#grief that has nowhere to go becomes anger. and to survive that anger. to outlast that fire. takes strength and it takes thick skin

[elvesofnoldor]

kinda weird how hell-bent i am at making my canon warden a mage when mage origin in da:o is probably the weakest origin out of, what, all 6 of the origin stories for the warden? it’s so flavourless, there is very little that makes the mage character super emotionally engaging, and the mage warden is the most blank slated out of all the possible warden. Plus, since the very first game in the series most of the mage origin story is just the protagonist asking lore-related questions that they should already know the answers to. but idk it’s just so much more fun making a mage/magic based builds, i do not have time to read and digest shits like “cry of valour: cooldown decreases by 75% when you are staggered and your health regenerate 0.5 second faster on each critical hit (stacking)��, cause bro that’s the kind of shit i have to read when i choose which abilities to unlock for a warrior or rogue and that’s just too many numbers and math and not enough texts about setting people on fire. 

that being said, i have been feeling pretty lukewarm for my male!surana for a very long time. i didnt like my female!surana at all, and my m!surana is basically a projection of my desire to romance morrigan and have kieran with morrigan and also a projection of maglor (the one in my head aka a vast expansion on what tolkien has written on paper, which is pityingly little). Also, considering that my canon lavellan is already an elf dude and a mage, do i need another elf mage??? i think i met the quota for elf mages. listen, i made my surana a detailed backstory that has nothing to do with maglor in any capacity (and the flexibility of mage origin to adapt to any sort of backstory you might want for your mage warden is one of its few saving graces), but appearance and personality wise he’s just...he’s just so maglor (the one in my head). Also, i could just spent more time fleshing out maglor (in the fanfics i still haven’t written--partially because the chapter outlines kept changing) if this dragon age elf player character is just maglor 2.0. personally, i pick established canon characters over my ocs and anybody else’s ocs any day. plus, i want my original characters to be actually, you know, original. 

i’m seriously considering having a female mahariel as my canon warden right now. in my opinion city elf origin is THE best warden origin, hands down, but merrill’s presence as a npc and the explicit connection and introduction to the eluvian (which is important across all three games) in dalish elf origin makes me prefer the dalish origin more from time to time. i always want leliana to be my canon dao romance and i think just yesterday i had the idea for the right gal to romance her. someone who’s original enough and someone who’s satisfactory enough of a character that can make that wish come true. i can’t even play da:o right now but i already looked at rogue builds for da:o lol (the best build is dual wield assassin, coincidentally my favourite rogue build in dai). my “canon” da2 and dai protags are both mages, it’s time for a change.