#here lies the abyss ( quests )

[wilchur]

I'm not going to lie the whole Grey Warden plot with Alistair in Inquisition bothers me so much because I don't think it makes any sense for Clarel to get away with branding him a traitor in my worldstate. It's never outright stated, but since he's said to be the senior-most Warden after coming back from the fade and with the Orlesian Warden-Commander dead outranks every Grey Warden in the fortress my assumption has always been that he's not just "a Hero of the Fifth Blight", but has a high position in the Fereldan branch of the order to go with it. Hero of Ferelden still signs their letter as Warden-Commander and with a romanced Alistair the whole thing gives off a really strong second-in-command vibes so like?? Clarel playing dictator with all southern Grey Wardens and immediately going after the only high ranking Warden capable of opposing her when he disagrees with her plan of action is absolutely insane. I know that times of crisis and all, but damn.

There are really few things in Dragon Age that make me go "Yeah, no. We gotta rewrite that", but this is definitely one of them. I'm not saying I'd get rid of the whole thing, but at least make Clarel's situation less... oh poor Warden-Commander was being manipulated. She was, but in my humble opinion if she didn't get all tyrannical and allowed any kind of discussion things would not get that far. Her fuck up goes beyond just poor judgement and inability to think critically under pressure.

[daybreakrising]

NEW MUSE ADDITIONS

i've already mentioned this before but given i've now caught up, it's time for the official announcement of THREE NEW MUSES from hsr-

G.ALLAGHER

multiple people assigned this muse to me on looks alone before we even knew anything about him, so i had a space ready for him a long time ago. hyv really out here giving me all the dogboys, huh-

DR. RATIO

aka, charlie is a terrible influence and convinced me i'll write a good ratio so........... i gave in to the temptation. and, let's be real, he's also my kind of character-

L.UOCHA

this guy is on the PRIVATE LIST and not the main roster - meaning you'll have to ask for him as i won't offer him out initially (once we've discussed / built dynamics, i'll throw him at you whenever it feels right, however). he'll also be rather selective until i do some research / find his voice. but i just.... this guy fascinates me.

[dragonknightofsummerset]

Cleared the war table of missions (minus the resources/gold ones that are repeatable) before doing "wicked eyes and wicked hearts" & crying cause of all the new war table missions that appeared

[oopsallmabari]

in other news i'm 5ish chapters away from having my longfic rewrite overtake my last completed chapter (and like. 2 away from the last chapter i posted lmfao). very excited to start doing new stuff :3

[enderevynne]

wait okay serious question: do you play Here Lies the Abyss before Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts? 

Have I been doing it wrong all this time?

[evilvarric666-archive]

Is it me or are you playing Inquisition REALLY slow? Like didn’t you start Last Year?

No it's not just you, I am in fact playing Inquisition embarrassingly slowly. I'd have to double check the timestamps in my playthrough tag but I'm pretty sure I started playing late October of 2021 lol

[vilnan]

we’re finally doing my favourite quest out of all the quests i’ve ever done in video games.

[hellomehlo]

into the fade 2: electric boogaloo

[mako-designated-driver]

Codex Entry #34: Fears of the Dreamers

"The Pilgrim"

I came to the Temple of Sacred Ashes with the faithful, ready to help at the Conclave. I prayed to the Maker for peace, but the mountains shook and fell and buried me. Alone in the darkness, my legs crushed, I cried in fear of a world with no Maker, fading in and out of dreams of monsters inside the black.

Light my final hours. Let me go to the Maker without the terrors of darkness confounding me.

───────

"The Freeholder"

I watched the Blight take my land. I had nowhere to go. I tended the fields as I had, even as my flock died and my family sickened. My body wracked by pains and chills, I saw too late the poison that had crept into the land. In my fever dreams, the sickness covered this whole world, and I wept in fear for the family I killed with my foolish pride.

Show me that this world survives. Show me that the poison does not take everything.

