#help i just wanted to talk about dragon age

[atramenting]

I already posted this on bsky but this is my FoM farmer OC, Lake! Please excuse the fact that the little drawing of him is in almost the same pose as the sprite - I wanted to do a little redraw ^^;

A "Caldosian adventurer" with seemingly nothing in his past worth talking about, Lake comes to Mistria after finding the job posting in a city he was passing through. Having no home of his own, he thinks the offer sounds pretty swell - a house, however small and shabby, in exchange for some basic work? It sounds like a steal, especially after sleeping in the woods with nothing but a ragged tent and pallet most nights.

His original intentions are to come to town, save up whatever he can from his excess profits, and then disappear over the Caldosian border before anyone can find out anything about him. However, the warmhearted nature of the townsfolk winds up drawing him in, and he finds himself genuinely wanting to help restore what's been damaged in the aftermath of the earthquake. When he and Eiland unintentionally restore Caldarus, though it may be to just a bit of his former power, Caldarus offers Lake the ability to perform magic -- something that Lake had often found himself wishing for as a young child.

Against his better judgment, he accepts the boon from his new dragon companion and puts a real effort into shaping up the land he's been given, slowly growing closer to his new Mistrian neighbors. He quickly befriends Hayden when the man finds out he also has a soft spot for small farm animals, as well as Celine, who is more than happy to help him learn some of the finer points of gardening. However, it quickly becomes obvious that, despite technically working for Adeline, Lake is trying to avoid interacting with the town's nobility.

Gee, Adeline and Eiland think, he must be shy, being the newest face in town! Surely he's just nervous because he's not used to interacting with nobles! And so they make it their goal to make Lake realize that, despite their finery and manner, their parents are quite unlike many of the stuck-up vassals to the throne! They're just normal people!

What they don't realize, though, is that Lake is a former member of a group of... well, the sort of people that don't interact with polite society. Orphaned as a young child, he was taken in by the thieves who murdered his parents -- though he didn't know that part -- and branded as a part of their guild. At age twelve, he was given the chance to choose between two paths: either continue being the equivalent of servant, doomed to a life tending his overseers' livestock and gardens, or... become one of them.

He worked as a member of the thieves' guild for some time, until one fateful day. At age twenty-two, he was scoping out a market stall when a young lord happened to pass by and see the brand on his inner wrist. The man flew into a frenzy, accusing Lake of any number of crimes, exposing him there for what he was -- a lowly thief, one of the very group that had plagued the city for ages. Lake tried to explain that he had no idea what the man was talking about, and truthfully, for he had only come to Aldaria that week -- but he was soon set upon by not only the man's armed guards, but a furious swarm of marketgoers and stallkeepers as well.

At the end of a harrowing chase, Lake thought he had escaped, only to come face-to-face with the lord who had hurled those accusations his way. Beaten and exhausted, Lake tried to reason with him, but the man revealed the reason for his hatred - "My father died because of your sort!"

Lake looked down at that brand on his wrist, and something like understanding washed over him. He would always be one of the crooks who had taken lives and livelihoods -- there was no way talking like this was going to work. As he tried, the lord advanced on him, brandishing his sword -- and so Lake took out his own, and ended the man's life to earn his freedom.

The Caldosian border was on lockdown, any number of kingsmen could be searching for him, and so Lake turned to the nearest outpost -- only to be shunned for such a blatant crime, for having drawn attention to the guild with such a brazen murder. He fled for his life there, too, for the ones he might have considered brothers and sisters were only interested in collecting the bounty now on his head.

With nowhere to go, Lake ran and ran until he collapsed. He awoke in a small cabin in the woods, where he met the man who had saved him - a man who knew exactly who he was, and who still wanted to hear his side of the story. After explaining himself, Lake assumed he would get dragged off to the nearest town to be jailed and hanged, but instead the stranger just asked him -- "How does life as an adventurer sound?"

