Not to mention his entire story arc is about coming into himself and that includes into his sexuality. Bisexual Dave truther for the win  

Bi and gay sibling solidarity 

For Ahsoka:

Girl weilds not one but TWO lightsabers! Look at her go! I know a lot of her fans headcanon her as LGBTQ, especially cuz there's some episodes (especially episodes 5-8 of season 7) where her interactions with other women really give off those vibes. Anyway, back to her swordiness - she kicked Maul's robotic ass even tho he's older and has more experience than her, she demolishes the Inquisitors when she's older in Rebels, and just. Her cute little tricks and quips! I love her.

[heroesvow]

I need to get my thoughts out in the open, so here are my opinions if certain former companions / advisors are gonna pop up in DA4. I could be talking out of my ass here, so don't take any of this 100% seriously I have no idea how the story is gonna go and I could be surprised.

100% Confirmed - Solas ( Duh ) - Varric - Morrigan ( Still riding this high tbh ) - The Inquisitor ( Who knows what their role will be, but we get to customize them when we make our Rook so I'm excited to make my Inkys look tired and hot asf )

80% chance because it just makes SENSE. - Dorian ( We're in Tevinter, he's incredibly popular, and hopefully Maevaris pops up as well because she deserves to finally appear physically in a game. ) - Isabela ( This is my just me hoping tbh, but we're traveling to different places so her ship being our mode for transportation just makes sense to me. She showed up in concept art, and she's also dearly beloved by the fanbase. Bring her back ! )

50% chance because of locations, or possible small one scene moments for fun. - Zevran ( Antivan Crows baby ) - Leliana, Cassandra and Vivienne. ( If the divine appears in a single scene we'll probably get them. I can see Cass and Leliana appearing with the Inquisitor as well, but I don't think any of them will have a LARGE role in the story. ) - Alistair ( If he's a Grey Warden and is still kicking he might show up at Weisshaupt, if he's King he could also make a small cameo appearance during a single scene. Anora as well. He's my all time favorite so I of course want him to show up in at least ONE scene. ) - Blackwall, Loghain, Carver, Bethany ( Grey Wardens, they can show up at Weisshaupt. The Hawke twins are obviously determinant, but it'd be really nice to see them at least once. ) - Cole ( His connection to Solas gives me hope but who knows. ) - Sten ( We'll definitely see the Qunari and deal with them during some story beats. He's the current Arishok, it just makes sense. ) - Fenris ( His large role in the comics and him currently being in the areas from the game gives me hope. Gideon said he isn't in the game, but Claudia also said the same thing so who knows? ) - Shale ( Was in this area last we checked! Could show up! I hope so because Shale is deadass the funniest companion across the three games idc )

30% drinking copium kool aid. - Josephine ( Her appearing in one scene would be so nice, but she's not as popular as other characters so I don't have high hopes. ) - Iron Bull ( The Chargers could appear! But Freddie Prince Jr has said BioWare has no interest in him as a voice actor?? But who knows what their drama is really about. ) - Sera ( Could happen. No reason why she couldn't. ) - Merrill ( Her desire to bring back elven culture would be interesting to see in this story, but I personally don't think BioWare would consider her. I love her though and I would have her in this game in an instant if it was up to me. )

10% not ruling them out, but it's very unlikely. - The Warden ( I have given up hope babes. ) - Anders ( BioWare seems to REALLY dislike him so I don't see it happening. ) - Oghren ( I don't want him and if they choose to bring him back over others I might take drastic measures. ) - Hawke ( Maybe a voice cameo?? We know the person left in the fade isn't being addressed in this game, but if they weren't left behind maybe we'll get something lol )

0% chance these characters show up. - Aveline ( We're probably not going to Kirkwall and she has no reason to not be there. ) - Sebastian ( See Aveline, but swap Kirkwall with Starkhaven ) - Wynne ( She's dead. ) - Cullen ( LMAO he will never physically appear in this series again and I am fine with that. I love Cullen, but his VA needs to fuck off this planet ASAP. He'll probably get a mention by the Inquisitor if he was romanced and that will be it. )

[imfromthemiddlekingdom]

Felony saying that everyone in the universe can access the force if they tried hard enough makes me want to deck him in his fugly face

He’s ruining all established canon in real time. Speed running the absolute destruction of continuity of the SW universe and people are still rooting for him and his blorbo self inserts like there’s no tomorrow. Literally the whole reason I no longer engage in Ashoka content is because he massacred my girl and made her so one dimensional that my Mary Sue self insert fanfics OCs I wrote when I was 14 looks well developed compared to the absolute bland “girlboss kick ass take names” personality Ashoka has right now.

There were so many opportunities for him to explore the absolute potential of angst and conflict within Ashoka in this new series, to give her character a believable story of grief loss and growth yet he threw it all away because he wanted his OC to be the specialist girl that ever lived. This series could’ve been used to explore Ashokas conflicting feelings regarding the Anakin that taught her and was a mentor to her whilst trying to connect it to the monster that killed her family and hunted her culture into almost extinction and tried to kill her, a person he confessed to love as a sister, on Malachor. It could’ve been a good send off to a great character, to have her face that the Skyguy she put on a pedestal in her mind was in actuality the worst sort of scum and have her try to come to terms that just because she can forgive him for being the genocidal maniac he was and still hold love in her heart for who he used to be and also understand why the Jedi, her family, wasn’t the reason for their own downfall.

But alas. We got another series of “the Jedi caused their own downfall!!! Anakin did nothing wrong ever and him killing all my family and everyone I’ve ever known is so not his fault!!! It’s definitely the fault of the unbending stuck in the past council!!!”. Instead of a series that could’ve made Ashoka’s “departure” (literally never going to happen with felony at the helm, he’s going to find a way to make her immortal and then show up 200 years in the future to be the protagonist of another light v dark fight since she’s his special SI) from the series tie in nicely thematically and canonically with every other Star Wars media we have, he decided that the best way to have this series go down is 1) everyone is force sensitive if they tried hard enough ig and 2) the Jedi were bad!!! Their protocols don’t work! They were mean to my little meow meow Anakin Skywalker the greatest Jedi of all times™️ therefore he got to kill them all!!!!

Got a bit off topic but I’m still so mad that he had this chance to make Ashoka truly experience growth like the first 5 seasons of TCW yet he decided maintaining the badass rebel without a cause aesthetics for her was more important then good story telling.

Honestly though, my main problem with this series is that he decided that apparently everyone in the universe can be force sensitive if they “just tried hard enough”. Like your Midichlorian Count no longer matters since even if you were Force-Null you can still be special!!!!