───────

"The Grey Warden"

I joined the Wardens to serve in glory. No blade could touch me, nor any claw pierce my armor. Still, I was fated by Joining to die. Alone in the Deep Roads, the Calling in my mind, I sat by the last campfire I would see, allowing myself one last night of terror, and cursed the fate that brought me here.

Let it be my choice to have served and died. Let it be nobility rather than the dread hand of fate. Destroy my destiny and let this be my decision.

───────

"The Scholar"

When the darkspawn were new, when the magisters had just brought them to our world with their sin, I was among the first to call myself a Grey Warden and swear to end the Blight that threatened our world. We had seen the Archdemon die from mortal blows, only to rise again from the body of one of its servants. It could not die. I searched in vain for some way to kill the beast and save my world. I slept in fear, with no solution, knowing only that the Blight the magisters had brought would destroy everything because I could not save it.

Show me what must be done to slay the Archdemon. Show me what I need to save my world.

───────

"The Child"

Haven is burned. Mama cries when I'm not looking. It's cold in the mountains, and my feet hurt, but Mama says to hush, that others have it worse. She says a monster named Corypheus came to Haven, and it was only the Maker's blessing that let us escape. I don't feel blessed. The monsters come every night when I sleep, and I don't want to wake Mama crying again.

I miss Ser Snort. Ser Snort always kept the monsters away in my dreams.

[thedragonagelesbian]

@hexblooddruid replied to your post “there's a verve to faithful mage trevelyan that i...”:

Gonna be obsessed with their interactions for the whole game

​oh yiseeril is SO taken with viv from the jump; she sees her as what she could have been had she not been made tranquil & what she could still become by correctly leveraging her power as herald of andraste. loves the ambition the aesthetics the Panache.

at the same time, yiseeril is uniquely well positioned to understand the tragedy of vivienne's life too-- to have to rapidly remake oneself under extreme pressure (the herald of andraste; the iron lady), to have to be Perfect to be anything at all, and the parts of oneself that are sacrificed in that metamorphosis (yiseeril's normalcy & personhood; vivienne's intimacy & vulnerability)

it's not a similarity they acknowledge for much of the game because vivienne (understandably!) holds herself at such distance, and by the time vivienne asks yiseeril for help with bastien, i think it'll be clear (ie, that yiseeril's relationship with sera will have progressed enough) that their lives are ultimately on different trajectories-- the ascendant divine-to-be and the former divinity who will choose mundanity instead. but their friendship is still very deep & important to both of them, and vivienne trusts it--trusts yiseeril--enough to show her more of her heart than she reveals to most anyone else

[windupaidoneus]

hey! welcome to my long post where i complain about dragon age inquisition again 👍 literally don't even worry about it

the lack of even a bit of customisation regarding the inquisitor's origins truly is a downfall of inquisition's & generally the inquisitor kinda feels flat as a character. there are voice options but only two of them & i often find that dialogue options just don't fit what i want really, nor do they help toward making the inquisitor a character of their own. the war table operations related to the inquisitor's background could've easily been made actual quests with the sheer amount of pretty pointless quests that make the game longer & longer with very little reward for it (thinking of the sheer amount of quests just in the hinterlands. in my first playthrough i was stuck there for months because i just Did not want to get through that. it was my first dragon age game & it was very intimidating), but they're just... war table operations. & you kinda get nothing out of that. it's a real shame

the bits of custom dialogue they give to elven, qunari, dwarven & mage inquisitors are bare minimum when compared to the previous games. i enjoy that there are mage-specific choices for sit in judgement but they do kind of invariably suck (though if you're playing a shithole of a person then sure you can probably afford to make alexius tranquil). one of the few good things about these is that iirc you can get on cullen's case about him supporting you, a mage, but the inquisitor also has no real knowledge of what cullen has done & how bad it actually was so it's... yknow. kinda empty. also the way the class/race-specific dialogue is done in inquisition feels... very uh, "nonbinary character who is characterised by saying 'whoa did you just assume my pronouns???' ", which is probably not their intent (at least not fully & not everytime it happens) but it sure feels like it & god is it grating & frankly insulting at times. i'm used to fantasy microaggressions in dragon age games but in inquisition... grr.

