#and being a warden is not even a guarantee this won't happen

[thewardenisonthecase]

There's so many things in DAO and DA2 that are so horrific to see as a woman and it's so unintentional

[archiveikemen]

『 Dark If 』 Story Event: Premium END

Jude Jazza

This is a fan-made translation solely for entertainment purposes with no guaranteed perfection. I do not own any of the original content. Please support CYBIRD by buying their stories and playing their games. Reblogs appreciated.

❥･• Warnings and FAQ

Pretending to obediently stay in the palace, I explained the details of the curse to my father.

However, —

King: Are you saying that you have an illness and will die soon? There is no way I will believe such a ridiculous thing!

King: Poor girl… you must have been brainwashed by that wicked fairy.

Kate: No…! Please believe what I’m telling you…!

King: You are forbidden from leaving your room, until this mess is resolved. Do you understand me?

My father refused to believe my words, and locked my room door with multiple locks.

(This won't do… I need to escape this room and find a spinning wheel.)

Tying a few dresses from my closet together, I secured them to a pillar and opened my window.

…

Meanwhile—.

Inside a cell in the palace’s dungeons, the prisoner leisurely takes a few puffs on a cigarette, making the prison guard panic.

Warden: W-Where did you get a cigarette from… who lent you a fire to light that up!?

Guard: I- I didn't know he had a cigarette!

Jude: You’re making too much noise over a little cigarette.

Jude: Instead of fretting about something this stupid, you’d best get a spinning wheel ready if you truly cherish your princess.

Guard: What are you talking about?

Jude: Your dear princess has an incurable illness that your incompetent royal doctors won’t be able to cure even in a thousand years.

Jude: Once her curse takes effect, time will stop for her body. During the time when she’s asleep, I’ll treat her illness.

Jude: I wanted to say the same thing 10 years ago, but those useless bastards refused to listen to me.

Warden: He’s merely spouting nonsense to save himself! Ignore him!

Jude: *sigh*...

Jude let out a deep sigh with some purple smoke and pressed his cigarette butt onto the cold prison floor.

Jude: All of you are asking to be beaten to a pulp.

…

Kate: This should be where the textile mill is located…

(It’s impossible for me to break into it with all these barbed wires.)

(I’ll be caught by the security if I enter through the main entrance… I don’t have time for that.)

Kate: At this rate, I’ll have to break my way through the barbed wires and end up covered in blood—

???: I didn’t think “Thorn Princess” referred to a princess torn to pieces by thorns.

Kate: …!?

I was startled by the sudden sound of someone’s voice, and turned around to see a man with mint-coloured eyes who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

Kate: W-Who are you…? If you’re one of my father’s acquaintances, I’ll have you know that I won’t be returning to the palace. Please, leave.

Fox: I’m merely a lying fox.

Fox: And I happen to know where to find what you're looking for. Now, am I lying or telling the truth?

Kate: …! How did you know what I'm looking for?

Fox: Who knows? Let me get this straight, you’re looking for a spinning wheel to prick yourself on its spindle so you can fall into a deep sleep.

Fox: When that happens… you won’t be able to return to your original world for the next 100 years.

Fox: If “that guy” fails to find a cure to your illness, you might even die in your sleep.

(This man… he seems to know everything about my situation.)

He could be a similar existence to Victor, the man I met before being transported into this fairytale world.

I looked directly into his mint-coloured eyes.

Kate: — Even so, that doesn't matter to me.

Kate: Because he’s only trying to keep our promise.

Fox: Hmm… then I shall take you to that thing you're looking for.

…

The fox guided me to a clock tower overlooking the whole country.

Kate: Jude…!?

Jude: Tch… why aren’t you in your room?

Kate: How did you escape from prison… or rather, how did you break into my room!?

Jude: Your palace is guarded by a bunch of monkeys with worms for brains. No wonder the princess who grew up there has absolutely zero crisis management skills.

Kate: What…? But, Mr Fox, I was looking for the spindle of a spinning wheel, not Jude—

Kate: … Huh? The fox isn’t here…

I looked back and realised that the man with mint-coloured eyes had vanished.

Jude: Talking about foxes and whatever, have you lost your mind?

Kate: N-No…!

Kate: After we were separated— I made a promise with you from the past.

Jude: Ah…? What are you talking about—

Jude: — Are you saying that the present day “you” made a promise with “me” from the past?

Kate: It appears so… I don’t understand how I was transported into the past either.