This takes away any and all urgency in the Jedi Fallen Order games. It makes Cals journey absolutely redundant. It throws away all the tragedy contained in having inquisitors being force sensitive kids kidnapped from their parents and tortured till they give into the dark side. If all beings are able to use the force in his universe then there are no consequences to the inquisitors not finding the Holocron that holds the names to all force sensitive children in the universe. There would be no need to them to chase Cal and the Mantis Crew throughout the universe to obtain what they have. They could’ve just went down to any random level in Coruscant and take homeless Force-Null kids and train them.

Even better! It makes the entirety of the KOTOR games redundant!!!! Oh and I guess the hidden path is also redundant since everyone can be force sensitive and no one truly needs more saving from the empire over others :/ totally not like these kids that were saved by the path would’ve been taken and tortured into inquisitors, definitely not since EVERYONE is force sensitive nowadays or is it just the ones Ashoka trains herself because she’s the “living embodiment of the daughter uwu she’s so special and unique look how well she can train a non force sensitive to be force sensitive!!!”

Everyone in the Star Wars universe has Midichlorian’s in their blood. That is a fact. It is also an established fact that the amount each person has is different and is not determined nor dependent on lineage. Force-Nulls typically range in the 1000-3000 count and you need 7000 to be force sensitive and higher to be accepted into the order. (The order isn’t the end all be all of force cultures, Rouge One shows that Jedha’s force culture isn’t restricted to only force sensitives as the Guardian’s were never specified to be only a religious order of force sensitives. And high canon doesn’t depict many other force cultures but we know that there are many force cultures in the universe that co-exist with the Jedi with which the Jedi weren’t in opposition towards; literally not even the witches of Dathomir were oppositions anywhere outside of the battle fields.) You don’t need to be force sensitive to be part of a force culture (Jedha literally has pilgrims who come far and wide to make a pilgrimage to the holy site and not all of them were force sensitive), Sabine could’ve very easily been taught the tenets of the Jedi without retconning her to be force sensitive or making everyone in the universe force sensitive.

No where in either the EU or High Canon did anyone ever say that you have to be force sensitive to be a badass or to make a difference. Hera did not hold the title of the best pilot in the universe just for some rat of a man to come and say that Anakin was the best because *muh force sensitivity!!!!* Some of the most heroic and most influential (good or bad) people in the franchise are Force-Null! And that’s great! It means that the force doesn’t make anyone better than anyone else! It’s a quirk of the universe! To retcon that everyone can and is force sensitive if they tried hard enough is literally cheapening everything the franchise stands for. Andor did not literally give us an entire story about how Force-Nulls in the Galaxy makes just as much of a difference as force sensitives for felony to come out and say that “you know what??? Midichlorian’s are a scam! You get a force sensitivity! You get a force sensitivity! Everyone gets a force sensitivity!!!!”

Sabine was great as she was in rebels, why cheapen it with “oh she’s actually force sensitive all this time!!!” When we could’ve stuck with badass Force-Null Mandalorian can kick your ass five ways to Sunday with her paint bombs and blasters you force wielding asshole!!! Like why even do that felony. Do you want people to hate her??? Nvm ofc you do, you need Ashoka to be the best in every way possible even if it means ruining every other beloved character in this franchise👍

[dragonagecompanions]

I remember seeing the DAI crew with an unarmed martial arts type Inquisitor, so I request this DA2 companion react to a mage Hawke going full Chuck Norris on a group of bandits after their Mana is depleted using their staff as a Bo staff like Donatello or just fists

Bandit leader, smirks: "oh ho you dare approach me?"

Hawke, Tosses staff over shoulder: "I CAN'T KICK YOUR ASS WITHOUT GETTING CLOSER!"

Varric: He's running book before Hawke takes the first swing, and is unsurprised and unphased when his friend returns victorious. Honestly, given how much shit he sees in Kirkwall, this is nothing.

Aveline: As soon as they get back to Kirkwall she is marching them right up to the keep and enlisting Hawke to train the new guard recruits. If she can get them to fight with even a fraction of that skill they will go through much less daggers.

Also, given all their other odd talents, this does not phase the guard captain. Fereldens are a scrappy bunch.

Carver: This is nothing. You should have seen Old Man Bowers at the last Lothering Harvest festival. Pretty sure his sibling actually broke the man's jaw with one finger.

This is nothing new, and yet somehow the damn shadow he has lived under has somehow gotten longer.

Bethany: It wasn't Old Man Bowers, it was the miller's father, and he had dared to pinch Leandra as she was walking by. Bethany had healed the man's jaw and skull to avoid issues with the guard, but Malcom would have been proud of his eldest's defense of their mother.

Also she just made five sovereigns off Isabela. A good day all around.

Isabela: Now that is impressive. Could make some serious trouble in Lowtown a lot easier if she could throw a punch like that. Might be a thought for later.

After she wins her coin back from Bethany in Wicked Grace. Should never have trusted that innocent smile.

Anders: Yes yes, you just punched a mans head off, good for you. Now get over here so I can fix those knuckles, Maker I am getting tired of you lot....

Wait, did you just punch a man to death!?

....Can you do that to Meredith?

Merrill: Oh that is impressive! She's not sure human necks are supposed to twist that far, and she didn't know you could kick a man into the air! Could you do that to a tree? Would it hurt the tree?

Oh, they aren't supposed to twist that far!

Fenris: Moving, breathing art. Even if they are not romanced he has never been so attracted to them until that moment. He will give Hawke as much of the good wine as he wants to learn that leg sweep rib break combination.

Maybe if he can get the timing right, he could lyrium kick someone in half? Worth consideration.

Mod Fereldone

[425599167]

I really hope Barriss isn't killed off, I think it would be a waste if she dies no matter the buildup, but I have a concern: where has she been, in-universe? Aside from mentions in the Ahsoka novel and one comic in the ST period, Barriss is not seen, mentioned, or alluded to post-RotS, not even in situations where it would make contextual sense.

None of the inquisitors mention her across their numerous appearances, I can only hope because they don't like talking about her kicking their asses. Throughout Vader's constant hunt for Jedi, she's never a concern. She's also not known to be involved with any other rebel groups, like Luthen or the Stinger Mantis crew.

In the Kenobi series, none of the writing in the Path is from or suggestive of Barriss except for, bizarrely, Zonder, Legend Barriss's anthropomorphic otter padawan from a 2004 webstrip. Yes, really.