& of course it's all coupled with quests like here lies the abyss which. just make the game not worth finishing. yes i've finished it five times but this isn't about these saves. it was a huge slap in the face to be faced with the alistair or hawke choice as a direct consequence of me doing whatever i could to help alistair keep living the happiest possible life he could have. it felt like a punishment for doing that & i know dragon age direction really likes to just make you regret doing good but this specific quest is the reason all my unfinished playthroughs are unfinished.

the flatness of the inquisitor makes it even more infuriating in that you, the player, have stakes in this but the inquisitor doesn't & cannot because they're just not allowed to have ties to either of them at all? or to have anything other than underwhelming dialogue options really lmao. you can't communicate much of anything during that quest through a character to who hawke & alistair are, yeah some important people probably, but they're still just... not people they really know. (wow haha wouldn't it be nice to have had more quests with them & also to have them as temporary companions... or something... haha..;..) at least having stroud as an easy out if you made alistair king or exiled him or whatever else spared me some anguish in my first playthrough (though i didn't know alistair at the time either so it probably wouldn't have meant anything to me).

also! as someone with ocs who have more specific backgrounds than what has been given to me by the games (like shamir, a formerly tranquil dreamer with a spirit friend - more akin to wynne than anders pre-tranquility but hope merged with him upon reaching for his mind. so basically. someone who could easily get alistair out of the fade. you know, his husband. someone who's also been friends with anders. you know. my hawke's boyfriend.) it does endlessly frustrate me that they're not willing to explore more daring options for what is & isn't possible to do. they literally have so many options to make things less miserable & they just refuse. & it's not even for the sake of narrative satisfaction! very few things in inquisition are narratively satisfying at all! so what's the point? what is the point of it all? if everything ends in misery anyway why did you make me do all this. it isn't cathartic or saddening it's upsetting & downright frustrating. i get nothing out of here lies the abyss

i don't know how to end this post. i'm just very peeved by . all this

[danielnelsen]

ive somewhat joked about quests being 'the worst quest in the game' about a few things, but the actual worst quest in the game is 'notes on the wastes'. my goal this run is to not consult the wiki (except to make sure im getting the achievements for trials) so like........idk?? i guess bottles of thedas is worse, but it's a collection quest. quests that come under a location heading shouldnt be like this. especially in the hissing wastes, the bane of my existence

[asterroses]

am i just going insane or is there like . Nothing abt who wrote wicked eyes and wicked hearts

[kirosai]

❦ a shining beginning.

content warnings!: sagau, yandere themes, some ooc for the harbingers, cult au, original sagau (reader teleported into genshin), gn!reader

❥The fatui are the ones to fear. The enemy, the antagonists, but, even then you’ve always taken a liking to them. the heartbreaking stories of the harbingers, the motive of the tsaritsa and even the short world quests of the Fatui agents.

❥It was a faraway dream for you, and anyone else to meet the harbingers. They were fictional of course! So… what exactly do you do when you wake up in the shining walls of the Zapolyarny Palace?…

that doctor. dottore. he always prayed upon you in his experiments, hoping they were successful as can be. a man of ice they would call him. but naturally, he’d bow to you. How utterly ironic the man that wants to detest the seven would bow to you. though, you were the light that guided him throughout all of those tireless nights filled with despair. as did you with everyone else. so it’s only natural, right?

so if you could see under that mask you’d see nothing but amazement and respect towards you. i’d bet money on him removing his mask if you wished him to. he’d halt any experiment, any mission, all for you. technically he could say that it’s.. a way of worshiping you, yes? not even her majesty the tsaritsa deserves an ounce of the worship he gives to you on a daily.

