#anyway. need to do this with brosca as well origins is by far the most fun da game to be evil in

[eye-of-yelough]

i have made aeryn significantly Worse these past few months and i need to make all the other ocs worse as well i Need to.

[frankensteined]

31 Days of Dragon Age (Day 2)

missed day 1 so i'll just jam both prompts into this post

Introduce your Hero of Ferelden & Favorite Origins romance

Oct 01 - Introduce your Hero of Ferelden

i don't have any images currently because my origins playthroughs all took place on the ps3 or a PC that i no longer have, but a rundown of my main three HoF incoming: neira mahariel - DW rogue with the ranger spec.

she was actually my second playthrough, after i used my first one to acquaint myself with the game and its lore before i dove into the roleplaying aspect of it. neira started out as your typically distrustful dalish elf, who resisted becoming a grey warden every step of the way. she didn't care if she was tainted and slated to die, she did not want to leave her clan, and she resented duncan for dragging her away from them. ultimately, she fell in love with zevran, though not until well after she'd gotten closure and properly grieved for her first love, tamlen. neira's seriousness mingled well with zev's more playful approach to the horrors of life, and that created a healthy bubble for them to be vulnerable and supportive with one another. ultimately, left anora to rule ferelden on her own, since alistair didn't want to become king and neira didn't want him to have to give up "his clan" (the wardens), but did convince him to undergo the dark ritual with morrigan. has since disappeared with zevran in search of a cure for the calling and according to the experts (my headcanon), they're doing just fine now, thanks.

syrill amell - mage (obviously) with the spirit healer spec.

he was a smartass, irreverent brat at the circle, but in that way that people still liked him, even when he was getting on their nerves. vain and prideful, he was also totally the type of mage that a demon would have loooooved to get ahold of...if not for the fact that syrill was also a gigantic nerd and studied frequently to avoid falling into the pitfalls of becoming an abomination. jowan was his buddy, in a "sidekick" sense, and it definitely annoyed syrill that jowan went and did...All Of That behind his back, but he still did what it took to free him and keep him safe when the opportunity arose. truly hated being in the circle (though not to the 'escapist' degree of anders), and truly, truly hated the templars, so he jumped at the chance to leave when duncan rolled in (ignoring all the blood everywhere and all that). he and alistair did not get along at all, but he fell all over himself to impress morrigan the second that he met her. somehow, his cringefail attempts at charm and his really nice hair won her over, and they fell in love. he spared loghain, not wanting to risk losing someone who knew what they were doing when it came to big battles, and alistair stormed off, never to be seen by syrill again. oops. post-game, he actually grew up quite a bit as the warden commander, but he never let go of his love for morrigan, often wondering about her and the child they supposedly had together. come witch hunt, he went with her without hesitating, and instantly loved their son the second that he met him. lived with his family for years in the crossroads, became a Certified Fun Dad, and only left them to try to cure the calling. as far as i'm concerned, he's currently hovering over kieran's shoulder while morrigan is away, not ready to see his baby boy (read: a 20 year old man) move out on his own.

vaye brosca - DW rogue with the assassin spec.

Hardened Criminal with a heart of gold. we love that trope, right? vaye's another warden who didn't want to leave her home, but her sister's pleading ultimately prompted her to do so. everything that vaye did was for rica's sake anyways, so she left, and was a fish out of water every step of the way since then. her go-to response to most problems was Knife, which her companions needed to break her of that habit really quickly (or, in zevran's case, teach her how to wield it with a little more grace). every single awkward, socially-inept dialogue choice was put to good use with this character, but somehow that ended up making her blisteringly honest and very capable of cutting through the bullshit in order to tell when she was being manipulated. ironically, fell in love with leliana because she was able to see through her layers and they found common ground with their bloodied pasts. quickly became the squishiest of romances, and vaye really loved gifting her the nug (something from her home that leliana didn't yet understand), and the flowers (something from leliana's home, that vaye didn't yet understand). since vaye understood that "king = power = safety", she nudged alistair to marry anora and rule jointly, and when she was named paragon, she was happy to see her sister elevated to nobility so that she could marry king bhelen and also enjoy that much safety. is currently living in a villa on the waking sea, surrounded by nugs, waiting for when leliana can come home.