With the mark on his wrist obscured by a new tattoo, and a new identity pieced together for him by an experienced explorer, Lake began taking work through the Aldarian Adventurer's Guild, where he eventually earned enough merit to make a meager living for himself. However, he always stayed on the move -- afraid that if he stayed anywhere long enough for someone to recognize him, to find an old wanted poster and notice the resemblance or the holes in his backstory, that his new life of freedom would be taken from him.

And so it went, until Lake came to Mistria, where the baron's son took a particular interest in him for some unknown reason. And where he, as fate would have it, fell head over heels for Eiland in turn, while also trying to master dragon magic and keep his chickens and rabbits from eating his entire garden. Oh, and also, some other political drama as Mistria begins rising through the rankings, and the king's vassals start getting very suspicious and jealous of what's going on with all of that.

Fun facts: -Lake is vegetarian. He had to slaughter many of the animals he raised during his time with the thieves' guild, and it broke his heart every time. He has tons of pets now -- not livestock. He will correct anyone who makes that mistake.

-He loves fruits, and consequently, any sort of juice, sweet, drink, or dessert made out of them. He doesn't have a favorite, as it would be a tie between far too many! The fact that he can grow them all now is an absolute joy -- and the ones that only grow in the wild? He frequently goes foraging for them, whether to eat straight from the bush or to preserve for later.

-He likes keeping fish. They're pretty and relaxing to watch, so he often finds himself seated in front of an aquarium, lost in thought.

-He is a little bit shy, but also a good actor. He finds himself overwhelmed frequently when it comes to talking shop with Hayden, despite the man's friendly nature. As such, it's also super easy to convince him to do anything, because he'll just freeze up and agree to whatever it is a person is suggesting. He finds himself in a lot of situations like this, wishing he hadn't offered to help, and yet unwilling to go back on his word. (He's a good person now, he keeps telling himself.)

-He's a natural with the sword. He tries to avoid violence where possible, but there's also a part of him deep down that is really proud of the talent. He keeps this to himself for sure. He also wears his sword everywhere in Mistria -- something that's odd to the townspeople, but quickly gets filed as just a quirk.

-Lake and Eiland begin forming their friendship when it comes out that Lake is almost entirely uneducated. He can read and write, sure, and he's up to date on modern events -- but history? It's fascinating, but he feels like an idiot for not knowing even the most basic facts. Eiland loves teaching people, especially when it focuses on his own interests, and so they wind up spending a lot of time together.

-Lake doesn't get along well with Juniper or March. He doesn't trust whatever it is that Juniper is up to -- or the fact that she can sense Caldarus's magic on him. With March, they learn to tolerate each other, but Lake has really strong feelings on people who are assholes, undoubtedly from dealing with that sort quite a bit during his upbringing. For the sake of keeping the peace, though, Lake bites his tongue. Most of the time.

-Aside from Hayden and Celine, his closest neighbors, Lake also finds himself getting along well with Ryis and Olric. He also respects Valen a lot, but is fairly intimidated by her.

-He loves swooshy cloaks/capes and big hats. These become a part of his usual attire after be begins working for the Adventurer's Guild, and only ever go away when the situation calls for it.

-He's a little bit vain about his hair. He was never able to grow it long until he became an adventurer, so he's been working diligently to keep it healthy ever since.

-He pierced his own ears when he was fifteen and just a little bit edgy. He likes to mix it up between studs and hoops, but nothing too dangly, or it gets caught in his hair.

-He cannot control his magic very well. He often finds himself using the spells Caldarus has taught him when he doesn't want to be using them. All it takes is for him to close his eyes and breathe in the scent of dew upon the morning grass, to feel that sense of peace and relaxation he's never gotten before coming here --- and suddenly his plants have doubled in height, and so have all the weeds in a 200m radius, making more work for himself.

-He also causes a major thunderstorm on the night of the Star Festival, when Eiland takes his hand and offers to walk him home after their date. The two of them basically slide down the mountain in the mud, laughing the entire way.

[the-sailing-snail]

pls?

