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catofadifferentcolor · 2 months ago

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Terrible Fic Ideas #11: DA, but make it Warden!Inquisitor!Hawke 2.0

Or: Having finished Dragon Age: The Veilguard and having a lot of thoughts about it, I decided to update this terrible fic idea to include the events of DA4.

So: How would DA:TV change if were the Champion of Kirkwall and the Hero of Ferelden and the Herald of Andraste?

aka the Light From the Shadows Fic

As background:

Everything goes the same as above, with Fereldan apostate and shepherd Edmund Hawke being mistaken for his Circle-trained second cousin Gregory Amell at Ostagar, running to Kirkwall the moment the Fifth Blight ends, and being shanghaied into saving the world again because of the Breach for the Inquisition. He is thus Hero of Ferelden, Champion of Kirkwall, Herald of Andraste, Inquisitor... and a whole host of other titles he does his best not to think about.

He is also very, very tired of having to save a world that doesn't want to be saved. It's an awful job, but somebody's got to do it and nobody else is stepping up. What started out as genuine love for his home has gained a lot of sunk cost fallacy over the years - though it doesn't help Hawke's case that he's endgame long before DA:I ever starts.

Picking up the extras from the time I tried to write this plot bunny: 1) Bethany learned spirit healing from Anders but could never quite forgive her brother for executing her lover in the hopes of saving the mages at the Gallows. She continued Anders' work in Ansburg, acting as a local agent for the Inquisition but nothing more; 2) Carver joined the Templars, dragged all those he could find unwilling to follow Seeker Lucius to Skyhold, and ended up third-in-command of Inquisition forces; 3) Carver and Merrill started a relationship c. Act 3 of DA2 (with Isabella a frequent casual third) and learned Merrill was pregnant shortly before the Conclave; and 4) Merrill, an actual elf, is the one to drink from the Well of Sorrows.

Which brings us to Trespasser.

The Inquisition's political, social, economic, and military strength at the start of the Exalted Council is breathtaking - easily 10x what it is in canon, given Hawke's extra heroics. Many established powers fear that he'll use this power to turn conqueror, building an Ancient Tevinter-style empire in the south. Those closest to the Inquisitor know Hawke is eager to disband his forces and return to as normal life as possible. (He gives serious thought to taking a leaf out of Cullen's book and raising Mabari on a farm in the middle of nowhere with Fenris.)

Now, when Solas disappeared following the death of Corypheus, Hawke didn't think much of it, as fleeing a Chantry-run organization is what any self-respecting apostate should do once the bad guy is dead. Besides, Hawke found him a little too condescending for someone who's supposedly also a self-taught mage. Learning Solas wants to tear down the Veil feels like a bad joke.

("How about you stop trying to end the world for one minute and try living in it! It's not perfect, but we're trying, and maybe if we got five seconds peace from madmen trying to burn it all we could try to fix some of it!")

Their conversation turns into a terrible 1v1 boss battle.

The sky darkens. The earth quakes. Hawke and Solas rain fire and brimstone down upon each other and neither walks away unscathed (Hawke looses his left hand at the wrist; Solas is blinded in one eye) - but they do manage to walk away.

Hawke vows to stop Solas from tearing down the Veil.

He intends to do this by disbanding the Inquisition and carrying on as he did in the years before the Conclave - running about the Free Marches with a small band of friends and doing what's needed where it's needed. But even at his most optimistic, Hawke knows that's little more than a pipe dream.

King Alistair names Hawke teyrn of Haven, Skyhold, and the surrounding lands. Empress Celene, not to be outdone, names him marquis of the corresponding lands on the Orleasian side. Though it's not his official title, Hawke becomes known as The Lord of the Frostbacks.

And so instead of chasing after Solas directly, Hawke is forced to play politics - converting Skyhold from a war footing to a noble seat, rebuilding Haven, and managing the madness of holding the borderlands for two nations that historically haven’t gotten along. He delegates the business of stopping Solas to his friends.

Varric - now Viscount of Kirkwall - is not his only agent. Pretty much every companion still living from DA:O on has a part, big or small. Varric is just the one that happens to be on hand when Solas starts his ritual.

Rook stops Solas from tearing down the Veil, but releases the last two remaining Evanuris from their prison.

The events of the game largely proceed apace in Northern Thedas, with Rook and their team working to stop the risen gods directly.