Jude: If there’s magic that can stop time, perhaps there’s one for something like this too. I don't know for sure, though.

Jude muttered in a dismissive tone and frowned.

Jude: … I get it. I thought you’ve already forgotten about the promise.

(I thought I did, but…)

– Flashback Start –

Kate: You’re the fairy who cursed me, aren’t you?

Kate: I apologise for the sudden visit, but I’m here to speak with you in regards to lifting the curse.

Jude: … Ah?

– Flashback End –

(Could it be…)

Kate: By any chance, were you mean towards me at our first meeting because of that assumption?

Jude: I don’t remember things that happened a long time ago.

Jude: So now you know why you’re cursed?

Kate: Yes… and that’s why I’m looking for the spindle of a spinning wheel.

Jude: Then I have one here.

Kate: Wha… what!?

Jude pulled out a sharp needle from his pocket.

Kate: Why do you have that with you…?

Jude: Of course it’s to prick you with it.

Kate: I-Isn’t that too sharp to be a spinning wheel’s spindle…?

Jude: A blunt one would be useless.

Kate: I asked the same question to you from the past, but…

Jude: Tch… you have too many questions, young lady.

Kate: Why do I have to prick my finger on a spindle…?

Jude: Maybe it’s just the way you look, who knows. Besides— you seem to enjoy pain.

(... Ah, just as I expected.)

(That boy was indeed Jude.)

My chest felt warm.

It was as illogical as falling for the person who kidnapped you—

I was attracted to this man.

Both the “me” who came from London, and the “me” who lived in this world were.

Kate: … Please tell me one last thing.

Jude: It won't be the last. I said I won’t let you die.

Kate: Why are you doing so much to help me…?

Jude: …

Jude: Because I hate owing someone. It’s just in my nature.

(... I see.)

Kate: … Fufu, that’s so like you.

Jude: Ah, also…

Kate: …?

Jude: That day I met you in that back alley… you were the type of person to jump into trouble without thinking it through, then yell at some kid you just met.

Jude: Even though you spent your life confined in the palace and your life was hanging by a thread, you were a tough princess who knew to bite back.

Kate: … Are you mocking me…?

Jude: I’m praising you.

Jude: But — now I think about it, 100 years of my life isn’t going to come cheap.

Kate: Huh…?

Jude: Although both acts count as “saving a life”, you coincidentally being in that alley and saving me isn’t the same value as me spending 100 years to find you a cure for your illness.

(Did I unknowingly dig my own grave…?)

Jude: Let’s say what you did for me is worth only 50 years of my efforts—

Jude: After I successfully cure this illness of yours and you awaken from your sleep, I can use the remaining 50 years to conveniently have you do hard labour for me.

(—!)

Kate: Does that mean we’ll still be together after I wake up…?

Jude: Tch, you made that sound creepy.

Jude: Make sure you properly return the favour, got it?

Kate: Understood… I promise to compensate you in full for the 50 years!

I never expected myself to feel that happy before falling asleep due to my curse.

Kate: … Please go ahead and prick me.

I heard the soft rattling of the chains on his clothes—

The spindle slowly sank into my skin.

Kate: … nn… ugh…

Heat rose from the site where he pricked me, and gradually spread throughout my body.

The sensation was like being poisoned, and I felt a little afraid…

(Remember… this pain and curse are from Jude—)

Jude: … Feeling good?

Kate: …!?

I opened my eyes to see Jude laughing at me.

Jude: As expected, you do like pain. … You’re a nasty woman.

(Ah…)

I felt my consciousness slipping away.

It was as though I was slowly falling asleep, feeling slightly fatigued.

Kate: J-Jude…

Jude: — Good night, Princess.

After I heard his gentle voice, my consciousness faded into darkness.

And then — the time between losing consciousness and feeling a bright light shining on my face felt both instant and like forever at the same time.

…

I slowly opened my eyes.

I was in neither the clock tower nor the palace. Instead, I found myself in a quiet castle shrouded in thorns.

Ellis: … Ah, Jude, Kate is…

I looked in the direction of the approaching footsteps, and a man wearing a sadistic smile was looking down at me.

Jude: Awake at last, sleeping beauty?

Kate: … Am I dead?

Jude: What?

Kate: Because… 100 years should've gone by, but you and Ellis haven't aged into old men.

Jude: …

Jude: Stupid.

Ellis: Fairies have the ability to manipulate time, so they can also control the physical age of themselves and even other people.

Ellis: As long as they don’t get fatally injured, they won’t die from old age.

