#gwaren

[anneapocalypse]

January Writing (+ a little Wednesday WIP)

Word Count: 6250

Thanks to getting sick this month, I did not get as much done this month as I'd hoped, but all things considered, I'm not unhappy with what I did get. I did some work on Harsh Light early in the month, wrote various FFXIV snippets throughout, and as February approaches, I have been writing a bit of Dragon Age again! This is the first week I've been back to my writing routine in earnest, but I'm feeling very energized and ready to do more.

I had been tossing around the idea of working on A Hero Sleeps in Gwaren in February (I may not end up with anything ready to post for Femslash February, but I can at least work on some femslash!) and as January comes to an end I've found myself excited to get back into that fic, and to work on an established project in general, so I think that's what's happening.

Here's a little snippet from this week!

Context: While Teyrn Tabris and Briala were in Denerim getting married, her human vassals have attempted a coup, and Castle Gwaren is currently under seige. With the help of an already-organized elven resistance, our heroines must find a way back to the castle to take command and put down the coup.

The first hitch was that the wagon would be inspected upon entering the town. There was no way around this. Bribery was not an option; if the guards were humans in the service of the banns, there was a strong chance they would simply pocket the gold and turn the elves in anyway. The resistance had a handful of people on the inside—elven knights sworn to the nobles' service, hired by necessity, Talith had explained, as the population of Gwaren had shifted more and more toward elves. They were trusted, reluctantly, to wield the sword for their liege, but they would not be trusted to guard the gates during a coup against the elven ruler. Unless there were an unexpected change of guard rotation, perhaps due to sudden illness. Talith had visibly perked up, to Briala's amusement, at the mention of poisons. "What will you be using? Not deathroot, I assume." "Nay, too bitter, easily detected," Alys had replied, briskly taking down phials and jars from a high cabinet she had unlocked with a large steel key. "I prefer a strain of deep mushroom for such applications… a moderate solution, we don't want them dead immediately, just taken ill, which is going to arouse suspicion as it is, so our agents will be administering the poison at the last possible minute, and your timing will be narrow, as it's likely to be discovered quickly. Our scheduled guards will sit down to lunch, fall ill within the hour, and our people will step in to replace them, just long enough to get your wagon inside. As soon as the commander discovers them, their cover will be burned, so Farron's got someone to extract them… hopefully." She had removed several strips of dried mushroom gingerly with a pair of tongs, crushing them to a powder with her mortar and pestle, then looked up to regard Talith and Briala gravely. "That spends two of our agents, and there's a chance they may not make it out. So, with all due respect, my ladies, do make this one count." Talith had swallowed. "Thank you, Alys. This means everything to me." "To us as well, my lady. It's our future hangs in the balance here, and we'll do what we can to restore you as our rightful ruler. There will be casualties, and I know you won't spend those lives lightly." Her eyes had dropped to the floor. "Still, I know nearly every elf in the resistance by name… I'd be remiss if I didn't say it. I pray the Maker give you swift and decisive victory… for us, as well as for you."

[vigilskeep]

i’m trying to take more notice of heraldry in dao because they put some effort into it and i never even noticed that there’s so much gwaren heraldry up at ostagar

[gwah--ren]

GWAREN + AESTHETICS. 1/?

[rosykims]

honestly im so glad bioware nerfed the cousland origin by not making them as socially & politically powerful as they technically ought to be. bc i think if i had to confront the whole cousland/mac tir situation in canon as opposed to just my own unsalvageable deep fried thoughts i think i would contract some sort of brain eating bacterial infection and die :/

[qunaricatnip]

remembered once again that there was a significant number of the bannorn that wanted a cousland on the throne and all I can think about is an arranged marriage between f!cousland and loghain by maric to suppress any growing rebellion/discontentment

[stormlit]

i know it's a game mechanic but imo there's no way a city elf warden would be allowed to just...unilaterally decide the monarch. like, ferelden's a feudalistic, institutionally fantasy racist country. we all know how elves are treated by humans, both commoner and nobility, and if human common folk don't get a say in things like that, why would a city elf? several of the nobles at the landsmeet are disparaging to brenna's face, let alone what they're saying behind her back.

and by this point, it's not a secret that she's killed both the son of an arl and howe, who legitimately or not had the rank of teyrn at the time. she executes loghain in front of the landsmeet, it's rumoured that she's the dark wolf who's been making nobles' lives a misery, it's still fairly common belief that she/the wardens killed cailan, especially among the nobility, i would think. as far as the ruling classes are concerned, she's not on their side and not worth listening to. her voice would probably weaken her choice's reign, not strengthen it; she's not the hero of ferelden yet (and even when she is, she's still seen as an elf first).

so brenna doesn't get to make the decision. honestly, she doesn't even think it makes much difference; her people have been treated appallingly for generations, much longer than the reign of any one monarch. anora betrayed her, and alistair doesn't want the throne—and alistair is probably her closest friend among her companions, and she wants him to be happy more than anything else.

[blind-alchemists]

is ... is Therinfal Redoubt in the Brecilian Forest.

because that would be kind of funny.