In Rebels, Kanan knows of Luminara, but didn't talk about Barriss at all despite wanting to find Luminara to train Ezra. I don't blame Luminara for what happened, but the status of her most recent student is kinda noteworthy. Ahsoka never mentions Barriss, which is in-character since she's an intelligence officer and seldom talks about herself, but even when she does, like mentioning her departure from the Jedi, Barriss doesn't come up, not even in an oblique way only the audience would understand.

In the Ahsoka series, she's still not mentioned when Ahsoka is in the visions with Anakin, who already knows the whole story and is there to help Ahsoka work through her issues. Ahsoka's split from the Jedi gets focused on Anakin specifically. Baylan doesn't bring her up despite also presumably knowing about her, and Barriss being perfect ammunition for his mental probing and taunting. Ahsoka may be secretive, but after the Empire falls she's shown openly moving around in the New Republic. Barriss doesn't appear nor is she suggested as someone to contact when dealing with the new threat.

If Barriss isn't killed, she spends almost three decades completely out of contact with every other major character (most importantly Ahsoka) and uninvolved in every canon storyline so far. I can live with that, but it's not encouraging. It's been over a decade and so many stories have been told that even if she lives, there's little room for her to fit.

[frostycatblr-fandom-files]

Star Wars Visions (Season 2)

Since these eps are all roughly under 20 minutes I'm just lumping my thoughts under the cut for all of the episodes.

SITH

Art style is nice! (Kinda reminds me of Spider-Verse, which I love.) Color and lines everywhere makes the environment really unique. I want more to Lola's story.

SCREECHER'S REACH

Cartoon Saloon art style I love you and would recognize you anywhere. I'm in the mood to watch Song of the Sea again. Sith Mother had Looks honestly? Beautiful and appropriately unsettling.

IN THE STARS

Favorite episode. Claymation is always impressive to me. A good Imp is a drowned Imp.

Paint powered by starlight is something I wish I thought of for some fantasy stories I've been writing/written in the past, but man, this scene was pretty.

I AM YOUR MOTHER

Might've been my least favorite episode honestly? I'm not sure. The animation was done by Aardman, and apparently they had a Wallace and Gromit cameo in there somewhere, which I missed. I know I just said claymation is always impressive to me, but in my opinion I don't think a lot of the species we know/recognize translated very well in their style.

JOURNEY TO THE DARK HEAD

First time I saw Toul I couldn't help but think "Oh of course you have white hair and trauma." from my anime phase.

Also should have expected that Bichan was gonna be attractive under the Very Extra mask.

THE SPY DANCER

This episode just proves to me that Cirque du Soleil could go crazy in the Star Wars universe.

THE BANDITS OF GOLAK

Clothing design absolutely SLAPS for this episode. Just about everything really - music, atmosphere, ect. My oldest sibling feelings really came into play here though because I just wished Rani would listen to her brother and do as he requested. Charuk's trying to protect you and you're screwing around/attracting unnecessary attention, Rani... Kids are gonna be kids, though.

The lightsaber duel between Ragul and the Inquisitor was stunning. She may be older than the Inq. but she can still kick ass. 💪

THE PIT

The implemented timelapses in this episode were very cool. I had trouble watching the segment were Crux climbs out of the pit because I was so sure it'd end badly and he'd be shown falling to his death and nobody making it out.

And then he's thrown back into the pit by Stormtroopers later on. I was right about that being the way he died, just not right about when.

AAU'S SONG

Aau is precious and I'd die for her.

As these are all non-sequiturs they'll never explain how the Sith managed to bleed all of that kyber in the mountains on Korba but it'd be interesting to find out how. Like that was a lot of corrupted kyber.

[andiinaraethtash]

please tell me about your favorite wip ?

Dude that is like the hardest question you could ask. I'm gonna say top three (though one is a bit cheaty bc it's a series rather than a single wip, but none of the parts of the series are done, so the whole series is a series of wips. It counts).

To Ash and Dust--Okay, I love this one, and it has great angst and humor just built into it. Basically the premise is that the Battle at the Acropolis in BoO goes very, very badly, to the point that they completely lose, so the Fates, in what little time they have, basically do a massive loop with the threads of Fate for the surviving heroes--meaning, of course, Percy and Annabeth. They wake up like. A few weeks before Annabeth, Luke, Thalia, and Grover make it to camp, and of course Annabeth has very conflicting emotions about Luke, bc on the one hand, she did love him, and he did sorta redeem himself, but on the other he betrayed her and got so many of her friends killed. Percy, meanwhile, woke up at the apartment he and his mom, who is dating Gabe at this point, share, and immediately is like, "idk whats going on but i need to get somewhere safe" and so he sneaks out and calls a pegasus to take him to camp. He shows up, giving Chiron a heart attack followed by a migraine, refuses to tell him pretty much anything, just his name, and then waits until Annabeth and the others get there, and in the middle of the storm, proceeds to take down as many monsters as possible to get the other four into the safety of the camp. Bear in mind, he is seven. And a kinda scrawny seven at that. Annabeth's immediate reaction is to just kinda squawk, "Seaweed Brain?" and he grins and shoots back, "Hey, Wise Girl," and Thalia, whose pov that section is written from, is like. "wtf how does Annabeth know this kid, why is this seven-year-old kicking so much ass, and also holy Styx that is a seven-year-old--" That's about as far as I've written, but there are other fun moments in store, though I've yet to decide what to actually do with Luke. (Advice would be appreciated :D)

And Yet, a Second Try--This is the one I've been working on for the last couple of days, and I'm sort of going back to my roots here, with a Star Wars time travel au. Basically, Obi-Wan and Anakin both wake up, a few months after the year on the run happens, in their younger bodies (Obi-Wan is like. 19, and Anakin is three) but the last thing they remember is their respective deaths. Neither knows the other is back, and Obi-Wan doesn't know that Anakin redeemed himself. So Obi-Wan almost immediately sneaks off to Tatooine, so he can rescue Anakin and Shmi both, and of course Anakin is suspicious, bc why is Obi-Wan here now, he's not supposed to be here now, but he doesn't say anything... at least not until some of the other kids are talking and one of them echoes that line that Anakin says in TPM, the "no one can kill a Jedi" and Anakin just. Gets up and leaves without a word, and he vanishes in the three seconds Obi-Wan and Shmi don't have eyes on him, and Obi-Wan manages to find him and they kind of both realise that they remember the future, and there's a lot of crying. It's very cathartic.