(Dealer's choice on Rook's background, but I find myself imagining a tiny, cheerful, ice blond dwarf with a Mourn Watcher background and thick Nevarran accent. Her name is Portia Ingellvar, but Hawke calls her Cassandra and Varric's necromancer love child. This is even funnier if Cassandra named Divine.)

In southern Thedas, things are a different story.

From his seat in the Frostbacks, Hawke leads the fight against the Sixth Blight on two fronts.

Denerim is lost in the first wave, but they hold the line east Redcliffe along the Imperial Highway for months before Elgar'nan brings his dragon to bear. King Alistair dies, heirless, on the same battlefield that took King Calian in a cavalry action that echos the Charge of the Light Brigade in futility, bravery, and cultural impact. The living fall back to the Frostbacks, where only Hawke's lands west of Lake Calenhad remain free of Blight.

Orlais has less Blight but more Venatori. Pockets of cities hold out, but only The Dales and a strip along the coast stretching just past the Imperial Highway remains reliably free of either. Gaspard, a brilliant tactician for all his bluntness, leads a brilliant march north from Val Royeaux. He makes it all the way to Andoral's Reach before Elgar'nan is forced to bring his dragon to bear. Gaspard is gravely injured in the battle, but manages to guard the retreat with his last breath, only dying after the last of his forces are behind Churneau's walls. Celene and Briala's efforts are less openly heroic, but they defend sieges, move supplies, and refuse to bend the knee to the risen gods.

Much of their success is made possible by Hawke, whose lands no Blight can touch - think the Girdle of Melian. The Frostbacks provide a refugee and a staging ground, and Hawke himself is a figurehead that unites armies in a way that no other leader possibly could.

(It helps that Hawke himself is a powerhouse. The one time the gods try to send a trio of Blighted dragons against Skyhold, Hawke almost single-handedly strikes them from the skies while his ballista teams are still reloading.)

It also helps that Merrill has much of Morrigan's DA:TV storyline - having drunk from the Well of Sorrows, she now controls the Crossroads from Skyhold, allowing the Eluvians to ferry soldiers and supplies between distant places. She also holds the shard of Mythal that Solas killed - though prefers to fly about as a barn owl rather than a raven.

But for all Hawke's strength, southern Thedas is still waging a long defeat until the risen gods are killed and Solas convinced to tie his life force to the Veil. After that, however, everything changes.

Using Skyhold as a base, Hawke retakes southern Thedas.

He marches east first. (It only makes sense. After Alistair's death, Ferelden is leaderless and all those with any claim to the throne either dead or Venatori sympathizers.) Along the way those Hawke helps remember how it was he who led the effort against the Fifth Blight, he who dueled Loghain and allowed him the mercy of becoming a Grey Warden after his loss; he was the one who saved them in the Sixth Blight also; he who Alistair called the brother of my heart. And so by the time they retake Denerim, Hawke is proclaimed King of Ferelden by the armies he leads.

At the same time, all of the various city-states are going we owe Hawke a lot for helping us during this Blight and he's clearly building an empire; let's send him tribute and hope that its enough. At least he's likely to be a benevolent overlord. Acting Viscount Aveline of Kirkwall openly pledges the city to Hawke and begs him to send some other poor soul to rule it. (Hawke sighs and sends Carver, who's never sure to thank or strangle him for it.)

And while all that is going on, the Mortalitasi effectively keeping Nevarra from breaking out in civil war by keeping King Markus "alive" decide the gig is up and have Markus will his kingdom to the man who was obviously going to come along and take it anyway a la Attalus III. The king promptly "dies", has a grand funeral, and his crown is sent off to Denerim.

Add in the fact that the new Archon of the Tevinter Imperium, Dorian Pavus, is an old friend of Hawke's and he has ties to most the other factions and powers in Thedas - Divine Victoria, formerly Cassandra Pentagast, of the southern Chantry; Grand Enchanter Vivienne of the Circle of Magi; Admiral Isabella of the Lords of Fortune; Prince Sebastian Vael of Starkhaven; King Bhelen of Orzammar; the new First Warden; the new Knight-Vigilant of the Templars; several Crow houses; &c - and very suddenly Orlais finds itself in an uncomfortable position.

Empress Celene is the last Valmont standing. She has no heirs and is long past childbearing. Her closest kin are either dead or Venatori sympathizers. She owes her throne to Hawke, who stopped her assassination, ended the civil war, and funneled troops and supplies into Orlais when the Sixth Blight was most dire. Moreover, in one fell swoop he seems to have brought most of southern Thedas to heel and allied with most of the rest. Seeing herself as having no other options, she adopts Hawke as her heir a la several ancient Roman emperors.