Jude: Did you learn nothing about fairies despite locking yourself in the library for days to study, idiot?

Kate: … What about my illness…?

Jude: I had 100 years, of course I cured it.

His triumph and haughty smile made my heart ache.

“I won’t ever break this promise, even in death.”

Since 100 years ago, I knew that he meant what he said.

Kate: Thank you, Jude.

Just like he did 100 years ago, Jude hooked a finger under my collar and pulled me closer.

Jude: I’ve done my part, now… time for your part of the debt to be paid.

Kate: Okay…!

The budding feelings of love I felt in my heart 100 years ago came back to me.

Aware of my growing feelings, I nodded enthusiastically.

I still didn't know what was missing from this twisted fairytale world, but…

(... If possible, I want it to remain undiscovered forever.)

Because, in this world, I had fallen in love with him.

— There was no returning to my original world.

[felassan]

Some more snippets of interest and insight from Mark Darrah, from an older Mark Darrah on Games YouTube video where he was livestreaming playing Dragon Age: Origins some months ago -

Chat asked Mark's thoughts on the quantum state of Kieran. "I think they're gonna collapse Kieran down. Probably what actually happens is they're just gonna push Kieran into the background."

Chat commented on being sad that the Inquisitor won't be the main character going forwards. "I mean the main character doesn't have an arm, kind've makes some of the classes a bit tricky".

Chat commented that any quantum character basically guarantees that we're only going to see a cameo of them going forward. "Yeah, if they're quantum they're going to be pushed into the background for sure." Chat then mentioned Sera. "I don't think Sera's quantum, or not very quantum." "Yeah, we don't typically bring back romance options in major roles because they, you have to sort've deal with that quantum. That's not the worst thing".

"I wouldn't expect to see Shale again because they are so custom, but they're also quantum aren't they, can't they die in Orzammar? Like if they were building a golem rig for some other reason then I could see it. Everyone is quantum basically. That is why actually so often followers do not reappear, is because everything is pretty quantum".

"I don't think we'll see something like the broodmother again, I don't think it fits with the tone that the game is striving for anymore. The stuff before the broodmother, that I could, that sort've stuff, that kind've creepy tone stuff, I could see that being something that occurs again. But the broodmother itself, or something like that, I'd be surprised."

Chat asked "How canon is Darkspawn Chronicles? Did that team just go nuts and completely leave the map or is 'Wade is a Desire demon' actually a lore nugget?" Mark replied, "Darkspawn Chronicles obviously can't be canon." "That's a valid question. I suspect at this point the team would treat it as non-canon so anything that's revealed there would be considered completely non-canon, but I mean I would've at the time assumed that any lore revealed in it would be considered canonical assuming it was something that happened before the branch from reality. But I think they would probably at this point treat it as totally non-canon".

Chat asked "Why couldn't y'all hire the DA:O Warden voice actors? I heard the voicing is why they didn't include the Warden in DA:I with Hawke". Mark replied, "The Warden is a quantum character in DA:I, the answer as to what to do about the Warden from a voice acting perspective is a very open question. Do you leave them silent? Do you voice them? All of the answers are not great. I think if you're gonna have them in a relatively major position, you better have an answer to that question." "Yeah, I suppose you could hire back the voice actors. It's a lot of different voices, so that can become a problem as well. I don't know that people consider those exactly as the voice of their character. I mean I certainly don't. I mean yeah, they are technically, but. Yeah, it could be done." Chat commented here that "literally any option is going to disappoint someone". Mark said "Yeah, that's my feeling as well. No matter what you do with the Hero of Ferelden in another game, it's going to be problematic. You know, if you brought the Hero back you could just keep them silent and you could actually even give a reason, like 'oh yeah, they've survived but the Blight has taken their vocal chords', or whatever".

Chat then mentioned again about the Hero of Ferelden having many voices in DA:O. Mark paused to explain "the problem of why they're probably not gonna use the voice actors from DA:O. First of all, there are a lot of them which means you have to bring back those actors. The Hero of Ferelden is a very quantum character, might be married, might be alive, might be dead, might be not married. The other reason is that people are basically used to their character being quiet for all of the conversations, so if you bring them back and voice them there's going to be some people that are going to be upset by that. So it could happen, but not as a major perspective, it would be as a cameo at most so that's what I would say is, that it's unlikely but it could happen. But I doubt they would just hire these voice actors back, it's too many and it would require too much wrangling, so there you go."