The Obani Chronicles--so this is the wip series, and my gosh, when I say this is a labor of love, I mostly mean it's a labor. There are several parts to it, some that are like. Alternate universes to the main one? Anyway--It's focused on an oc of mine, Kestrel Obani, or Kes, who was a Padawan, friends with Cal and Caleb. When Order 66 went out, she barely managed to escape in a fighter, then commandeered a pirate ship in the middle of an asteroid belt, set the autopilot of the fighter she'd stolen to shoot through the belt so it would crash, and successfully faked her death. She manages to lie low until shortly before the events of JFO, when she gets turned over to the Inquisitors after having to use the Force to escape a fight against a gang on Nar Shaddaa. So she's in the Fortress Inquisitorius when Cal and Cere break in, and manages to escape in the chaos, meeting up with Cal and Cere, who don't recognize her immediately (it's been five years and escaping the cell she'd been in had required an explosion which had burnt the left side of her face, neck and shoulder). After they escape, Cal is unconscious (bc he got skewered by his own lightsaber) so there's no reunion, but Kes gets to meet Merrin and Oh, Boy, do I love their dynamic. Merrin doesn't trust her, and she doesn't trust Merrin, and then they just sorta bond over how danger-prone Cal is, and of course once Cal does wake up there's that whole reunion, and that's about the summary of the first part of the series. From there, the main storyline has like. Two more main parts, and one that kinda explains where Kes was during the events of the second game, bc I am not going to try to rewrite that, thank you very much. In part two, they get a group of visitors on Koboh who call themselves the Spectres, which is so much fun. Part three covers the events of Ahsoka, which I did rewrite a little bc I have Thoughts about how that would go if Kes and the others were involved. Anyway I love them all so much and as much as I want to share this series with everyone, literally none of the parts are finished, so...

[sunderedazem]

24. How do they feel about Hydaelyn? What was their perception of the Mothercrystal in the beginning, and how did that change by the end, if at all?

ohhhhhh this is a FUN ask ehehe. thank you!

So- first and foremost, it has to be understood here that Corrain is not religious in the sense that most of Eorzea is. He rarely prays, he actively blasphemies, he sympathizes VERY heavily with Shiva and is constantly annoyed by Halonic Inquisitors in Ishgard trying to use the church like a bludgeon to get their way. He was an orphaned Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te growing up in a *Gridanian* orphanage, who prayed to the Twelve for *years* as a child and...wasn't heard, and nothing happened. He stayed unwanted in that place until he was fifteen and joined the conjurer's guild as an apprentice in a desperate attempt to secure Gridanian citizenship.

So- he has a lot of resentment for the Twelve, and by extension for Hydaelyn as well. They did nothing to help him while he was at his most vulnerable (just gave him this stupid Echo) and so he...believes that they are real. But he does not believe that they are gods in the sense that they care for the creatures of the world, and thus he doesn't give a shit about them either.

And then he hears Hydaelyn's voice for the first time- and he's *terrified* because what the fuck. And also he's sixteen and she's telling him to- fight a war for her? Against those spooky shadow people? ....okay yeah, They need to get their asses kicked, so he'll do that if he sees them, but NOT FOR YOU, GIANT FUCKIN ROCK. He's doing it because it's right, not because a goddess asked for it.

And...that honestly sums up the majority of his feelings toward Hydaelyn for a LONG time. He's spiteful, he treats her more like an adversary than a deity worth reverence- but he agrees with what she tells him she wants, and he disagrees with what the Ascians are trying to do, so he'll kick them in the teeth some. It's not for her- it's for the people of the star. For Corrain, the only thing really worth that kind of reverence is- the star itself. Not Hydaelyn- but the actual star, as it is. Its present, past and future, and all the life on it.

Then he finds out She's a primal. And....for him, nothing changes. So far- his goals have aligned with hers. But he's not doing it for her or in her name. He's doing what he is for the people and star he believes are sacred. So...if she oversteps? Does something that would harm the star? He's a godslayer already, what's one more?

What truly changes his mind about Hydaelyn is meeting Venat in Elpis. Meeting the woman she was. Realizing that at the core of the goddess he disdained for so long was an extremely fallible, kind, giving, and arrogant woman who- was just that. A woman given a god's power, and doing what she thought was best. What she thought she had to do.

He doesn't fully agree with what she did. Hiding the truth from the Convocation, closing the loop on time and dooming her own people to history and sundering and suffering instead of trying to change that foretold future. But she's a person, not a goddess. Expecting perfection from her, expecting miracles....it's the same thing people have expected from him since he was sixteen, and he knows how much it's fucked with his emotional stability. It's not a fair expectation to place on anyone. Even Hydaelyn. And with that in mind- he can think of her far more kindly. And so in the end, he doesn't call her Hydaelyn. He calls her Venat. And he tries to send her off to the aetherial sea with a smile, and having made peace with who she was and what she asked of him.

(That realization also changes how he views the Twelve. A lot of the resentment bleeds off here)

And then, last but not least- after Ultima Thule, he remembers who he was as Azem, and who Venat was as Azem's mentor, and who the architect of the Sundering was (Azem, in my canons) and that person's plans, and what she did to keep the possible future she'd been told about in Elpis from disappearing - and then and only then does he truly grieve for her.

Thank you for the ask!!! this one was really fun, hehe

[whatthefusco]

Finally finished playing through Dragon Age Inquisition again so that I could play Trespasser for the first time, and I have some (objectively correct) thoughts. I'm going to ramble a lot here, but click below for a 300,000 word essay on why I'm gonna crack Solas's head like an egg and make a dreadwolf omelette.

People have spoken at length about how the roles of Inquisitor and Herald of Andraste require your main character to put aside everything they were before, appearing as a symbol while the person is forgotten. It's a theme throughout the game, most explicitly called out in Jaws of Hakkon. But I'm going to broaden that thought and talk about the concept of masks and how that applies to our companions (and ultimately Solas).

Sera is a Red Jenny. She is very much her own person with a very vibrant and wacky personality, but like the Inquisitor she dons this alter ego to do good in the world. The little people need to feel there is someone is looking out for them, so she disappears into the collective role of Red Jenny to help the common folk help themselves (and provide the occasional ass kicking when it's required). Sera gives up a piece of her identity to help people.

Iron Bull is a spy for the Qunari and tells you that immediately, effectively claiming that he isn't going to bother with wearing a mask here - you get to see the "real" Iron Bull immediately. But he is very clever, and keeps his true loyalties close to his chest, which ultimately leads to him either betraying you or not at a pivotal moment. He admits that he submitted himself to a Qunari reeducation camp, burying his own identity deeper to better be of service to them. Bull intentionally buries himself to better fulfill his role in Qunari society (and to better help the Inquisition, if you earn his loyalty).

