#hardened leliana

[moonlightheretic]

For the unnamed sequel

"Did she cry? Did she scream? What were the Heretic's last words? Did you commit them to memory?"  she demanded, turning the small dagger to the right. “Tell me!”

Solas’s left hand rose to swallow her own, trembling around the hilt, his jaw twitching as he contained his pain within the threshold of flesh and teeth.

She pulled him down with the knife acting like a lasso between them, drawing his face close to hers, “Do you wish to know the reason we aimed for her instead of you, Dread Wolf?”

One gasp and a fervent yank is all it took, the blade freed with a gush of crimson from palm and chest. The dagger, a ghostly phantom glinting in borrowed light; dashed to the jugular of the Dread Wolf.

[cookiescr]

Baby girl thinking about that chocolate while reporting to you about stopping a resistance

[lesbianholyspirit]

Me loading up DAI to see Leliana acting like the cold and calculating killer she hoped she would never become in origins.

[a-drama-addict]

emira is the maker’s most bravest soldier. what if she accidentally pisses leliana off when eating her out and leliana just kills her

[acrossthedrift]

With Veilguard on the horizon I thought I'd play through the trilogy only to remember it's been about a decade since I last played Origins.

Shocked, to say the least. I can feel myself rediscovering my general joy and love for this game, and the companions. It's so great to be with the OG crew again.

Of course, romancing Leliana took priority.

I've only ever played Human Noble so I decided to go City Elf Rogue this time, so meet my Warden, Kalira. A little rambling below.

She's more or less how I imagine her looking. Now I just have to go back every now and then for tweaks.

As I've said, I've only ever played Human Noble. I thought my Couslands, Aedan and Hannah, would be all I have but it looks like I'm adding a third child to the family. Maybe a forth if I try Dwarf Noble.

But this Origin... yeah, I can see why it gets raved the way it does. My only "complaint" is the wedding dress doesn't look like the one from the City Elf Origin art (maybe there's a mod?).

A complaint, because I love the image of Vaughan turning around to see Kalira step into view fangs bared, daggers aimed toward him and her once white dress painted crimson. Ah, I can just headcannon it.

Shianni glassing him was easily a top five non-Warden moment of this game.

It has certainly been an experience™ to see the racism. It makes it feel like the only shems you can like are the ones in your party, which suits Kalira well enough.

[gabs-magical-abs]

Just thinking about how if you call Leliana creepy for watching you sleep she just laughs it off and if you call her crazy she's like "you thought I was crazy since the beginning and yet here we are"

It's giving serial killer ngl

[asterroses]

ok so , maxciene cousland -

she's a warrior class , i think she would have formal training seen to by her father n more rogue-ish training by her mother during few late nights . she has always done what shes wanted , and what would be best for her and her family . even if it means becoming cruel . if it gets her ahead , if it lets her keep her status , shes going for that option . she does whats best for her .

she's cold , she manipulates , shes callous , apathetic , and she despises being a grey warden .bryce is her closest companion , but as she has little to no contact with him during origins / awakening , leliana is her next closest companion . she doesnt make friends ; she keeps everyone at a distance , ally only , no closeness . the only closeness she really accepts from people at most is physically , during sex . she fears if she lets people close , they will use that against her eventually . so she avoids relationships with most people .

she marries alistair for the throne , but retains her relationship with leliana as her and alistair have more of a political marriage . i dont even think they rlly like each other too much lolol . shes still in contact with anora ; sometimes people claim they still see her in the palace when the lights are dimmed . she married alistair solely for the throne ; to reclaim the power the couslands had and to gain access to even more power and control . to solidify her place , if shes ever gone , she has an heir with alistair . shes not motherly in any case , her daughter refers to her by her first name and is mostly raised by the nanny and the servants . they never become close , in fact their relationship only gets worse as maxciene introduces another heir , and becomes more and more distant to her first born . she prefers the distance , even if its a distance from her daughter .

she has never done anything wrong ever <3 [shes killed so many ppl just for power]

[longer-than-i-should-admit]

Guys. I don’t know how they’ll handle building Solas and Rook’s relationship beyond having to work together, but what if they present the option of asking Solas to share his stories about the Fade and the memories he’s seen?

…And what if he refuses to tell them?