"The reason why Hawke doesn't do much in DA:I is for the same reasons, we don't know how you built your character, we don't wanna have them do something iconic that isn't appropriate to the way you built your character."

Chat said, "Ideally, BioWare would release something before DA4 where we can create our Hero, Champion, and Inquisitor ahead of time, and then just import them in". Mark said, "Because the character creators have changed so much it has been discussed to add something into the Keep. I'm not sure if they're going to maintain the Keep or not, but add something into the Keep that would be a character creator for previous games to kind've bring them up to standard. I think that's a good idea, even if they don't end up showing up in the game, just to have sort've standardized the look for everybody. Yeah, but I don't know if they're gonna do that to be clear. There was a conversation about it, but I don't know whether that'll actually happen, because that requires getting something that either runs Frostbite in a web browser or a standalone application to make sure it looks like how it's supposed to look."

Chat said "A person who decides to pick up DA4 who hasn't played the other games is unlikely to start up from DA:O and play all the games AND DLC before DA4 to get hype." Mark replied, "No, I wouldn't, certainly the Dragon Age team is not building [DA:D] with the assumption you've played all the games previously. That's always a concern, that people think they have to do that and then it just closes the door to new people entering the franchise." "I would expect DA:D probably won't even expect much DA:I knowledge given the time between games." Chat said "Most people who will pick up DA4 as their first Dragon Age game probably won't even use the Keep". Mark replied, "Yeah, the expectation is that most people would not use the Keep, but that's actually not so bad because there's lots of, we know what the default player looks like for DAII and DA:I, we have canonical choices so that's not too problematic". "Some people definitely will play everything but you don't want that to be a barrier to new people playing the game".

[source]

He also talked more generally about DA:O and the franchise and things in general. These bits are collected under a cut due to length -

Dragon Age sets up a lot of consequences to things such as lyrium and the Taint. They "don't always play it off for the player very well"

[on DA:O] "What I would say on why do enemies have stamina/mana is, because the game is built perfectly symmetrically, which is why. Should you do that? No you should not do that but that's why everything is just built in this way, everything is completely interchangeable, which sounds like a good idea, but in practise is basically unbalanceable. It does mean that you can have an enemy or an NPC enter into your party, everything can be done in both directions without a concern, because everything is interchangeable, but I don't think it's worth it. DAII swings the pendulum way too far the other way, it's so asymmetrical it's basically incomprehensible. I think DA:I hits a good balance. It's kind've what's happened I would say with D&D. Third edition D&D, very symmetrical, fourth edition ridiculously asymmetrical, fifth strikes a balance"

Chat asked if the BioWare team ever ran any DA TTRPGs as part of development or just for fun. "I don't know, I've never run a DA tabletop"

"I think Flemeth has always been Mythal, I don't think she was retconned into existence"

"You were asking before about why everyone has stats. It allows to basically do what just happened there, the templars are just marked as people, when the combat starts they can just join in without throwing the combat completely out of whack"

Chat asked "'If you were to give us a 'Citadel DLC' for Dragon Age, what would your dream DLC include?" Mark replied, "I think that the last DLC in DA:I is pretty much in line with being like a Citadel-style. You get to interact with all the followers again, it provides a lot of closure, so it's a pretty good version"

Chat asked "'​I was wondering how did you get the game to run? I tried playing it on my new computer i9 with a 3090, but it keeps crashing?" Mark replied, "So are you wondering how I got DA:O to run? There's a fan-made patch which I think I tried to install. The big reason why it's unstable is that it's limited to [...] or if you can't get that patch just drop your settings down. If you set the settings up to something that your game is capable of running it's going to use too much memory and it'll over-run 4 gigs, there's a memory leak in there, so if you drop it down to something a little bit less and it'll run pretty well. I've had some crashes, not too bad. It's not an official patch so you won't find it on the EA website. Honestly, if they ever remaster, that'll be one thing [...]"

Remastering the first three DA games is a much more difficult prospect than remastering Mass Effect was. "That's not to say it won't happen but it definitely is a whole extra mess"

"I do not miss the BioWare forums. They were out of control. It became pretty hard for a lot of devs to interact with the forums in a positive way even with the positive people for sure"

Chat said "I was always curious, do devs tend to play their games after the release or is it just not the same after all the hardships of the development and testing?" Mark replied, "Honestly, devs, it's a mixture, some devs do, but I think most actually don't, either they've played the game many many times before it released or they just reticuled onto something else. I would say on average probably no, but it does happen"

Warrior abilities are way better in DAII and DA:I than they are in DA:O

Is lyrium technically blood magic? "That's one way of thinking about it"

[on quantum characters] "Oghren is in DA:O - Awakening because he's one of the few characters that's definitely still around after DA:O." "I think he might be the only one or one of the few from DA:O that is definitely alive for Awakening". "Re-establishing new followers for an expansion isn't the best. You know, they wanted somebody."