tartaglia, or childe as we know, we’ve all met him! you understand don’t you? he’s nothing but loyal, following you around like a guard dog, taking whatever praises he could get out of you!. except. it was all through a wall. a wall he couldn’t break.. you could only think about his reaction to you here. here! right in front of him! The light that guided him through the abyss, the reason for living! you.!

all of his life, until you was pure darkness, you gave him the push he needed! the blood he sheds is all in the name of sacrifice for you. the effort, the tears, the lives, all for you! so please treat him kindly! all he wants is your love and he’ll do anything to get it! although, don’t push him too hard, won’t you grant him the mercy oh kind, enchanting creator?

pantalone. that banker with his smile, his words, sugarcoated for others, but pure sickeningly sweet honey for you. he bought the most expensive gifts for you, diamonds, sapphires, rubies, all that you could imagine. his demeanor to many is nothing but fake, sugar coated lies to make them shut up. but.. you. you were different. you had the one thing he searched for all his life; warmth from this mean, cold world.

your heart was pure gold. at least, as he saw it. nothing he’d seen before. your presence was unexpected, yes, but he secretly hoped that you wouldn’t leave. all he wishes for is to bask in your ever so divine presence. although, yes you deny any sort of yourself being a god. he brushes it off as just a simple test of loyalty, it pushes him more to keep accommodate you to the best of his abilities so you feel the need to stay. oh dear what have you gotten yourself caught into?

with his act of.. er. of trying to understand divine knowledge. scaramouche had missed your first appearance. He felt guilty, and more so angry. not at you of course, but at himself. do not fear. he’ll be back, after hearing the news about your return to teyvat, he’ll be running back like the puppet he is. afterall, you are his true creator.

he might beg for forgiveness, or he might just bow, no matter who’s he is in front of, he’s at your beck and call. and the others respect that, one thing they can all agree with is you. after all, this is just the bare minimum of what they will and can do for you. he just wants you as much as everyone else. being one of the lucky ones meeting you first in the story, he got self awareness sooner than the others. 

arlecchino, we’ve heard of her i'm sure. her loyalty to the tsaritsa is… questionable. although to you, it’s undeniable. something that the others may have a more difficult time of letting go of would be nothing but child’s play for her. she holds no true loyalty for the tsaritsa. and her majesty probably knows so, though she does nothing, because she knows how much you love arlecchino. to upset you would be a death wish.

so being able to see you in all your light and glory was eye-opening for her, looking back she never understood how she could’ve lived without you. as a child she dreamed of meeting you in person, now it’s finally happening! even a regular person could see it in her eyes. oh her eyes! how beautiful they are, she’s heard about you denying being the creator of teyvat, the god of gods, the beginning and the end, oh how she could go on and on! but, going forward, there is no reason to deny the absolute truth your grace!

“Wake up.” a gentle voice whispers.

A shame, you were having the best dream.

A bed, unknown at the least, although it was comfortable. It felt safe, oddly enough. Laying on your mattress, it was lined with white silken sheets, the soft smell of lavender filling your nose, it had the softest place you’ve ever slept on. it felt.. Unfamiliar. 

Ah well, might as well keep sleeping. Maybe your bed was just extra comfortable today..

Wait

Muffled speaking outside the door, the whispers were untranslatable. In a foreign language you guessed. Observing your space, you realized you were in a large room, palace-like, the soft crackle of the fireplace to your left seemed to be the only warmth of the room. not your own room, or even house to say so. It was cold, but beautiful.

Oh! Of course. You must still be dreaming haha. Why else would you be here? Might as well just go back to sleep and wake up. right?

Which is what you do, but the horror of finding out you couldn't, you tried everything you could.. In the span of 3 minutes you tried, going back to sleep, pinching yourself, closing your nose, then just closing your eyes really, really hard.