Oct 02 - Favorite Origins romance

Actual Love Of My Life, Zevran Arainai

on my aforementioned tester first playthrough, i made a city elf and romanced alistair and went around flirting with whoever i could, just to get a sense of what sorts of characters i was dealing with. the inevitable "time to choose" conversation with zevran, though, really surprised me and gave me serious enough pause that it decided my first "real playthrough"'s romance for me right away. i was struck by how zevran, who'd been such a flirty, casual guy in this department up until then, was making it very clear that he didn't want to hurt alistair with any continued dalliances, given how much the other guy was clearly falling. he was sincere and respectful, and didn't even lose approval when i opted to have my tester warden break things off between them, and that kind of care and maturity really won me over.

fastforward to my neira playthrough, and that sincerity and deep, terrified love really, really solidified itself as an rpg favourite for me. you really feel the progression from "for fun" and "for life" with this relationship. it has its silly moments ("is there something in your tent that needs...assassinating?" or the dirty antivan poetry that he tells you just to make you laugh), and it has its truly moving moments (the earring scene, especially if you ask him if he's proposing, his farewell scene at the game before the final battle). and in the end, he stays with your warden through everything. yes, his DA2 appearance was fully bugged on import so i never actually saw him acknowledge the romance to isabela, and yes, i'm still bummed that he's the only origins romance that didn't get an appearance in inquisition, but a romanced zevran is still stated to be traveling with the warden in their letter, so he's still with them, after all these years, keeping them safe and helping to save their life. again. all because they spared his at a time when he didn't care if he lost it.

there's something really lovely about your pc being a character's first love, but there's something even lovelier, to me, about them being a character's last love, and the zevran romance is exactly that. it's still my number one of the series, no matter how much more content some of the others have in comparison.

[theconfusedartist]

DRAGON AGE

Alright, so I’ve been wanting to talk about this for a while, now that I’ve gotten back into dragon age origins and since I’m about to start doing a shit ton of fanart and fic simply bc I’m getting back in the swing of it, I figure I might as well start actually making a post about them, rather then just making a one-off post and talking about them without out any context lol.

Ok so, in this AU that I’m working on, Duncan realized that, hey, maybe only one recruit for like the end of the world in his order of grey wardens, is not the best idea, and then goes on to recruit all of the characters from the origins.

So, he swings by Orzammar first, getting Brosca and Aeducan. In this au, the name of my Brosca is Tsoyo and the Aeducan is Sariah. I’m gonna post pictures of every one of my warden later, but for now, I’m just gonna say who they are. Tsoyo and Sariah knew each other before, since Seriah hired Tsoyo’s...services in the past. Seriah doesn’t really think much of the casteless, but she does like that they can do some dirty work for her and go basically undetected for it. So, in terms of time, Tsoyo goes to the proving and wins, just like in the original, and Duncan recruits her, but in this, Duncan stuck around a little longer as the Aeducan family still had business with him and he needed to go to the deep roads to make sure that this was a real blight and I mean, hey, what better way to test the new recruit right? 

So, while Duncan is getting Tsoyo ready for what’s to come, Seriah goes to the new provings that takes place as they redid it because they couldn’t fathom that a casteless could ever win and this doubled as them holding it in honor for the Seriah getting her new post as a commander. Seriah didn’t really rise to Bhelen’s bait and didn’t go after him like Bhelen had hoped, even though she realized that there was no way that the mercenaries could’ve gotten the ring unless it was from Trian. It was quite the surprise to see her brother, dead in front of her and her father and Bhelen walking in and being accused of his death. 

She gets sentenced to walk the deep roads and meets up with Duncan and Tsoyo and from there they scout for a bit before going off to the circle. Because I mean, hey, one mage is equivalent to ten soldiers, right? 

So, Duncan gets there, with Tsoyo and Seriah in tow who are really uncomfortable being around each other as they’ve had a less than clean relationship in the past (murder, blackmail, and other stuff). Duncan gets to the tower for recruits and in this au, both ‘Surana’ and Amell are there. I’ll explain why I put the ‘’ around Surana in a minute. 

So, Amell, who’s first name is Daylen, Jowan, and ‘Surana’, who’s first name is Acici, are all there. Jowan is going through with his little plot to escape the circle and Acici has literally just had her harrowing, a few nights ago before Duncan had gotten there. Daylen has his harrowing the night before Duncan arrives to the tower and his goes very...differently. 