[vaguely-concerned]

the relationship between rye and emmrich is that if emmrich ever told rye that he's a damn fine watcher, rye would immediately burst into helpless inconsolable tears and have to be coaxed down from it for an hour with hot tea and gentle voices and kind patient back pats before he could be what passes for normal on the surface again

[abyssal-ilk]

until we sleep comics. why the fuck did you do that to maevaris.

[ghost-bard]

I feel like every time i hear about solavellan its talking about like “oh when they reunite and solas and ooooo” or like. Something angsty like one of them dying or something.

Anyone elses lavellan wanna just kill him like straight up

And i dont mean this in a hating solas way (irl) but at least in my lavellans case they went through hell and back in inquisition, and finding out solas wants to tear down the veil, effectively destroying the world as they know it, was the final straw. As in they were barely keeping it together before, and this caused them to spiral. Like a mental break happened. And that manifested in a very uh. Violent and hunting down solas at all costs kinda way.

[shannonsketches]

something something foils moving in opposite directions Goku's always happy to seek and fight stronger opponents because he spent most of his life being the strongest guy in the room and Vegeta wants to be the strongest/is always exhausted to find stronger opponents because he spent most of his life having to navigate his survival around the whims of the strongest guy in the universe room and so Goku has a foundation of safety and stability and so spends his time craving challenge and adventure and Vegeta has a foundation of challenge and adventure and spends his time craving safety and stability and the overlaid section of their venn diagram is that the only way they know how acquire and maintain those things is through battle

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

Are there any companions you can't stand?

I wouldn't say I have any that I can't stand. Something that's so engaging to me about DA is that the companions have good, bad, and a lot in between. Honestly, I don't hate any of them. There are companions that I have more issues with than others, but I like them all; even, and sometimes especially, the ones that tend to be heavily hated on by the fandom.

The only companion that might fall into this category for me is Sebastian, but I totally acknowledge that I've yet to make an effort to use him when I play DA2. I legit just forget about him. How am I supposed to have a good grasp of his character when I don't engage with him outside of his companion quests? Plus I usually romance Anders so Sebastian always leaves my party in the end with threats of bringing an army down on Kirkwall for not killing Anders, soooo... yeah. Not the greatest impression he's left me with.

I would like to have a more well-rounded opinion of Sebastian because the concept of him is interesting; he's this chantry brother who is also a prince, but his family was murdered so he puts up a bounty on the chantry board [which admittedly is SO funny] and his companion quests are about avenging his family and helping him decide if he should take back his lands or remain a chantry brother. But then I talk to him, I listen to him talk to the other companions, and it's like... oh, the chantry has become his entire personality because the dude was brainwashed and now he's saying shit like the maker was actually the one who freed Fenris from slavery, and when Fenris tells him a story about how Denarius killed a child in a ritual for more power, Sebastian just doubles down that the maker has his reasons, like....babe, c'mon now.

I feel like I've read pieces about him written by fans who love him that are more compellingly written than he is, if that makes sense. Really, I would love to be educated by those who love him, especially Sebastian romancers because of all the love interests in all of DA, he's the one I look at and go, "....okay but why?" I have a lot of fun with character discussions and other perspectives so I mean that sincerely.

Also I think it's worth noting that when I play, I tend to get super into the roleplay of my warden/hawke/inquisitor, but while they have party members they can't stand, I have opinions that are separate from them, y'know?

For example, since I've talked about it a lot recently, my mage Hawke and Aveline butt heads constantly. By the end of Act 3, they're rivalry is heated and Ed's surprised Aveline even sided with him in the end because THAT is how much their relationship deteriorated over the course of the game... but then there's my warrior Hawke who adored Aveline. The two of them were best friends and Aris always gave her the benefit of the doubt, like she had Aveline's back through and through.

I've complained about Aveline a lot in my posts so it probably does sound like I can't stand her, but that's not true. Aveline's actually a companion that fascinates me, like she makes me go, "God, you're such an asshole, tell me more right now." and it drives me crazy how she and Carver are foils, like I love it so much, I could go on and on about how foiled they are, it makes me want to bite something.

