#flamsparks

[flamsparks]

All while I'm running around the map, scanning every ruin and moderately old rock I find on my path and being the compulsive looter I am in every. single. game.

the ‘lords of fortune make sure we dont take artefacts of cultural importance’ is wild for many reasons but IDK if youve studied even a little bit of a humanities subject like history or archaeology or anthropology (or just thought about it rly) it is easily argued that EVERYTHING they could feasibly be taking is of cultural value

its such a wishy washy statement that appears to flirt with this vague notion that colonialism is bad but doesnt actually decide to engage with this in any deep way. really just salt in the wound given how staggeringly orientalist the depiction of the rivaini and qunari are

i would love if the lords of fortune were presented as a group of people who do plunder things of important cultural value and then actually made the player engage with this idea. it could be a really confronting thing given how ‘looting’ is such a core mechanic of so many games including this one. not saying to get didactic about it but make the player think about something thats v much taken for granted

[flamsparks]

Haven't drawn shit in MONTHS, gotta love that this is what got me drawing again. Because of course it was. First I naively gave Gale the Wavemother's Robe, then I saw those shoes on a post on insta, of COURSE I couldn't help myself.

[Instagram | DeviantArt]

In my defence, my dumb millennial brain had me fully convinced we still live in that epoch where armours for men and women look radically different. It started out very innocently, I swear. Then my thoughts took their own path, I have no control over those little shits

Oh, these are the shoes btw

[flamsparksphotography]

High-res download with no watermark is available on my ko-fi

[Ko-fi - DeviantArt]

[magshazasideblog]

Lol calm down, French Canadian dub! (Just kidding, NEVER calm down.) Translation is courtesy of Flamsparks on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDSm1b-E5Jc

[none-ofthisnonsense]

Willemijn is #8 (for German) and #4 (for Dutch) in FlamSparks' Elsa ranking and I feel vindicated

[cto10121]

Bohémienne (Multilanguage + Lyrics) 

[vinterhjerte]

Elsa | Winter Soul edited by FlamSparks

[ao3feed-fenders]

Dolci paroline

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/7vSVc0d

by FlamSparks

Anders ha una scelta quando incappa per sbaglio nelle parole che Danarius utilizzava per far venire a Fenris un orgasmo a comando: può decidere se usare l’elfo oppure se aiutarlo a riconquistarsi la libertà. Fenris non si sarebbe mai aspettato l’aiuto del mago. Non si sarebbe mai aspettato che avessero qualcosa in comune. E tanto meno si aspettava di innamorarsi. Con Kirkwall sull’orlo del baratro e Danarius in agguato nell’ombra, Anders deve riuscire a liberare Fenris prima che tutto crolli loro addosso.

Words: 2918, Chapters: 1/19, Language: Italiano

Fandoms: Dragon Age II, Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M

Characters: Fenris (Dragon Age), Anders (Dragon Age), Female Hawke (Dragon Age), Isabela (Dragon Age), Sebastian Vael, Cullen Rutherford

Relationships: Anders/Fenris (Dragon Age), Anders & Fenris (Dragon Age)

Additional Tags: Minor Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Porn With Plot, Hurt/Comfort, Masturbation, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Dubious Consent, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, Frottage, Sex Magic, Forced Orgasm, Voyeurism, Canon Dialogue, Blood and Gore, Betrayal, Minor Female Hawke/Isabela (Dragon Age), Minor Female Hawke/Cullen Rutherford

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/7vSVc0d

[flamsparks]

DnD characters sowing what they reaped✨

[DeviantArt]

[flamsparks]

Please, look at this

and tell me you hear it too

...I honestly don't know how I feel about this

[flamsparks]

Mermaid AU. Because.

[Instagram - DeviantArt]

[flamsparks]

Inquisition agents at Halamshiral. Because I love the picture they make.

[Instagram - DeviantArt]

[flamsparks]

Winning this year's contest is Par Vollen, with the song "Vitaar", by the Iron Bull!

[DeviantArt]

I would apologise for this. If I were sorry. Truth is, I'm so proud of how this turned out.

Already last year I wanted to do a crossover of Dragon Age with the Eurovision, but eventually never got around doing it, and regretted it all year round. So this year, I opted for being unapologetically unrepentant.

Originally, I had considered drawing some group song with all the Chargers (Maker knows why I kept falling back to Croatia), but then this image somehow got stuck in my mind, and I couldn't find another way to exorcise it.

I do have a few more ideas for this Eurovision which I hope to get to draw, but honestly, I think I can only go down from here.

[flamsparksphotography]

High-res download with no watermark is available on my ko-fi

[Ko-fi - DeviantArt]

[flamsparksphotography]

High-res download with no watermark is available on my ko-fi

[Ko-fi - DeviantArt]

[flamsparks]

Languages spoken in Thedas

I'm a sucker for "characters speaking their native language" videos (they make such a perfect excuse to showcase as many languages as I can all together), and after Absolution came with unique dubs... why shouldn't I make one for Dragon Age too, I thought. So, here it is.

Find further info and explanations on the choices I made for this video under the cut.

So! First things first: yes, I know that basically the entirety of Thedas speaks the Common tongue on a daily basis rather than any local languages, basically only to keep manageable track of world building (we all know that Solas’ romance could only be fully in Elven, I refuse to believe otherwise). BUT, in this video I decided to overlook this technical detail and investigate the languages behind the technical façade.

Now, we all know that in Thedas there’s no one-to-one correspondence with countries irl, e.g. as a Venetian myself, I’m quite simply unable to turn a blind eye on the fact that Orlesian masks are undeniably Venetian masks, or that the Antivan city of Rialto borrows its name from Venice’s most famous bridge. However, the game leaves no room for doubt that the first language in Orlais is French and in Antiva is Spanish. Similar instances apply to all other places: elements from different real-life areas (and even moments in time) are employed within the same states in Thedas, so rather than looking at the cultural traits displayed, which are often mixed up more or less randomly, I tried to give more weight to any linguistic hint that was provided.