I’ll go into this a LOT more in a second reblog, since I want to go into everyone’s backstory in a bit, person by person, with pictures, but since I’m going with the abridged version, I’ll just put it as, Acici had the normal harrowing that we get in the game, give or take, and Daylen thought it was fun to fuck around with things that he shouldn’t. So, Duncan has his eye on the both of them and Acici, being the actual loyal friend goes around bolstering her image and getting the rod of fire, killing spiders and charming the old man to sign the form for her. She had him sign the form, but then figured that if she curried favor with as many senior enchanters as possible, then it would probably be good for her in the long run. 

As for Daylen, well, he’s sitting there like, ‘why do we have to get dragged down with Jowan?’ and goes to Senior Enchanter Irving and tells him about it. Sure, he feels bad about it, but the deal was this: if he goes along with this plan, then he and Acici have to be pardoned and get off scot free for helping with taking down Lily and catching Jowan in the act. Irving agrees and he plays double agent. And well you know how that song and dance goes, Jowan gets away, and the others are left holding the bag. Irving tries to pacify Gregoir, but he hates mages so Duncan conscripts them both into the order. Meanwhile, Tsoyo and Seriah are just really confused with all the magic bullshit going on. And then there were four recruits. 

After that, Duncan and the four recruits go to Highever, to recruit Ser Gilmore because I guess Duncan wanted a basic ass bitch (idk, I’m not gonna lie, I haven’t finished the human noble to this day. I’m still trying to, but I really didn’t see any appeal in Gilmore like that, he seemed like someone good to have as a second, but not someone you’d send to kill an archdemon when there’s only two grey wardens left) and Cousland, or better known as Luna the heartbreaker, isn’t really interested in the wardens or anything. I mean why would she be? Duncan is fine and all, but she gets to rule over a castle by herself, why the hell would she want to leave? But then, it’s not really up to her when mostly everyone gets killed anyways. So, at this point we have five recruits, good job Duncan!

Their next stop is (drumroll please) DENERIM! (wasn’t expecting that were you?)

Duncan was like, shit, lemme go and get Adaia, at least that way I know that I can have someone who knows what the score is and she can help the others and Alistair as someone who’s been around the bend and seen some shit. Only, that’s not what happens, obviously because Adaia was killed by humans a while back, but he is just in time to witness a double wedding and get threatened by a one of the brides (lol). And also see them all get carried off to get raped by the arl’s son and his guards. Luna is cross, but like ‘hey, shouldn’t we do something about this?’. Tsoyo is a bit surprised because she thought that elves were all a bunch of fig eating floofies that just lived in happiness, not squalor and fear of death, so she seconds it. Acici is ready to murder Duncan when he says that they can’t get involved (for that same reason that ‘Surana’ is like that) and hands a sword to Nelaros and Soris. Go get ‘em boys!

And now the estate is running with blood, Nelaros is dead, Shianni is traumatized, one of the bridesmaids is dead, and Tabris, Sauda the bride, has literally learned all the different ways to kill over seventy men with a dagger and how quickly rat posion kills three adult human men. Sauda, not willing to let Soris get hauled off, says that it was all her doing. Which...isn’t really an exaggeration, she tore into those fuckers like she was getting paid to do it, Soris gave back up with his crossbow, but she was very eager to spill blood for the kidnapping of her, the others and Nelaros’ death. Also Vaughn was killed, as was his friends. Horrifically. 

And now we have six recruits!! Way to go Duncan, you always find the lively ones!

This recruit wasn’t planned, as Duncan was planning to cut through the Brecilian forest to save some time, and came across two elves that are just heavily tainted. That’s right, in this au, Tamlen lives. So Mahariel, Yeva, and Tamlen are just sick as fuck, but still alive so Marethari is like, ‘let’s get a fucking move on’ and Duncan conscripts them, when they both try to weasel their way out of it. But what can you do? At least Tamlen isn’t dead (a split second decision, I’m not gonna lie). So, Duncan comes to Ostagar with seven new recruits and most of them just....do not give a damn about the king (lolololol get fuckin’ rekt Calian). They go into the wilds, save a few mabaris (mabari? mabaris?) with some wild flowers, Tsoyo gets a big gay crush on Morrigan, then they come back and do shots with the darkspawn blood in the joining. Daveth and Jory die(wah wah) but everyone else makes it out alive (Tamlen...barely made it. Bitch nearly pulled a Daveth) and then they were sent to the tower. 