What if his eyes go distant for but a moment, focusing over your shoulder, something wistful in his normally taciturn and carefully neutral features, before his expression twists into a stern frown and his eyes harden with steely consternation?

“Such fragments of the past bear no impact upon the future I was attempting to shape—before you came along, anyway,” he says coldly. “Why would you care about what should have been altered?”

“Because Varric said you find joy in learning,” you answer softly. “And I wanted to understand you.”

His scowl doesn’t falter, but his eyes do. Just a flicker of recognition, of familiarity, of longing.

What if, as time goes on and he learns to trust you like he had others in the past, he tentatively offers a story as a means of an apology for his behavior?

“…As I once lay in the realm of the Dreaming,” he murmurs, gazing somberly across his self-made prison, “I witnessed the Inquisitor tending her garden. Skyhold became hers. The Veil is thinnest there, magic steeped into every brick and foundation stone upon that peak. No demons were permitted there, but benevolent spirits crowded the barrier in attempt to catch a glimpse of the wielder of the beacon that illuminated the Fade. They still walk her footsteps, now that the fortress lies barren. They stand in the great hall and echo her words.” He wilts a bit before your eyes, saddening to his marrow. “The gift I left for her is in shambles, nothing more than crumbles of regret in the wake of my follies.”

“Will you show me?” you ask gently. At his questioning glance, you clarify, “What it looked like before.”

Solas regards you—not so much of a stranger now—and releases a heavy sigh, but not before he gesticulates and reshapes the Fade around the both of you into a new scene: the rotunda, in its full glory of vibrant jewel tones and soft furnishings. The final mural remains incomplete; a lingering fragment—a physical representation—of the guilt lodged inextricably into his memory.

“For you, my friend,” he whispers, but you have a sneaking suspicion he might not be thinking about you at all as he gazes forlornly upon the central figure painted with loving care in the first, “always.”

[sangfielle]

hmmm i have most of what i'm doing with althea's canon run figured out but idk whether to put him on the throne & whether to harden him or not... generally if i make him king i harden him but i already have to harden him & put him on the throne in two other canon runs.

[prodigum]

fun question. what are your hopes for leli if she shows up in da4

call me conceited or call me a leli stan , but my only true hope is for this girl to be divine. she is..................noah fence but she is the one. the best fit even coming from a very understanding standpoint. i love cass. i love viv, but less as divine. cass would do great. but leliana was just born and bread for this. half shady and half holy. i want to see it. every move she makes she has cause and intent and the fucking maker in mind. there's a canticle behind every one of her choices. it's just her future.

and if there's the option and she's not - i would love to see that bitch retire. i would love to see her NOWHERE near tevinter nor any of northern thedas. bc let's be real she's seen so much and needs to settle down. (in a specific and yet perfect world bc DA, she settles down with the hero of ferelden and if she's not divine, she may give a raven or two of aid but other than that, she's just trying to live for once.)

[dark-elf-writes]

!!! I think I just figured out my whole world state surrounding Wren and I’m frothing at the mouth for it.

Working title is “An Exaltation of Heroes” which includes:

Raven Tabris - rogue. Rose from the wreckage of her wedding day with blood on her hands and ash in her throat. Blood and ash follow her whenever she goes. The joining. The fall of Ostagar. Lothering. Blood and ash and agony are all she knows. Until she meets a Nightingale who sings where she can only croak. Who speaks of hope and the loving hand of the Maker guiding them. Who holds her cheeks so gently and tastes like wine and sunlight. She ruins that Nightingale somewhere in the twisting streets of Denerim, turns her lover as cold and hollow as she is. Pours blood and ash down her throat until that is all that remains. She wishes she had died killing the archdemon if only to spare her Leliana this continuing pain.

Lark Hawke - mage. They left Lothering with the echo of their sister’s bones cracking in their ears, and tried to hold onto some semblance of normal with ragged fingernails and endless chatter and quips that doesn’t quite hide the circles under their eyes or the house that gets more and more empty with each year. They handed their heart to a man they thought they could trust only for it to be ripped to pieces when the chantry exploded. He was never going to choose them. They should have seen it coming. He tells them they look beautiful before they drive the knife into his heart, his little songbird. (Still they chatter, still they sing, still they fight for this new world he would have loved to see… even if it tears them apart.)