Dorian is asked by his family to wear a mask - to do a political marriage and have children for the purpose of Tevinter's weird magister breeding values and hereditary political power- and rejects it. His sexuality keeps him from fitting into the ideals of Tevinter society, but he won't compromise his identity for an unjust purpose. Instead he walks away and finds his acceptance in the Inquisition. When his father dies he returns to Tevinter, never hiding who he is, and uses his political power to fight for a more just Tevinter. Dorian rejects a convenient mask and puts himself in danger for what is right.

If Sera's mask is closest to the Inquisitor's, then Blackwall's is closest to Solas's. Blackwall is ashamed of his past - the actions he took hurt people, and he believes his true identity of Thom Rainer to be beyond redemption. When the real Blackwall died, Thom took up that mantle - a mask to hide himself from the world, but also to live up to the ideals of the Wardens: duty and self-sacrifice for the greater good. He donned this role selfishly, but as he tries to embody these ideals and put his past behind him he genuinely grows as a person. When one man is about to be executed in his stead, Blackwall gives up the mask immediately. He stops the execution and reveals his true self to be judged for his crimes, believing he will be executed himself. Blackwall drops his mask for the life of one relatively-innocent man.

But Solas.

Solas has two masks, in a sense. His ancient mask of the Dreadwolf, covering the actions he took in the distant past, and his modern mask of a simple apostate seeking to aid the Inquisition.

Creating the Veil destroyed ancient elven society. He retreats from the world and goes into a deep sleep for millenia, studying the world through dreams. Eventually he wakes up, decides "no this all sucks, there's no hope here, I'm going to bring down the fade amd destroy all civilization as it exists now in an attempt to soft-reboot to the world of 2000 years ago", and starts scheming. All of this is prior to Inquisition. Before he ever meets the Inquisitor, he's actively working to blow up the world and start over. Cool.

So he can't open his orb and hands it off to Corypheus, knowing that it'll explode and assuming Corypheus will be disintegrated (as opposed to respawning via the Blight). So we get a fun little terrorist attack of convenience to kick off Solas's modern rap sheet, and once again Solas nearly dooms the world by assuming he understood everything (is Solas named the Elven word for pride? Or perhaps is the Elven word for pride based on his true name?).

Solas pivots and joins the Inquisition, correctly assuming Corypheus will be after the Inquisitor. He puts on his apostate mask and gets to advising. He has so many opportunities to bring the mask down, but every single time he chooses to keep it.

He has the chance to help the Inquisition prepare for Corypheus prior to the destruction of Haven, but instead he clings to this mask.

Through Tevinter time travel shenanigans he learns the potential consequences of the Inquisition's failure, but instead of providing much needed intel he clings to this mask.

When the Wardens are planning to march an army of demons into the Deep Roads and kill the Old Gods before they can be blighted, he gets pissed. "There's no telling what that would do" he says, actively scheming to break the world a third time despite being 0 for 2 on overly-clever plans. Once again he tells the Inquisitor nothing and clings to his mask.

At the Well of Mythal, in his supposed area of expertise, he is tightlipped and argumentative the whole time. Yes we need the well. No Morrigan should not have it. No I will absolutely not take it, do not ask again. The Inquisitor drinking from the well seems to be the best choice, but he'll yell at you for it anyway because the man is a control freak. Will he tell you any of the deeply relevant information he has? No, he's just an apostate scholar, what are you talking about.

The Inquisitor can make choice after choice to improve the world. Help the mages. Help the city elves. Make a knowing sacrifice at the well to learn more about ancient elven history and share it with your people. And Solas will simply nod and smile or frown and scold and none of it actually matters to him because he's still going to blow up the world. Just beat Corypheus and get him his orb back already, don't you realize everything you build is doomed?

And at the end of all this, all these calculated lies and missed opportunities to come clean and shape the existing world, he leaves. You spend two more years fixing the world without him, and the Inquisition doesn't really suffer for it considering he was sandbagging you the whole time anyway.

Then he shows up for 2 minutes to monologue at you while you're incapable of fighting him.

Don't worry, it's definitely going to work this time. There's almost a 0% chance some new guy comes in and drops a stone pillar on the ritual, it's fine. The world will be good now, I swear.

Redemption is for people who care. It's for people who are trying. Feeling bad about your previous decisions doesn't factor in if you keep making the same selfish, prideful choices at every opportunity.

You do all that and then have the gall to say you're going to tear the world down? You don't get redemption, you get *hunted*.

[galemilker]

Been trying to gather my thought on Kass Lavellan's journey so far

(my boi decked out with the bones and leather of dragon he hunted in true monster hunter fashion)

beware a very very long post about my boi

Story wise he has met Stroud but hasn't gone to meet the Warden Commander. (personally been postponing + i need to mentally prepare for wicked hearts and how i want that to go). Got the mages and they are in alliance now. Running around Emprise du Lion trying to get mroe info on Samson and the red templars. He is not as angry anymore as he was at the start of the game. Sure he feels like he has purpose and a goal to reach and with all the madness of Heaven and everythign else. The whole "Herald of Andraste" i think really bothers him. Not only because it's connected to a god he doesn't really believe in but also how people have started treating him. I think he lost his faith in the Elven pantheon too when he lost his sister but kept goign through the motions just to try fit the clan. Being Inquisitor hasn't really made him feel better or even safer. The threats to Josephine, the red lyrium , him being an elf in a position of power. The talk he had with Solas after the escape from Heaven continues to linger on his mind. I think he is constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop - with him being an elf AND a mage, he is waiting for the moment he becomes a spacegoat in all of this. He was prickly in Heaven and was mostly focused on closing the rifts and making sure the peope around him survive but after Heaven he started to realsie he needs to know more about the politics of the regions and the allies. He has been relying on Josephine to teach him since she seems the most reliable + is the ambassaor for a reason. Even if he doesn't agree with everything Vivianne stands for he sees that her advice how to navigate the Game are valuable and respects her for it and her magical talents. Another voice of reason whom he trusts is Solas (OH BOI IS HE IN FOR A TREAT IN A FEW YEARS). Currently using dragon hunts as way to vent his frustrations and not burden others. My boi is going through it and doesn't know it only gets worse from there on. General Thoughts on companions: Blackwall - world weary but somehow naive? There is somethign about this man that he thinks is odly refreshing. Sera - was starting to think of her as a younger sister with all her antics but had a big fallign out after her personal quest. The whole ""well yeah people got hurt but i sticked it to the noble douche"" was the breaking point. Originally he thought that she would protect her "people" and was willing to overlook some bs as far as it was to help but now he sees her for a reckless liability that doesn't really care for the good of the people and is just in it for her selfish retribution. (i knwo there is much mroe to her story but). He was an older brother and the feeling of resposibility to protect and care for those who younger/weaker than him is never going to leave him and he won't allow for Sera's BS to hurt bystanders. I think he might be contemplating kicking her from the Inquisition altogether but hasn't made up his mind about it. Solas - at first he kinda eh about him, not too happy about his stance on the dalish but after some conversations and a spat on the "well they don't know the past and are miguided!! Well why don't you tell me and let me learn huh". Slowly warmed up to him and started to appreciate his view on the world. Kass was slightly suspicious of him because Solas seemed to know a bit TOO much. He knew the artifact that ripped the fade was elven, suddenly he found a fortress for the inquisition but i think Kass views Solas as the only person around who can understand him to a degree. With Sera being so anti-elvish and SUPER NOT COOL WITH MAGICand then everyone else either worshiping him or hating his ass just for beign mage and or elf. I think Kass is slightly in love with Solas - with his passion for Fade, his different view on spirits, his ability to get the bigger picture , those murals are super cool too and overall his willingness to guide and motivate Kass to learn more and not be bound by conventions and to view the world with more curiousity.(Kass for sure has competency kink ya'll)

