#and Davrin IS loosely sort of that character already

[invinciblerodent]

anyway, I really, really love how, if you romance Davrin, there's that beautiful moment in the final goodbye when he refers back to (at least one of-) the lines that can be said in the main romance scene:

[Davrin: You said you wanted the road less-traveled. Seems like we've got it right here.

Davrin: All I care about is that I'm there with you.]

after a personal storyline that's in large part about him overcoming an aversion of uncertainty, and embracing the potential for change and choosing who one wants to be (like most of the others, but it's arguably even more pronounced in his, as it's reflected through the griffons' story), that's just a really beautiful sentiment.

after spending so long thinking of himself as a weapon, believing one's destiny to be set in stone, even believing himself -and by extension, the griffons- to be "meant" for one immutable thing by their very nature...

it feels very satisfying and touching to know that he's willing to head into an unknown future with nothing truly secure, except for the hand holding his.

[flowersforthemachines]

Asking #2 for OC questions!!

How long was the process before the character reached its final version? (or a version that would be clearly recognizable as the character?)

Tell me everything about our girl

thank you for the ask!! question from HERE

Omg, our girl... Honestly still can't believe anybody cares enough about Ghilasara to ask something. Like she can be *interesting* to other people. Insane.

This is going to be kind of long, but in my defence: you asked!

It took a really long while for me to figure her out. Like she wan't originally even intended to be a fleshed-out character - I just picked the options in the CC that (I presumed) would provide the most involvement with the plot: elf for the relevance regarding elven gods, grey warden for the relevance regarding... blighted elven gods, and mage because mages are typically the only class that gets special dialogue options. I thought I'd run through the game once with a very loose idea of a Rook, see what it has to offer and then make another Rook who could meaningfully fir the narrative at large with the help of hindsight.

And then I tragically got attached. By the time I finished my first run with her in the middle of November, I already knew I wanted to write something about her, even if I didn't really know what. In December, I wrote a tiny oneshot to nail down her dynamic with Lucanis (there was actually a time where I thought that maybe he wasn't the best partner for her, and she would be better off with Davrin. Maybe she would've been better off with him, actually, but it is what it is).

Then, I really got on working with her - I made a timeline covering her life from brith to joining the Veilguard (minus the 09:44-09:46. one day I will find out what she was doing at the time, but that day is not today), thought more about what kind of life she could lead in the Montsimmard and Ansburg circles (spoilers: not a very good one), what it meant for her to be a city elf, a mage, a warden, and wrote a bunch of pseudo-codex entries with tidbits about her life - how she got her face scars/lost her eye, what happened to her during the mage rebellion, some post-canon letters to/from her/Bellara/Lucanis, and so on. Which I haven't posted anywhere and should really find the excuse to pull myself together to do so.

The Ghilasara featured in the mercy-killing fic was inspired by the combination of the many discussions on how Lucanis was a poor fit for the position of the First Talon, and me once seeing the words "Rookanis" and "Divorce" mentioned under the tags of one post and then going wild with the concept. (kinda insane to think that one post altered the course of my thinking and writing so dramatically. I'd thank the user that made it but I feel like that'd be super weird)

Then it was just a lot Thinking. I didn't intend to be cruel when writing the fic - but I did want to make up a complicated dynamic between two flawed characters that had a history I could sprinkle around the work to show how much has passed between them. Which meant that she had to develop more flaws, which is where the guilt and self-flagelation (over Davrin's death and everything else she's done in her entire life), anxiety (over openly confronting some of her feelings and trying to avoid asking questions for fear of hearing answers she wouldn't like), and a sort of selfishness (of trying to have things on *her* terms at all times, even if the terms aren't always self-serving) came from.

Something like that!

[dellamortethelesser]

tell us about how you first came up with the idea of Andrea!! did something particular inspire you, or they just appeared in your head one day, and that was it?

Andrea was originally a concept for one character that I split into two separate ones! Way back last year when they first dropped the possible factions for DA4, I was already chewing on the idea of a Crow mage. I read Tevinter Nights and had a clear vision of a Lucanis romance with a mage Crow who had a... fucked up eye injury that meant they could see a bit into the fade and was also a spirit healer. It was a lot going on but remember this was early drafting.

The idea of a mage who could see into the Fade was split off and from that I made Mailyr Ingellvar, my Mourn Watch OC who is the brother to @new-austin's Rook, Lorren :) Greatly enjoy him, my Davrin romancer <3

I didn't touch the Crow mage concept until after I'd finished the game for the first time. That was when I backtracked and did more research into the Crows, into Lucanis and Illario, and... yeah. Once I realized I wanted to make a character to pair off with Illario more than Lucanis, I decided to pick up my old Crow mage concept and dust it off.

I knew I wanted to keep the spirit healer aspect--the idea of warping that for the purpose of making a character who would know exactly where to hit during assassinations? Too good to pass up. (The idea of making Andrea a torturer came later; originally it was just to make them a precise killer, using magic to conceivably conceal some of their methodology).

I also decided that if I wanted to pair them off with Illario, I would need them to be a very ambitious character. So then I had to start thinking about what that would look like, the type of person someone would need to be to start politicking in the Crows like this (as I wanted to keep Andrea in house De Riva). What do they want, how far will they go to get it, what will they do if they don't? Those sorts of things. Once I'd planned out a loose concept (spirit healer, crow, elf) I started building on themes (ambition, self-preservation, desire).

And now here they are! :3