The reason for them all being sent to the tower was simple. Cailan realized that a lot of the new recruits just did not give a fuck about the crown or his authority or was in grieving over their lost loved ones, and was like ‘hey, that way there’s no way that the tower ISN’T going to be lit and I don’t have to worry about them on the field’). And then he died. Duncan didn’t die tho, are you fucking kidding me? The leader of the grey wardens? Dying? I don’t fucking think so. He makes it out, but it’s a little after the battle and he makes it far enough into the wilds that Flemeth saves him. The other wardens have already left with Morrigan and they’re on their way to Lothering, but Duncan had to stay with Flemeth for a while due to the severity of his wounds and how long they would take to heal, even with magic. 

Duncan joins up with the other grey wardens around the time that they get captured by Anora’s captors (I have to play to see who would get captured or not, as most of these characters are fucking warriors and some of them in their own personal runs might actually be able to take them down where others can’t) and I haven’t decided what happens at that point. 

That’s all that I have right now, but once I get some character portraits up, I’ll update this a bit more.

[3parts]

Once upon a time ago, a friend recommended to me a game called Dragon Age: Origins. I hadn’t played many single-player games since I was a teenager, and as my own computer was not very good he let me try it out on his laptop, on his account.

I ruined everything.

I enjoyed the game, but wasn’t sure what to do with the dialogue system, and didn’t really think about consequences of my actions. I rushed through it in the moments he didn’t need his laptop, trying to get through as much as I could in the time I had. I didn’t bother to investigate, rarely saved, and took Duncan and Flemeth at their word that the Blight was the biggest threat to Thedas. I missed a lot of side-quests. I didn’t notice Sten in his cage. I killed Zevran without questioning him. I left Redcliffe before fighting the undead, and went on to kill all the mages in the Circle Tower. I never finished that first game, distracted by other things, and besides, my friend wanted his computer back. I liked it, though, and went on to buy it and replay it on my own. The second time went better; I took my time, explored widely, and fell in love (with Zevran and the world itself).

But that first game always left me hanging. The PC I was playing wasn’t a character to me back then, just an avatar of my own haste. As I grew to understand more of the world, I began putting together, in my own head, a reason why that dwarf warrior I first picked out would choose to act that way. She’s a Duster, used to brutality, used to being judged for her actions - good and bad - without a real system of morality to guide her. What morality is there when you’re told from birth that your very existence is wrong and disgusting? She’s always done what needed to be done to ensure her and her sister’s survival. When she becomes a Warden, the goal changes, but her methods don’t. She’s direct, she doesn’t waste her breath explaining herself to others, she’s not going to tolerate distractions when it is a matter of survival.

I’ve started DA:O again, for the first time in a few years, finally properly playing out Skitch Brosca’s story. She stayed and helped Redcliffe this time - she needs whatever men the Arl can give her - but she killed Connor as the most practical long-term solution. She cut Zevran’s throat on the road, and she’ll still exterminate the mages in the Circle Tower when she gets there. They’re too big a threat to have at her back when the Blight threatens them all. Her choices in Orzammar are fairly clear to me, while I’m yet uncertain of how the Brecilian Forest will fare under her heel. She’s callous, yes, but she’s not vindictive or sadistic. She walked into a camp of half-dead elves last night, to be told that the werewolves are far more powerful, ferocious, and capable of intelligence, so I know which way she’s likely to be leaning. We’ll have to see.

I’m seeing a lot of the game my soft heart wouldn’t have been able to stand on other characters, but with Skitch? She knows what she’s doing, even if others don’t like it or her. She demands respect, she demands to be taken seriously, and she’s not concerned about people liking her. I’ve never had so many approval drops in such a short period, and honestly? It’s kind of freeing. I wish there was a way to hide approval changes, and if anyone knows of a way to disable that UI element I’d be grateful to hear it, but I’m learning to harden my heart to my few companions’ opinions. I’m not expecting to romance anyone in this run, which is just as well - the only people that like her right now are Sten and Morrigan. Skitch doesn’t have time for smooches anyway, she’s got too many heads to curb stomp.