The Iron Bull - kind of mistrusts him due to the whole spy thing but overall a cool person to hang with. Cool stories about mercenary life and the Qun (haven't finished his personal quest so wonder how that will change)

Cole - Kass finds him fascinating and is always ready to listen to what cole has to say. He might even have a small scroll where he writes down what Cole has mentioned and tries to figure out the meaning (part of exercise to learn to write and read in the languages of the allies the inquisition deals with).

Vivienne - She is powerful, she is is cunning and knows how to survive in Orlais and thrive by the looks of it. He really respects her, even if he doesn't agree entirely on the Circles coming back but he agrees that things need to change.

Varric - has his own agendas but he seems the inquisitor's corner for the moment. One of the few people Kass can act as a normal person. Enjoys his stories. Cassandra - wasn't too sure how he felt about her at first. Unlike Cullen, Kass had more time to get to know her and start to see her as more of her own person rather than just a Seeker. One of big breaks? from the image of her he had in his head was for sure learning how much she like varric's books. At this point i do think Kass might even say he consideres her kind of a friend. Dorian - the bae. I think Kass fell for him during the time travel quest. Dorian is basically the only other person in existance who UNDERSTANDS what's at stake of Corypheus isn't stopped and that def affected their closeness. Dorian is not like almsot anyone else he knows in his attitude towards magic, Dorian is passionate baotu topics he cares about and Kass just ate that up. They do fight on the topic of slaves but through it they learn more baout where each one is coming from. Kass is truly looking for a deeper connection wiht someone (There is so much tot lak about them aaaaaaaaaaaaaa) Advisors: Leliana - at the begining he was a bit scared of her but has since grown to value her opinion and in awya see her as kindred spirit

Cullen - still very cautious around him cause ex-templar but tries to be supportive of his decision to cut lyrium and contact his family Josephine - his politics coach. Learning of her history as bard and her motivation to do what she currently does def alleviated her in his eyes.

[maliro-t]

2, 4, 8, 11 and 19 for the veilguard asks!

thank you truths! 👐👐

2. Which Dragon Age is your favorite so far?

I think overall it's Origins! And honestly, it's hard to say exactly why because I really do love all three. I think da2 has a great story but some gameplay elements that I don't enjoy, where dai is wonderful but less focused (in a few ways). And dao has a killer plot and characters, and I really do enjoy the slow crpg gameplay so it's kind of the best of both worlds for me. Even with the infamously sloggy levels, I've found recently that I really kinda enjoy them lol if I'm taking my time in general, paying more attention to how cool I think the story is in the deep roads and less attention to how much I hate the dead trenches 🤡

4. What does your worldsate look like going into DAV?

Like most people I have a few that I like but my canon looks like this:

Aeren Mahariel, female warrior, Alistair romance but they broke it off (he's king), dark ritual, saved mages, Harrowmont, lifted curse.

Anna Hawke, purple female mage, Isabela romance, sided w mages, spared Anders, warden Carver

Vi Lavellan, female rogue, Solas romance, recruited mages, recruited wardens, blackmailed all three Orlesians, inquisitor drank from the well, Cassandra divine. Vow to redeem Solas, inquisition disbanded.

I'm going to pretend I'm normal about these three people I made up and move on.

11. What's one thing you'd really like to see in this next game?

I keep feeling like this is a longshot, but then hearing the way the devs talk about it makes me think that maybe it is not. But I would really like for the inquisitor's appearance to be playable. Like, I don't expect it. And I would accept what I was given. But with the number of nuanced relationships inquisitors and players have with Solas (and the fact that devs have acknowledged that fact), I really would love to be able to steer my Lavellan's dialogue in one way or another. That's like my ultimate dream. UNLIKELY but I feel like. possible.

19. Are you planning to replay any of the previous games, watch Dragon Age: Absolution, or read any of books/comics/short stories, or are there other games you want to play in the meantime?

Several of the above! There are always things I'm playing in the meantime (I have several on rotation right now. notably Elden Ring dlc which is kicking my ass. as it should 🙏), but I did start a dai replay with my very first quizzie (she's not attached to a worldstate because I was having server connection issues when I first played it so I'm slotting her into one as an alternate). Also been reading and enjoying Tevinter Nights finally which I bought uhhhhh. years ago and never started 🤡😭. I've started a bit of a laundry list tbh because I've been wanting to reread Asunder for ages (genuinely a great novel imo), and I've always been interested in the Masked Empire. So you know. I'll be keeping busy lmao.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Sword gays showdown preliminaries - Star Wars edition*

*2 characters are already in the bracket (Luke and Shin Hati) and this blog's limit is 3 characters per fandom, so only one of them can get into the bracket!

Propaganda:

For Ahsoka:

Girl weilds not one but TWO lightsabers! Look at her go! I know a lot of her fans headcanon her as LGBTQ, especially cuz there's some episodes (especially episodes 5-8 of season 7) where her interactions with other women really give off those vibes. Anyway, back to her swordiness - she kicked Maul's robotic ass even tho he's older and has more experience than her, she demolishes the Inquisitors when she's older in Rebels, and just. Her cute little tricks and quips! I love her.