It's very easy to look at Aveline and think she's just a bitch, she's a cop, she's a bad character, #Aveline-critical, bad companion, etc. I see it all the time, and not just with her, but with every companion in dragon age, y'know? I'm not saying that's wrong or anything; some characters just don't vibe with you or you have legit reasons for hating them and that's fine. I'm just saying some of it's very surface level unless you make the effort to elaborate.

If you don't like a character, you're less likely to make an effort to understand or see anything positive about them. You're more likely to have confirmation bias, so whenever they do or say anything, you go looking for the worst interpretation. I try not to do this just because for me, that's the "boring" approach to games like this but as we've seen, I'm not immune either... y'know, Sebastian.

But Carver gets this a lot, too, and I think I've made myself clear that Carver is my favorite, I love him, the Hawke twins are S-tier companions and I would throw everyone in Kirkwall into the ocean if it meant Bethany and Carver's happiness.

Now that I'm thinking about it, the characters a lot of fans can't stand are some of my favorites?

Like a lot of people shit on Sera, and I'm like "Nah, that's my girl! Listen, she's got a LOT of internalized issues, but we're working through them okay! She's getting better!"

And Vivienne? Oh, don't get me started on Vivienne, I have a whole deal about her. She's also an asshole and I love her.

My canon inquisitor is Surana who escaped the circle and joined the dalish, becoming Lavellan. Vivienne is a reflection of what Ash could've been if she hadn't run away with Jowan. She played the game of the circle, she stepped wherever she needed to step because Ash knew she was at a disadvantage by being an elf, for one, and for two, not coming from a family with wealth that would give her special privileges. Her downfall was buying into her own hype and believing she couldn't be wrong about Jowan, believing that she could either prevent them from making him tranquil or help him and Lily run away, and believing she was above punishment because she worked her way into being Irving's favorite. Yet it all bit her in the ass and she had to run… so then years later after living outside of the circle and realizing just what the chantry is, how it conditions and abuses mages and shit, she meets Vivienne who also played the game well and came out on top, who now spouts the same shit Ash used to spout and it's makes their dynamic sooo chewable.

Then there's Cullen who's not a companion but I lump him and Josephine in with the companions anyway. They're advisors, they're in the inner circle, they count.

He's such a spineless ass in DA2 like believe me, I get all the criticisms he gets... but he's also fairly polite to Hawke even if they're openly anti-templar, he's softer spoken, and he's unwell after what happened to him in DAO and Meredith's clearly taking advantage of his state... but then he becomes an advisor in DAI who is so done with people's bullshit and blatantly honest about it, like he looks at Chancellor Roderick like "this fucking guy again" and he's so ready to just go for it, y'know? Well... unless you're a pretty lady who bats her eyes at him, then suddenly he doesn't know how words work. Like sometimes I feel crazy because I find him to be so funny in DAI, and overall a compelling character that I enjoy interacting with even when he's being a total asshole. Yeah, there's issues in his writing but I appreciate the vision the writers were going for, even if they stumbled... except for Sheryl Chee, I don't appreciate her contribution of those few posts on the DA forums that everyone uses as a smoking gun to "prove" awful things about him. Nothing gets under my skin more in character discussions than bad faith arguments and there's so much of that when it comes to Cullen.

Actually, while we're on that, can I just add a note that when I first got into this fandom, I saw someone's post about Chee doing an interview where she said all those bad things about Cullen wanting to assault the mage warden and I was like, "What? An interview? What interview?? Where??" and I couldn't find shit until much later when I read another anti-Cullen post that cited a DA forum as the source for her saying those things... so not an interview. I went digging for the forum, went into the way back machine to find it.... only to discover that this smoking gun comes from a fanfiction forum where Mary Kirby was also talking about Sten and catgirls and y'all expect me to take that seriously?

We can have discussions about whether or not Cullen's a bad person or a bad character, but the moment you bring Sheryl Chee into it, I know you're here in bad faith and your argument is void.

Sorry for the tangent and the long answer but this is the stuff I enjoy. I could talk about the characters of DA for ages unprompted that when someone does throw me a bone, I will discuss and gush about them all.

