#i jumped down in the rookery thinking that's what i was supposed to do lol

[amani-outrider]

i love that if you die in a follower dungeon, everyone leaves the dungeon group, making them all look incredibly toxic

[the-darkness-does-not-bargain]

(sorry so sorry but have to yell at you a bit about the dragon age au. this is just me spitballing so feel free to ignore lol.)

Ava as the Herald of Andraste. galaxy brain take. i mean, i love the idea that Ava is a rebel mage and not impressed by the idea of being used as a political pawn by an organisation sharing the name of the OG templars. she would make such a good Anders-like character - where she could be YES either a knight-enchanter or a spirit healer (the spirit healer vibes are sublime. bonded to a spirit? visit them in the fade? is it a spirit of freedom or compassion or ???). & she tried to escape the circle a bunch of times in the past. & then yeah is murdered by Frances (a Templar?) so she comes back enraged at the templars and therefore just deeply distrustful of loyalist mage Beatrice and Seeker Lilith (who has powers specifically designed (like Cas does) to set the lyrium in her blood aflame).

but yeah with Ava being part spirit/part human maybe she did an Anders and become lowkey an abomination, but not as personality-altering bc her spirit isn’t justice it was freedom or compassion and imo they would NOT want to alter personality in any way. & then she could still learn the Knight-Enchanter discipline and YUP bea teaches her -

bea: ‘today we’ll be forging your hilt’ 

ava: *passes out from the effort of not making THAT joke*

Mama S for sure sounds like she’d be somewhere in the middle of Cas and Leliana (maybe more Lil because ruthless?). she should definitely have loads of ravens & be maybe an ex-Bard or something. (ex-spy MS all the way!)

YES YES a million times yes for Lil being a Seeker. it fits like a glass slipper. the seekers being scary even to templars, being given over as children to the Order? gorgeous. & when the seekers fall all that weight dropping onto lilith, who has to decide where/how to lead them.

Beatrice as a lighning mage (perhaps possibly with knight-enchanter spec? i mean blood mage is out and shapeshifting is NOT a circle-approved spec either) I love the idea of ava and beatrice bickering endlessly over mage rights. Ava trying to get her to read Anders’ manifesto

Bea: “you know this is a banned text, don’t you?”

Ava: “that’s what makes it good bea”

and she does totally read it & Thinks About Things in a very Bea way. has kind of a Viv outlook, but maybe comes to see like Viv (should) that she’s speaking as one of the lucky ones. and Ava is one of the unlucky ones, abused by the Templars who were supposed to ‘protect’ her. so Bea gains perspective and realises that the Circles are deeply flawed. but is also in the camp of "magic is dangerous like fire is dangerous; anyone who forgets this fact gets burned."

Cam with Sera’s abilities? sign me up so fast. she would totally pen a very serious recommendation to the inquisition quartermaster about the need to source jars and jar and jars of bees. Mary using a crossbow like varric’s is amazing - i like the idea of her being Varric-like, but I also think Mary would be less centrist than him, and def. not pro-Chantry specifically, but with a more Isabella kind of attitude where it’s like ‘not my business. i want a big hat etc etc.’ i’m making eye contact with Mary as Hawke and walking away so fast. ALSO!! Shannon as the HoF - i am in love with this idea.

oh god did she die to defeat the archdemon? is that why mary is sort of adrift? or is it similar to if lil and the warden are in love but the HoF is ‘off doing stuff’ and they both have their separate missions? Jillian as leader of the rebels fits amazing, especially with In Hushed Whispers (& yeah if Ava sides with the mages (lol prolly) that is just the BEST mission for character development. meeting alternate future bea and lilith and mary and cam. devastating to me personally.) yep Vincent basically Samson. bleh. 

oh man. can you imagine how annoying Solas would find Ava? she would TOTALLY do the ‘jumping from the top of the rookery down onto his desk’ thing three times a day. but he would still paint her mosaics and be frankly fascinated by the spirit/human girl who walks in the Fade and in Thedas. would try to talk to her and end up smashing his head against his desk. every time ava opens her mouth small text shows up like 'Solas Greatly Disapproves'. oh yes we should have Viv. bea would look up to her for sure. and iron bull and ava??? in the same room??? chaos. glorious chaos. 

oh yeah, ava being ressurrected would have very post-Haven reactions from people. like, our hero cannot die etc. and ava would hate being venerated by the people who vilified her for her magic, and tossed her in the Circle (god could she have been in Aeonar? that would be such a parallel for the orphanage aka. The Bad Place.)(mage!Andraste all the way) & hearing herself being named not only their saviour but named after their martyr. very “i already died for them once. i won’t do it again.” & yeah she picks all the ‘yuck’ dialogue options when people try to call her Herald/ Andraste’s chosen. & there’s huge tension with Bea who earnestly believes that Ava is what they say, and Ava just wants this girl to touch her without it feeling like she’s touching something holy (in a bad sense of the world ‘holy’). but yeah Bea teaching ava cool magic and ava being kinda casual about the idea of blood magic & also REALLY wants to learn shapeshifting when she meets morrigan. lmao i’m already laughing at Ava in the Winter Palace. Bea with all her titles getting redder and redder in the face and ava laughing until the crier calls her “Herald of Andraste”. 

anyway sorry for going insane over this but it is a very very cool au and your ideas are all brilliant! : D

Please do continue to yell at me, I loved every second of this!