Wren Lavellan - mage. Found half dead by Clan Lavellan when they were a child with strange vallaslin carved hatefully into their face so deeply it scarred. A sacrifice to gods who had long since abandoned them. A wolf among sheep according to their keeper as he raised the blade over their heart. The only survivor once their original clan turned on the ones come to save them. Every night they dream of wolves. Of one wolf. With tar dripping from its mouth and many eyes shut in slumber. Until one day the wolf is no longer sleeping. Until they leave to protect the clan that had once protected them and was once again the only survivor. A herald for another god they didn’t believe in. A stray bird locked in a cage of light and forced to chant instead of sing.

[moonlightheretic]

Burn (rough)

'The only glimpse he found of Dal’nim was Leliana cruelly dropping her, her little leg shattering into a million pieces. The last part he had missed as Moon’Hwa struck his eye blind.

Leliana’s bow taking aim at a distracted Moon’Hwa, a signal given to the accompanying archers, pinning her down in a flurry of arrows only a heartbeat later. Her limp body slumping into his.

A shaken hiss slithered from his gritted teeth and Solas sharply withdrew from the Nightingale with his eyes scrunched shut.

Before he could pull away-- two slender hands darted for the dagger that perched in his chest and he was tugged forward, following the knife.

Bloodshot eyes met tearful ones.  

“You wear her knife. So romantic.” Leliana observed, disgust curled up in her lips and teeth.

“Death is a mercy I will not afford you peacefully. You are familiar with suffering, but not the harrowing I will inflict.” He seethed, a tempered growl rattling each word.

“I see her when I sleep, did you know? Did you see her in there? Did you count her eyes?” Leliana’s wrists twisted to the left and the knife carved a bloody pathway, redefining an old wound. “So many eyes.”

Solas grimaced and grunted but did nothing to stop her bloody crusade, his hands balled up into quivering fists.

“You’ve shed your mind of Dal’nim and replaced her with delusions--”

Leliana barked out a fractured laugh, “Even if I did know, why would I ever reveal that to you? Hunt, Wolf. Hunt for her until your last breath.”

“As talented as you were, you will die as a forgotten scorch on this stone. A wailing wisp of smoke frothing from a husk of malignant ash. You came so far only to accomplish nothing.”

One gasp and a fervent yank is all it took, the blade freed with a gush of crimson. The ghostly phantom glinting in borrowed light; dashed to the jugular of the Dread Wolf.

But his lips moved quicker.

“Burn.”

[leliwardens]

Do you generally harden or soften Leliana in Origins and Inquisition?

I try to maintain organic roleplaying with my MCs because I get so much enjoyment from doing it and I gain an understanding of said MCs with really thinking how they'd go about it and why.

That being said, my Warden (Alivah) does soften Leliana. Narratively, Alivah (by that point in the timeline) would be wanting to try and mitigate general cruelty, murder, death, so on. And after all of that would certainly try to support Leliana in accepting herself as a changed person striving to do good, and Alivah also is striving to do good, and maybe they can do so together.

However, I haven't done a run where I've had my fanon injected (Tabris family connection to Marjolaine), and that could change something up honestly given what I spin around in my mind for scenes and fanon and lore, I doubt Alivah's approach would change much.

My Inquisitor (Hissera) is more of the same. She's a spirit of hope, so ofc she's going to gun for inspiriting Leliana and trying to reaffirm that yes she is good, yes you can solve problems without murder, yes mercy is possible, and so on. The Warden's letter further solidifies her doing that. Plus it's fun to have two spirits playing therapist to the really sad French murder lady.

I think both can be really fun and both have some really great stuff to chew on, like hardening her in DAO but softening her in DAI, and having her be Divine with a much more merciful outlook than she's held for years, or maybe hardening her in both with an UltSac Warden and not making her Divine, giving her a rather compelling future now she's not given a direct path to move forward.

Really compelling stuff no matter how you slice it.

Thank you for your question, I love talking about my blorbos. :)

[danceswithdarkspawn]

if you're curious how i plan my works, i just shitpost about it somewhere and make it semi-coherent on the page

[lelianaslefthand]

was looking through my drafts and saw my thinkpiece on the way they did sebastian's friend/rival routes and got mad about it all over again...

[nathanialhowe]

Ricky would so kill Kronk tbh it's not even funny