Originally Mass Effect: Andromeda was going to have procedurally generated planets. "They never really were, that feature was never really given enough resources if that was the goal. I think they had some early stuff that was kinda cool but it was never ready for primetime"

"One of the interesting things about Mass Effect is it was always in its DNA imagined as a kind of Star Control thing. It never really was that, but there was always that underlying thing. So I think in ME:A that's what they were trying to capture, that Star Control stuff, but yeah, it is pretty hard to tell a story in a procedural world. Doable"

"There's a story behind the ending of ME3 but that's not my story to tell"

[pls note this video was from 1 year ago, so the call being referred to here took place 1 year ago] Chat said "During the recent earnings call EA said that there's going to be a major IP release. I mean, I don't want to be all too optimistic, but I literally couldn't think of any IP other than DA". Mark replied, "About the earnings call, it's possible that it's DA, it could also be something like Bad Company, a remaster of Battlefield Bad Company. I can't think, because they said remaster, so I can't think of what else it would be other than DA, Bad Company, everything else is either so old that it would have to be a remake. I don't know what it could be but I could imagine it being bad company. They have a ton of IP, I just don't know what they have that, it would have to be less than say 15 years old to be possible to do a remaster as opposed to a remake. Could just be that they're mis-speaking. I guess it could be Army of Two, that would be weird. They've already announced Dead Space, so I don't think it's that"

[source]

(pls note that in places there is a bit of paraphrasing of the info, the best source is always the primary source with full quotes in their original context)

[liroutrozenberg]

I saw a mention, do you have sketches for the Dragon Age Inquisition in the institute's AU or something like that? Sorry for my bad english!

Don't write if you don't like the idea.

DAMN YES

Cassandra: She's the warden and the chief enforcer of preventive violence against the group, because yes. I am sure that she has all the notes and the teachers love her despite the fact that sometimes she makes hasty decisions. Most likely involved in athletics. And you will be forced to play sports, because it is good for health.

Solas: Exchange student and damn good at drawing. A bit turned on religion and you can definitely say that he has a plan for the whole world. In general, he is quite friendly, you can often hear him talking to teachers on elevated topics.

Dorian: The one you'll be skipping classes with. The most fashionable and no one can argue with that. He entered to move away from his family. You can discuss everything with him, starting with classes and ending with questions about what insult is the most offensive. Sometimes you get the urge to beat his father with a baseball bat.

Sera: A cheerful girl who constantly participates in all sorts of performances, just to avoid going to class. Several times she disrupted classes at the entire institute and she had nothing for it, because she was simply not found. Another student who will be happy to keep you company in skipping classes.

Blackwall: One of the quietest in your group. And very kind, in fact. You can discuss important matters with him. You can be sure that he will not betray you to teachers if you said or did something that they would not like. He will simply ask you to be careful if this happens again.

Iron Bull: He is on a sports team and it's not surprising. Will cover your butt if you just want to sit in the gym instead of working out. Easy-going and for the most part glad to take part in the next madness. It also comes with a team. The latter are glad to see you no less than their captain and will never betray you to teachers.

Johefina: Responsible person. Very. Contacts all teachers and other courses, if necessary, and it is almost always there. If you ask, she will put that you were in class (even if you were not), but you will have to promise her that this will not happen again. Do not upset her and you will be happy.

Cullen: First and foremost, he definitely sang in the church choir when he was younger. And you know it. It's your choice to make fun of him because of this or not. The person is calm and responsible, although sometimes he succumbs to your provocations and skips classes. Maybe he was on drugs.

Varric: History teacher. You will know everything, even the most obscene and strange details of this world - this is guaranteed. And you know, he is a very good teacher! Because a bad teacher does not wake up the entire audience for more than a hundred people. You can arrange exams with him and he will definitely listen to you if some shit happens in your life.

About the little things:

You have a common Discord server where everyone complains, sends homework and just spends time.

Your favorite place to skip classes is a cafe a few streets from the university.

Sometimes you come across such intrigues that you dream of being expelled. But Cassandra and Josephine won't let it.

"why, no matter what happens, your group is always on the scene?"