[silverhalla]

neve came back and I IMMEDIATELY started crying

[fenharel-babe]

ANOTHER QUESTION TO THE FANDOM IM SO SORRY:

Solas’s outfit. What are the green things he wears?? Stockings?? Leggings?? Pants??? I’m talking about the beige sweater with the wolf jaw necklace. His like casual outfit, you know???

I’m writing a different fic, literally so sad and in character depth for my lavellan, and I have to describe his outfit and I am STRUGGLING.

[autisticcole]

Heheheheheho I have gotten some of the Dragon Age books (🏴‍☠️) and this is gonna really let me dig into some stuff, especially my favorite guy Cole, cause now I can read his OG appearance, I want to see how much stuff Cole says, especially during his quest actually makes sense, and how much is in-universe "both sides are right"ing about not listening to what Cole wants to do.

I am mainly talking about Spirit!Cole thanking Inky for not making him change... Despite the fact that thoughout Cole's quest Solas ignores what Cole wants (Like being binded) & wants to do (Kill the guy who beat beyond beating a 12 (at most) year old (most likely, it isn't outright stated (to my memory) the Templar who fucked up the paperwork was also one of the ones who physically abused him, but I feel it's a pretty safe assumption) & got that child killed due to neglect & faced no consequences) but ultimately the choice that causes Cole to thank the player for not changing him is the one where you listen to Solas over Cole (Or well Varric, who also doesn't let Cole do what he wants but is closer to what Cole would have done if he had went alone for the confrontation) & in this route I would say Cole's character changes a lot more, especially as he forgets the original Cole, which... Rubs me wrong, but I'll save my more detailed thoughts for 1. After I fully read Asunder & 2. Either a full Cole analysis or a detailed post about my thoughts on his quest & routes (& maybe how I'd rewrite them, as a Autistic person & a ally to the aroace community)

Anyways my point is that I want to see how true it is characters rejected or wanted to change Cole, I want to see what leads him to feel that having two men argue & tell him who he is supposed to be & do only to have a third person decide out of those two's options for what he should do is remotely a situation where he's been accepted.

[paunchsalazar]

more Dragon Age, got to Unrest in the Alienage

[mourn-and-watch]

merril's act 2 quest is so unfair and infuriating on so many levels i need to talk about it. especially about marethari's behaviour because the way she acts towards merrill here is so purposefully cruel.

it's hard to miss that marethari makes her own clan believe that merrill is a monster. which probably wasn't that difficult to do - merrill left them three years ago and even before she did all the clan members hawke had met hadn't been fond of her. they don't know what she's up to now, but they know she works with a demon and refuses to listen to the keeper, and now marethari claims that merrill, her favourite first, has become something they should be afraid of. and then merrill herself arrives, still asking about that mirror, still doing the same blood magic, and, well, they just assume the keeper was right. which leads to pol's death and then the quest ends and offers you an infamous white saviour option.

this is already bad enough, but i think as much as it is a desperate last attempt to keep merrill away from arulin'holm, it is actually a pretty calculated manipulation. marethari successfully plays on all of merrill's insecurities here.

first of all, the entrusting a human to keep dalish artefact thing. it is a direct spit in merrill's face. she cares so deeply about preserving dalish culture and lore and states multiple times that it is as important as keeping the clan safe - and then marethari prefers to give one of their oldest, rarest artefacts to a human. she could as well say that she trusts a person whose ancestors were destroying their people, slaughtering them and erasing their culture from existence more than merrill. she'd rather break every single sacred agreement than give arulin'holm to her. merrill's that unworthy. it'd better be lost to humans than be given to her.

there's an additional layer to it though. hawke is merrill's friend. she brought them here so they could have her back. she trusts them this much. and now they're offered a choice and merrill can't say what they will do.

marethari gives hawke an arulin'holm and then explicitly tells them not to let merrill have it. hawke is marethari's last line of defense because they're as well merrill's last line of defense. whoever gets hawke's sympathies wins.