Ava absolutely could have been stuck in Aeonar, or honestly maybe even the Circle Tower if, perhaps, Shannon chose to side with the templars (😬😬😬) and the Circle later reformed under much harsher control. Francis could be an old Templar who always hated mages and took any excuse at all to treat them badly. And if Ava was still disabled in some way and less able to defend herself? Even worse.

The more I think about it, the more think Ava connected with a Spirit of Hope. Hope is one of Ava's most consistent traits, and I 100% believe a Hope Spirit would be drawn to her as she passes through the Fade. Maybe it's this spirit that leads her to where the Breach is about to be created, or maybe she gets there on her own and the Spirit just happens to be there, who can say? Plus, the case can be made that Hope translates best to Ava's abilities. Hope can keep you going through tough obstacles (phasing, levitating), help you withstand hardship (healing), and repel doubt (blasts, force fields, which would be like Barrier spells but better). That's my thought at least.

But regardless, yes, Ava wants jack shit to do with Templars or Templar-adjacent parties and she low-key thinks that mages like Bea are traitors to their own kind (she gets over this eventually when she and Bea learn to meet in the middle). In Hushed Whispers is absolutely peak Character Development time for Ava. That's probably when she really starts to feel committed to stopping the Breach and leading the Inquisition. Up until that point, she's probably just going along so she isn't killed by the Anchor.

I didn't consider her becoming a shapeshifter but omg she would learn if she ever got the opportunity. Cue her first successful attempt and she turns into a Mabari, and word spreads so fast that it becomes the running joke of the Inquisition that the Herald is literally a human puppy. Mary coins a dozen new nicknames like Houndraste etc.

Mama S was absolutely a Bard before she joined the Chantry. Maybe she even filled Lel's role in Shannon's party and met Divine Justinia in a similar way too. She will almost certainly become the new Divine once everything is settled, aligning closest with Cassandra's approach. Cam definitely has Sera's mischievous spirit even though she is very devoted to the Chantry, and she and Ava cause a terror of pranks in Skyhold.

Mary as Hawke?? Or Champion of Kirkwall in general??? You may be onto something! I don't know if Shannon is still alive or not, but they're definitely separated right now, and Mary is Not HappyTM about it. If she is Hawke, then she would have known Anders, and maybe she recognizes some of him in Ava, but notes that Ava and Hope are much different together than Anders and Justice. She still offers advice and also tempers some of Ava's ideas about Anders, who I imagine has been lionized by the rebel mages.

Solas would have no idea what to do with Ava. He feels like she's the person who should most understand his motives and his point of view (at least for a human), given how familiar she is with oppression and suffering and how caught she is between reality and the Fade. But she consistently denies and defies his ideas and insists through her words and actions that the world has value and deserves to continue. Maybe he even develops a level of respect and admiration for her, but of course not enough to dissuade him from his plan.

Vivienne and Bea have definitely met before, be it in court or in the Circle, and yes Bea looks up to her a lot. Viv sees Bea's potential and encourages her to foster her political skills. Like Solas, she doesn't really know what to do with Ava. They clash hard over mage rights and are probably never fully comfortable with each other, but Ava definitely helps her during her personal quest and doesn't give a fake heart because she's not an asshole. They're not friends but by the end they ARE allies.

And listen, that conversation where Iron Bull tries to convince Sera to let him throw her at enemies?? Totally happens with Bull and Ava, and Ava AGREES with him. They do it once while fighting Venatori and Bea has full-on heart palpitations!

In fact, party composition time: Bea is a constant, of course, but the others switch out with a decent amount of regularity. Mary is commonly included, as is Bull. Lilith shows up less frequently but she does join in, particularly for any missions that involve fighting the Red Templars. Is Blackwall here? Or is one of the other male characters here? Maybe by some stroke of luck or previous action by Jillian, Michael is still strong enough to fight the taint and join the Inquisition. That would be fun, he doesn't have to be jam just yet.

Jillian and Mama S start having some, ahem, Tension between them probably shortly after settling in Skyhold. No one wants to say anything, and Mary punches Ava every time she starts to say something, but the entire Inquisition can feel it.

Who are the advisors? Mama S, obviously, but who else? You could keep Cullen and Josie but idk... We don’t have a spot for Dora yet do maybe she's Cullen in this scenario.

Ava would think Morrigan is so cool and Bea would be jealous! But then Morrigan would just scoff and say something to the effect of "I spent long enough having one drooling mutt follow me around, you can keep yours."

The entire Inquisition can also feel the impending gay disaster that is Avatrice, and there are several poorly concealed betting pools in Skyhold for when they'll finally get their shit together. Cue members of the party and also some randos giving unsolicited relationship advice to both parties, ranging from "buy her flowers and chocolates from Val Royeaux" to "show up naked to her room with a mug of beer and a strap-on". Neither end of the spectrum is appreciated.