But, none of those worked, so it must be.. you were actually here. In real life. D-did you get kidnapped? Oh my god you got kidnapped! You have to find a way out, it’s just like those wattpad fanfictions!- holy crap your-

*creeek*

“Your grace? ah, you’re awake. Is everything alright? You gave us quite the scare there. Hmmh.” an all too familiar face.

Staring in awe, realization settles in. Wait… WAIT. That's Pantalone, from genshin impact?? this can't be real! And did he just say “your grace” is he talking about you??

“W-wait? huh? Where am I? and, what do you mean “your grace” ” you can only imagine what you look like right now.

“You’re in the Zapolyarny Palace in Snezhnaya of course. and why else would I be calling you your grace? you are the creator of Teyvat. Though, if you prefer another name, I'll be happy to oblige. ” a soft smile rises to his face. 

Gosh.. his voice is so euphonious. He walks closer to check your temperature, removing his glove and placing a hand on your temple. 

“Seems like your fever is gone.” his smile deepens. Dimples.

And before you can say anything someone else walks in.

All and behold another harbinger, Tartaglia!

“You seem to be getting comfortable. You were sent back to check on their grace, not to hog their attention.” the ginger says.

Flabbergasted, jaw probably hitting the floor, you still cannot understand what in the world is going on.

Pantalone turns to him. “Their grace’s fever has gone down. I’m just doing my duty, no need to be jealous.” his oh so perfect banker smile is put back on, but it seems a little less genuine towards Tartaglia.

“Uhm.. excuse me? But I think you have the wrong person, I'm in no way a god, just a regular person, also, what is happening??!”

the two stare at you, then each other, and back at you again, and then stare at each other.

“Ah... It seems as if the fever has contracted memory loss. Alert the second about this Tartaglia. Other than that. I will help their grace meet the others. maybe that will run their memory right.”

Tartaglia opens his mouth, but whatever he has to say never comes out, curiosity of what he was planning to say plagues you. Though he walks out before the thought can get any further. He’s most likely going to Dottore as told by the ninth.

“Now your grace, I understand your confusion, but let's go to the others. and I'm sure Her Majesty the Tsaritsa would just be delighted to know you are awake.”

a small nod comes from you, excitement spreads through your body, oh my gosh oh my gosh!! You’re going to be meeting The Harbingers and The Cryo Archon!! Although, it seems you're unable to look at the bigger picture of what your story has in store for you.

WHERE THE SAGAU FANS GO????

repost from old blog!

[notebooks-and-laptops]

Id love to hear why in the tags, and also your least fav if you wanna drop that in too!

[daitranscripts]

Solas Masterpost

Main Quest Cutscenes:

The Threat Remains: A Blessed Hero What Pride Had Wrought: Forgive My Melancholy

Prompted Conversations:

In Hushed Whispers: Point Taken Champions of the Just: Betrayal is Worse Here Lies the Abyss: Unnerving Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts: Court Intrigue - Source of the Breach - Investigate: Tell Me About Elves Investigate: Tell Me About the Fade Investigate: Tell Me About Yourself Investigate: Tell Me About Your Journeys Investigate: Tell Me About Corypheus - Specialization: Knight-Enchanter Specialization: Necromancer Specialization: Rift Mage

Personal Quest - All New, Faded for Her:

Pt. 1 - A Friend in Need Pt. 2 - Twisted Against Its Purpose Pt. 3 - Responsible Pt. 4 - Return to Skyhold

Approval:

Measuring the Veil - Low Approval: How Does It Feel? Low Approval: You Have Abandoned the Elves Low Approval: You're Addicted to the Fade Warm Approval: Felt the Whole World Change Warm Approval: Sleep Well? High Approval: Before the Anchor

Romance:

The Truth Post-Romance: Harden Your Heart - Wicked Eyes and Wicked Eyes: After the Ball

Deleted Dialogue

Companion Masterpost