[clavicuss-vile]

just a couple heraldries i whipped together on coat of arms maker,,,,

the noble family of Mac Tir, sigil only created after Celia insisted Loghain stop living in a tent and actually fix his keep. A red rose on a backing of green for the "land" of their name, and black for Gwaren.

Followed by the Royal Family of Mac Tir, the same rose and green backing combined with the yellow mabari of Ferelden.

[redlyriumidol]

I understand why they do this but it's so boring (and often weird) for the player characters always to speak in received pronunciation. I know this is impossible in every way but let my character be a scouser

[deedeemactir]

Here’s the little fic I wrote for @galfrey for our discord server’s Wintersend gift exchange 💕

[anneapocalypse]

I'm just gonna say it, the idea that Dragon Age has this big history of "playersexual" love interests I think is largely BS. It's a term somebody came up with that probably seemed like a good idea at the time, and devs and gaming news outlets have been parroting it mindlessly every since.

If "playersexual" means that an NPC's orientation is only toward the player character or changes based on the player character, and therefore they can't be said to have a distinct sexuality, that is just... demonstrably not true for most of the relevant characters in Dragon Age.

Leliana is not playersexual. She has a past relationship with a woman. There's a whole DLC about it.

Zevran is not playersexual. He tells you in dialogue that he's interested in men and women.

Isabela is not playersexual. She mentions past involvement with men and women, and will have a relationship with Fenris if not romanced by Hawke.

Fenris is not playersexual. See above about the relationship with Isabela.

Anders is not playersexual. In Awakening he mentions liking pretty girls, and he has a past relationship with a man. Not everyone may get the latter dialogue in the game (and it's fair to question that writing choice), but it's also in World of Thedas; it's canon even if you didn't hear it in your game.

The Iron Bull is not playersexual. He can have a relationship with Dorian if not romanced.

Josephine is not playersexual. She has a brief hint of a relationship with Blackwall, even though it doesn't last.

The player character's gender has no effect on any of these relationships canonically happening.

The only love interest you could maybe make a case for (simply because we have no other canon relationships to point to) is Merrill, and her lack of experience is largely alluded to being a result of her being sheltered as the Keeper's apprentice, rather than her having no interest.

While not all of these characters will outright tell you they're attracted to the same gender if not romanced, they all canonically have romantic or sexual interests of some kind outside the player character and none of those change based on the player character's gender, only (sometimes) on whether they are in a romance with the player character. My point here isn't that there's no room for queer identity to be made more explicit, but that their sexualities explicitly do not revolve only around the player character.

And if that's not the definition of "playersexual" then okay, what is it?

Do NPCs literally have to be having a threesome onscreen, visible in every single playthrough no matter what, for us to accept that they have a sexuality that isn't contingent on the player character? Alistair or Sebastian's availability as a romance to female PCs only is generally considered sufficient evidence that they're canonically straight (whatever else fans may headcanon or desire). It's possible to have Sera in your game without ever talking to her about her sexuality, but she's still canonically a lesbian. So exactly what standards for "canon bisexuality" or "canon pansexuality" are we falling short of here? And why is it only for bi/pan characters that the bar is set so high?

These games actually go to considerable lengths to show us that its characters have lives and personalities and preferences apart from the player character. Why is it never enough? Why are we so resistant to just calling these characters pansexual and bisexual? What do we gain from that refusal? And what do we lose?

[vigilskeep]

they also put the dragon’s peak bannorn heraldry in here despite the fact that nobody in the world has ever cared about the dragon’s peak bannorn. the symbol is inexplicably similar to the islamic star and crescent. i don’t remotely have a point to make abt that at all i’m really just baffled

[gwah--ren]

thinking about how woodcarving and leatherwork become a staple of gwaren like serault and glass. are you following me here. leather armor from gwaren featuring intricate stitching designs and carving into the pauldrons... the ships crafted in gwaren being more works of art than regular sailing vessels... gwaren becoming a sort of hub of culture and art but not in the pretentious way val royeaux has... are you seeing my vision...

[highevara]

something something elethea not even being referred to by her name just as "the teyrna of gwaren" as if shes just a concept.

[mxanigel]

Before the Deal

The inimitable @mxkelsifer not only ran the Gwaren Castle Wintersend Exchange but also wrote an incredible Anders & Justice fic for me:

I am still not coherent over this fantastic gift *flails*. SO MANY FEELINGS. It really captures the struggle Anders faces over how to help Justice, a struggle built up from Justice inhabiting a corpse and templars hating the idea of mages escaping their control to live as Wardens and the all-too-fragile power balance between the Amaranthine Wardens and the Templar Order. And his ultimate decision to merge with his friend makes perfect sense through the build-up written here. Thank you again and again, my friend. <3

[iamthescalesofjustice]

the difficulty involved in keeping hadley on retainer isnt even the costs for his alchemical experiments its the fact that this guy needs to spend 5 hours a week walking in a forest and 3 swimming Minimum to not lose it and he Hates having company for either. dude spent years braving werewolves for this. it doesnt matter how much gold you can throw at him and he can only be somewhat motivated by what he considers his ethical obligation to do good in the world by moving his field forward, you need to be able to keep him in a suitable environment.