For Sabine Wren:

Trained in the blade by both her blood and found familes. Came into possession of a legendary laser sword and fought for sovereignty of her people with it. Also borrows her adoptive bro's laser sword. Remembering she's not canonically queer gives me cognitive dissonance and not in that shipping-brainrot way alright this girl is just gay.

In my heart she’s bi and she’s used two different lightsabers (not at the same time though)

[emcapi-gaming]

Important update from honour mode:

...Yeah so my plan for that fight went COMPLETELY sideways but somehow worked out in my favor.

Long as hell story under the cut.

The Enemy:

The Original Plan:

Inquisitor W'wargaz of the Githyanki creche, notorious honour mode run ender because of his legendary action. He summons 2 very powerful spiritual weapons every round, and unless you kill him really fast, you'll get swarmed by then. He also does the mindsteal link, boosting his defense by a ton.

The main goals were:

1. Kill him as fast as possible, and

2. Knock him prone as much as possible, because it apparently prevents him summoning the weapons and possibly interrupts the mindsteal link.

I also was going to send in someone with invisibility to sneak in ahead and crack open the hallway to the Lathander mace, and possibly grab it since we already had the crest, which would offer an easy escape route; enemies won't follow through doors into different areas, and you can fast travel out from that hallway.

The (Originally Planned) Team:

After that was set up, we'd go in, say hi to Vlaakith, take a little astral prism jaunt, and hop back out ready to kick githyanki ass.

1. KARLACH, best girl, as throw build barbarian.

2. LAE'ZEL, who got her personal development arc skipped ahead slightly and reclassed to Way of the Open Hand monk. (I had the thought before that this would be really cool character-wise for her, given the Orpheus situation and his monk honour guard.) Tons of damage, lots of stun and prone abilities. She's most of the reason Auntie Ethel didn't even make it to the fireplace.

3. ASTARION, double hand crossbow, thief rogue/gloomstalker ranger with sharpshooter feat, who can do a baseline 3 shots per turn + 4th shot on the first turn. (And who, I'm sure, is having the time of his undeath going "pew pew pew >:D")

4. WYLL, who wasn't set up to put out consistent damage on par with the other 3 yet, and therefore was not part of the frontline team. He had the critical job of being our insurance at camp to go running to Withers if things went south - which from the things I've heard, I fully expected. He would also be playing support/indirect heals via tossing potions at-

5 and 6, SHADOWHEART and RANDO CLERIC HIRELING, who were going to be rigged up to Lae'zel and Astarion via warding bonds to hopefully keep them alive a little longer, and tossing a couple of death wards and other non-concentration buffs on the frontline team.

What Actually Happened:

Per plan, Astarion went in with invisibility and cracked open the secret mace hallway.

And then, on my way out, I noticed that the npc standing closest to that hallway had only 36 health. Which Astarion could take out in one turn, easy.

I assumed it would flip the room to temporarily hostile and then Astarion could bail back down the hallway, then come back with the full team later, but now with one less enemy to beat us up and give W'wargaz that extra mind link.

Good news: he did indeed take out that one npc.

Bad news: the rest of the room became hostile of the non-temporary variety.

Good news: Astarion had first initiative, and everyone else in there - except W'wargaz - was surprised. This was the first major way the plan failed in my favor, because we couldn't have gotten a surprise round on the way out of the prism.

Bad news: my original plan kind of hinged on Lae'zel's monk skills. Except I had no idea how pissed off she would be about the current state of affairs w/r/t "inquisitor trying to kill us," and because no savescumming, I wasn't willing to risk bringing her in. I did search and see that she would be more or less chill with whatever went down as long as we still went into the prism and told her about it after, though. The in-between part, I was less sure about. So. No monk.

Karlach, still in camp, grabbed Gale (since Lae'zel was a risk) and got as many of the planned buffs set up as possible, while Astarion stalled the hell out of the initiative order. In my imagination, he bought time by busting out his ridiculous villain monologue you just KNOW he's been planning out for decades, and basically became an unskippable cutscene nightmare to the githyanki on par with the Gaius Praetorium Elevator Speech.

The second way that my disaster of a plan ended up working for the better: I forgot that I had specced Gale as Divination. Which means he had portent die.

If you are unfamiliar with what those do: every morning he gets three or four (not sure the exact number) D20 rolls that he hangs on to all day. And then, when an ally misses an attack/saving throw, or an enemy passes one, if he has a portent roll on hand that's higher/lower than the target number, he can just go "nope!" and expend it to straight up replace the result to reverse a pass/fail.

This is, as you can imagine, VERY powerful.

So Gale and Karlach finally arrive, toss in some sneak attacks, and get things moving for real. Everyone took haste potions because if they couldn't get him down before 3 rounds they were probably dead anyways.

Karlach and Astarion start spamming their usual attacks. Gale, meanwhile, proceeds to both dump fireballs on W'wargaz's head (along with any other githyanki close enough to fit in the aoe), and flip him the Portent Die Middle Finger Of Fuck You on pretty much all his attacks, dodges, and saves.

He went down in just under 2 rounds and it took all of my restraint and remembering that we have neighbors to resist jumping up and screaming.

The rest of the room gets mopped up, Karlach gets to do a little wave at Vlaakith, and we go to meet the Dream Visitor. (I decided to be Awful and modeled them almost precisely after Tezalin, my beloved paladin Tav who romanced Karlach on my first playthrough. Which, uh... I still haven't finished because I was procrastinating the ending before the epilogues were announced... and then I got distracted with tactician and honour mode...)

And this is where I discovered the THIRD major way that my backfiring plan actually saved my ass:

Wyll, who was ungrouped from the party and chilling in camp as our contingency plan, ALSO GOT YOINKED INTO THE PRISM.

Meaning he would have gotten spat right back out into a horde of angry githyanki with the rest of the team in the original plan, rendering his contingency status pretty much useless.

In conclusion:

[shurikkai]

Aaaaanddd moreee dragon agee oc reffss :))))))))))) 

OC rambling below!

Out of all of my Dragon Age OCs she's the most reasonable one

Was always the diplomatic one when she was a part of her Qunari mercenary group

So she adapted pretty well to being Inquisitor

And also why she got along so well with Josephine

Always tries to resolve conflict by negotiation however she does have the ability to kick ur ass

Workaholic

[greypetrel]

HI I saw your art come up in my feed through mutuals and can you please tell me about?! Dragon Age X Tolkien?! My top special interests…

Hello there!

I'm glad you asked, of course I can tell you more!