marethari makes hawke doubt merrill and at the same time she lets merrill know there's no one who will unconditionally support her, and merrill buys it - she begs hawke to give her arulin'holm. hawke is her friend and she brought them here so they can support her and now she isn't sure anymore that they will.

basically, what marethari says here is not only that she trusts a human more than merrill but also that nobody trusts merrill at all. her clan is scared of her. her only friend seemed to believe her but now they've heard marethari's side of the story and what will they do? and merrill already thinks about an answer marethari wants to get from her. that she will inevitably lose every ally she gained because at this point she must be wrong and marethari must be right.

it is a carefully orchestrated betrayal. first marethari gives merrill hope that she will honour the agreement, then subverts the expectations and shifts responsibility to hawke. and if they make the decision she wants them to make merrill will run out of options. she will have no choice but to give up and return. that's an emotional abuse done by the book

[dalishbarmitzvah]

what if i just. write fanfic that's just fake photosets with new banter that i wrote where the veilguard companions are rude weirdos with incredibly strong opinions, heaps of brain problems, and, like...... maladaptive coping skills

like. i keep thinking about da2 and how much veilguard almost reminds me of it, almost went that direction more, almost..... i can almost taste the better game that's on a cutting room floor somewhere and i would like to share the flavour

[icewindandboringhorror]

the struggle of just coincidentally disliking a piece of media that a lot of conservatives also dislike, but for completely different reasons, so sometimes you'll see youtube recommended videos like "here's why X was so bad" and you're initially like "oh yaayy, yeah I had a lot of criticisms of that too, I'm curious to finally see someone really break down why the plot didn't work! I love media analysis" and then the video is just "it's bad because there's WOMAN in it!!!" ..........ok....

[pttucker]

"Jang Hayoung, send a message to Secretive Plotter." [Some constellations are surprised by your choice!] The constellation Secretive Plotter. Of the four main constellations in my channel, he was the only one whose identity I didn't know. I didn't know why he hadn't showed up in my channel when the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal and the black dragon had appeared. [A small number of constellations are afraid of your choice.] [Some constellations are trying to dissuade you from your choice!] The reactions of the constellations were understandable. I wasn't sure about the identity of the Secretive Plotter but it was highly likely he was an outer god. He also had enough influence to knock away the great old ones. Perhaps the other constellations were deeply conscious of this fact. Jang Hayoung typed something in the air before calling out to me, "Kim Dokja. Did you say it properly?" "Why?" "Look at this." Jang Hayoung showed me the screen he had entered. The following message was on the screen: [This modifier doesn't exist in the Star Stream.]

What?

When I first started reading the novel I thought maybe Secretive Plotter was the author, and then later I thought maybe he was some future/alternate dimension version of someone we already know like 41st Shin Yoosung. (Specifically leaning towards an alternate of Dokja himself.)

I'm kind of coming back around to one of those now. Like, is he the author? Is he off writing revisions of the novel and that's why he seems to have disappeared from the story when he used to be one of Dokja's most ardent watchers? Has he disappeared completely now because Dokja did SOMETHING when he messed around with his attributes window?

Is he...inside Dokja and that's why he can't be found? Dokja specifically said

My voice didn't sound like me. It was only a moment but it felt like I had become a different existence and came back. A terrible sensation remained in my entire body.

and also

「 What if I use Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint on myself? 」 I never thought of it before. There was clearly something lurking inside me that I didn't know. I didn't know if it was something the author left behind or if it naturally permeated me during the process of the world changing. The obvious thing was I needed to figure out what it was.

I thought originally that one of the options was that Dokja was feeling the author's will inside of him and his voice sounded different because it was the author speaking through him and if Secretive Plotter is maybe the author...

Though now Dokja himself has gone from thinking Secretive Plotter was a nobody to thinking he was a Fable grade constellation to now thinking he's an outer god. But even outer gods seem to have modifiers??? At least the one he killed did.

And the fact that even the constellations, including old and powerful constellations with more experience, don't know what's going on and set out to find Secretive Plotter because how can a modifier just disappear...

I just don't know.

[luckyguyy]

oops I started a new Origins playthrough last night