Everybody, hail to France and Germany for having produced their own localized dubbings for every single game, making my life so much easier with French and German.

Ander

Identifying the language of the Anderfels is not simple, mostly because not much of it is shown, linguistically wise. But a bunch of names, such as that of Weisshaupt (“White Peak”) or Lattenfluss (“Batten River”), point towards German. German Anders: Tammo Kaulbarsch Video used: link

Antivan

Despite the many references to Italy, particularly the Veneto region (where the capital city is Venice), with cities like Treviso and Rialto (the latter being irl a bridge in Venice, not a city like Treviso), each and every Antivan character in the whole franchise has only ever spoken bits of Spanish, never Italian. So, Spanish it is. (The presence of many references to Veneto doesn’t opt out references to Spain, which are also present, like the Antivan "Felicisima Armada"). The bits in Spanish, however present, are very few, so I really couldn’t make that segment any longer, though I did try. Video used: link

Elven (Modern & Ancient)

I love it how they created a very realistic linguistic barrier in Trespasser, where an elf Inquisitor won’t be able to understand the ancient elven spirits, unless they can and actively choose to listen to the Well of Sorrows. Languages evolve and change in time, something which tends to go lost in such world buildings, and with a linguistic group going as far back as the Elvish language goes, it only makes sense that it would greatly change with time (I would also expect it to diversify from place to place, like human languages have, but let’s not get too pretentious). I would have also expected for Solas to speak in an ancient variant as well, but given that elf Inquisitors understand him… I guess that was not the case? Videos used: Ancient Elven, Modern Elven

Orlesian

Hearing the bard using the actual proper French dubbing of DA:I when you��re in Val Royeaux was probably what prompted me to make this video in the first place. Just like every other place, Orlais is also made of elements borrowed from different places (those are Venetian masks, I will NEVER unsee them!), but the language they speak is undoubtedly French. French Leliana: Laura Blanc Videos used: audio, video

Qunlat

The official language of Par Vollen… that’s it, not much to say here. Videos used: #1 #2

Tevene (Modern & Ancient)

According to David Gaider, “The Imperium has its own language, just as Orlais does, even if most people speak the common tongue as well. Only in rural areas might you find people who don't.” However, Patrick Weekes claims that Tevene is a language studied and used to show one’s education, but, in their words, “that's the expectation. It's flavor, not everyone's main language”. I think these two different takes on the language might indicate two stages of mother-to-daughter languages, where a more vulgar variety is the one spoken in everyday life, while the more classical/bookish variant requires study and a high degree of education (which reminds me a bit of the current situation with Arabic and its local variants). Given how most sentences and words in what is supposed to be this older variant of Tevene are mostly in Latin or Pseudo-Latin (I will NEVER forgive that “sale” turned “sela” in “sela petrae”), I decided to pick Italian as its modern variety. Italian Miriam: Chiara Gioncardi Italian Rezaren: Lorenzo De Angelis Videos used: > Ancient Tevene: #1 #2 #3 > Modern Tevene (Italian): Netflix

Trade/King’s/Common Tongue

In spite of common belief, David Gaider informed us that the Trade tongue was invented by the dwarves not to communicate with humans, but to communicate among themselves, as different languages are spoken in different parts of the Deep Roads (see below the “Dwarven languages” section). Now, I don’t see it very likely for people in need to find a means to communicate to make up a whole new language, instead of learning each other’s languages (or at least the most common of them): conlangs haven’t had that much success under this aspect in history; at best, a pidgin of two languages would be born, which could eventually develop into a proper creole, but a brand-new, made-up language? Hardly. But this is what the canon says, so… Common is a conlang that spread first among dwarves and later conquered most of the surfacers, one way or another. Video used: link

German bard: Valeska Rautenberg

French bard: Claire Guyot

Other languages with no audio available or for which we have no idea what they correspond to:

Alamarri

The dead language of the old Alamarri peoples.

Avvar

The language of the Avvar peoples. Fun fact: there's a Caspian language spoken in Russia called "Avar", spoken primarily by the Avar people.

Chasind

The language of the Chasind peoples.

Ciriane

My inner Old Norse specialist soul shrieked out and deafened the rest of me when I first read the codex entry Jeshavis, Mother of Orlais: “(…) This text was translated from Oer Gyðja Jethvis, a highly romanticized account of the first gyðja, or female chieftain, of the unified Ciriane tribes of Orlais.” Now, this tells me that a total of two of the three words we know in Ciriane (“gyðja”, meaning “goddess”, and “gothi”, write “goði”, indicating a chieftain, the one who presided assemblies, especially in Iceland) are in Old Norse. Based on the evidence provided by two (2) whole words, I hereby declare Ciriane to correspond to Old Norse.

Dwarven languages

Quoting David Gaider: “[Dwarves] invented a new language to trade with each other. There isn't any one "dwarven" language, though humans like to think of it that way because of the old kingdoms only Orzammar is left.” It makes sense that, from the outside, people who don’t know much about any given society might view it as a whole, ignoring all the differences and parts it’s made of. That a society like the dwarven one, which is very physically divided by kilometres of tunnels and stone, developed different languages makes perfect sense. It’s too bad none of them was ever introduced in-game and that the dwarves have only ever spoken in Common.

Rivaini

For the life of me, I don’t have the faintest idea what language could be spoken in Rivain. I tried very hard to find any sort of foothold to identify it, but I swear it was the desert.