So, it all started on Instagram when I posted this illustration I did. She's my Inquisitor, I did her an official portrait. On Instagram, where people don't mainly follow me for DA, one person asked me if she was a villainess, because she "got the eye of Sauron vibe going on".

And as a fellow person with the same top special interests, you can see how and why my mind exploded.

You see, my Lavellan, Aisling is a VERY Neutral Good character. She's a cinnamon roll, a huge horse-girl, and honestly she'll use sparkly pen ink if it was already invented. She and Dorian are besties, likes to experiment with magic in the silliest experiments ever (add a Solas who runs behind them trying to contain them before they make something explode. They did, in fact, made things explode. Namely, an Arcane Horror and the corpse pit in the Exalted Planes, they… Redirected on of the flame-throwers and BOOM. It was disgusting, BUT it got the job done AND set the pit on fire. Also, the Bog Unicorn? They brought him back, it was Dorian's PhD dissertation in Necromancy and Aisling helped. Go on like this for the whole inquisition).

So you can see that seeing her as Sauron was particularly ridiculous. And of course I jumped on the train right away and created probably the silliest AU ever. More LOTR than Dragon Age, but I'm still planning things. A long rant and a plotline under the cut!

Aisling is, in fact, Sauron. Or well, call her Maira or Annatar, she hates the nickname "Sauron". She sided with Melkor because he told her she could experiment to her heart's desire, he understood her view of Orcs, Wargs, Balrogs, Dragons and so on as "Still Eru's children"… And yes, he totally used her, but she was dissatisfied with Aule keeping her on constant check and leashing her out and to everyone laughing when she suggested that dragons could be tamed. She wasn't exactly ok with Melkor's conquest plans… But couldn't quit because 1) She didn't know where to go if she did, elves would have killed (tried to) on sight, she didn't like humans much (they live too little to be significant, to her, Luthien and her had a lenghty conversation after the first kicked her ass badly). 2) She didn't want to abandon the Orcs, Melkor didn't treat them particularly well (he would have cut out the minimum wage can you believe it).

She made a new life in Nùmenor, she didn't lie to them to deceive anyone… But just to have anonimity and start anew. But she did lie nonetheless, and even if she had years and years and years as Annatar, brilliant orephicer first and wise advisor later, when it was revealed who she really was she had to fled.

Which was good because she found the Orcs in Middle Earth totally in disarray and with no guide. So she started her new pet project: Mordor. Aka a Kingdom where Orcs could thrive. The Ephel Duath protects them, volcanic earth is very fertile! She evoked so many dark clouds to provide rain and water, found Adar all over again (they're besties), tried to build a net of relationships. It never worked with Gondor because they never got past her fame, but elsewhere…

About the Rings: That was another silly experiment, she told Celebrimbor that those rings shouldn't have been given to anyone, the power thei wielded was too big. Maybe some of the remaining Noldor could be ok with it, but regular humans? She had her doubts. Because you see, the Rings aren't evil per se. It's just like having on your finger a ring made of Uranium. It will hurt you not because the ring is evil, but because your body isn't build to be in contact with the material. In this case, magic. Fleeing from Nùmenor, she managed to take the Nine with her, and spent a lot of time thinking about what to do with them, exactly.

In the end, she forged the One Ring as a catalyst for the Nine, to keep their magic stable and wieldable. She gifted them to the people she befriended and allied with (those who agreed), making them immortal and granting them some powers. Basically, the Nine Nazgul are the DA inner circle. Their immortality depends on the One Ring, she never poured her life essence in it ("Who would be so stupid to do that? With a Ring you wear in battle???" cit). But it's important for her to have it because she doesn't want her friend to die or be corrupted by their rings.

The inscription is evil, you say? "One Ring to rule them all"? Oh no, my dear, it was just severely mistranslated. Gondor scholars never cared for the Black Speech and are terrible with it. "Them all", you see, is a reflexive form of not the plural but the DUAL. It should be "one another"/"each other", and rule? More like "Belong". :)

Back to LOTR… She didn't attack Gondor first. She started back her project to reforestate Mordor, sent a contingent of Orcs to Osgiliath, hoping to commerce… But the meanies attacked her Orcs on sight and took it as a war declaration. Which never was but it's difficult to go the Diplomacy way if your people and ambassadors are attacked on sight…

Her fault with it all was not acting when Saruman started to get crazy and suggest her plans of conquest. She just rolled her eyes, told the "old geezer" that she wasn't interested at all, thank you very much and let him do his own things. Corrupting more orcs and well.

Meanwhile Mordor is a really nice place if you don't mind the stormy clouds looming over! Frodo and Sam entered it through the Black Gate, got a welcome bag of goodies with some typical snacks, a travel guide, a map, a brochure informing them of basic Orc culture tips and tricks ("Grinning is considered very rude, please don't show too much teeth when you do"), an enamel pin with "I <3 Mordor". They had a very pleasant stay travelling to the volcano, all the Orcs kept inviting them for dinner, insisted they should have slept in their hut, feed them to bursting. Add a very distressed Dorian the Witch-King flying overhead and not finding them because they keep being sidetracked. By the time they reach Mount Doom, the Hobbits have gained 3kg each, are very well fed and rested, and are extremely confused about what to do. All the Orcs have explained to them that the Lady wants them polite, and she's so kind, they don't want to disappoint her! She… Is not that evil, isn't she?

Oh the giant evil spider you say? Eh, yes, it's a problem because it's eating the orcs, poor Shagrat up in Cirith Ungol doesn't know what to do… But Shelob is still a living creature, so they're discussing long and hard on how to move her. Because the Dark Lady feels bad in killing her.

The Dark Lady who was taking cuttings in Ithilien to plant back in Mordor and was found by this strapping Gondor Lieutenant, born in Rohan, who instantly decided she was a Lady and needed protection in these dangerous lands. She tried to tell him that she was in no danger, the Orcs wouldn't have attacked her… But he insisted! Scorted her around! As if she needed help! She!! She felt very amused and kept on going there just to meet with him and chat. They got along you see… Even if he's thoroughly convinced, somehow, that she comes from Rivendell and is stranded. Add an enemies to lovers sub-plot when, finally, Cullen will realise whom exactly she is when a particularly out of patience Dorian will come to collect her and bring her back to work.

I need to add Solas somewhere there, they worked together for a long time and it still ended in him betraying her and making it so that she can't grow her left arm back.

Oh and the real villain here is Saruman, yes.

Can you feel the migraine that Gandalf will have in all this, because I can.