And so in a very short period of time Hawke goes from Lord of the Frostbacks to ruler of everything south of The Silent Plains and west of Antiva. They call it the Neromenian Empire.

Hawke, naturally, does not take it well.

But what can he do? Who can he turn power over to? There is no one else. House Theirin is spent. House Valmont is nearly spent. House Pentagast is large but, as with the Free Marches, turning power over to one would ignite civl war from the others. Moreover, everyone from every layer of society seems to want him to rule.

Eventually Hawke settles into ruling, if only because every other option is worse. He ends up ruling over southern Thedas for quite a long time, turning power over in his old age to Carver and Merrill's second child. Although he tries to encourage home rule as much as possible, the truth is the population of his empire is less than a fifth of what it had been prior to the Sixth Blight and a continent-wide spanning relief effort is needed more than petty kingdoms and infighting.

Throughout it all Hawke lives scarcely more lavishly than he had as a minor noble in Kirkwall. His only indulgence are the many Mabari pups he raises in his palace, much to the exasperation of his loving husband, Fenris.

Bonuses include:

As much imported world state as possible, assuming a purplish-blue, mage-friendly PC throughout the first three games. Alistair and Anora ruled Ferelden together, Loghain became a Grey Warden and was left in the Fade in DA:I, a three-way peace between Celene, Gaspard, and Briala was forged; &c. Hawke should know and have connections to - and is owed debts by - nearly everyone. And they should all make appearances.

At least a few people assuming Hawke is not so much the Herald of Andraste as the son of Andraste, sent by the Maker to save Thedas. A handful of others believe that he absorbed the soul of the archdemon at the end of the Fifth Blight and is thus an incarnation of the Old God Urthemiel. Their arguments should be just convincing enough to make certain parties pause and mostly used to amuse Hawke.

Hawke being the last person to realize he's in an Accidental Warlord AU - or, rather, he very much realizes he's a warlord, but thinks someone better is going to come along he can give the crown to until it lands on his head.

Hawke being known alternately as The Mabari King, for the many pups he raises in his palaces, and The Shepherd King, both for his pre-Blight career and his encouragement of many in the Hinterlands to take up sheep farming after the Sixth Bight - the wool trade providing much needed economic security in the aftermath. Nearly every statue of him in the future has at least one mabari at his feet.

While the main events of DA:TV are important, they're shown about as much on screen as the events in the south were in the game. Even so, Hawke should reward Rook for taking out the gods the same way he was rewarded: with more responsibility. (A Mourn Watcher Rook is made Count of Nevarra City; a Crow or Shadow Dragon Rook becomes a marcher lord on the borders of their homeland; &c.) But their story is very much in the background.

...and that's it. I think. I have truly an absurd number of thoughts about what any Inquisitor gets up to during/in the aftermath of the Sixth Blight and even more when it's my Warden!Inquisitor!Hawke. As always, feel free to adopt, just link back if you do anything with it.

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Terrible Fic Ideas #11: DA, but make it Warden!Inquisitor!Hawke

I have conflicting feelings about each game in the Dragon Age series having a different protagonist. On one hand it's great because it is terribly unrealistic to expect one person to be required to save the world multiple times. On the other, the only DA protagonist I can say I honestly would want to see more of is Hawke.

So: what would it take for Hawke to believably be the Champion of Kirkwall and the Hero of Fereldan and the Herald of Andraste?

Imagine it:

Mage!Hawke goes to Ostagar with Carver and runs into the Human Mage Warden, Greggory Amell, before his joining. As canonically the Hawkes are second cousins to the Amells, this is something of a comedy of errors as there's more than a little resemblance - especially in armor, and especially if Hawke shaves his default beard.

Regardless of the exact circumstances, Hawke becomes friendly with Greggory and Alistair, and is therefore devastated when his cousin dies during the joining. Hawke agrees to help Alistair light the signal tower in his memory...

...and gets dragged into the events of DA:O.

Crucially, enough people mistake Hawke for his newly dead cousin early on that he decides to run with it in an effort to protect his family. (It means a lot of shaving, because half the reason he has the beard is that he'll have a five-o'clock shadow by noon if he doesn't, but sacrifices have to be made.) It's beyond strange for him to be openly using magic after a lifetime of hiding, but no stranger than going by his cousin's name or pretending to be a Warden. Only Alistair and Morrigan know the truth.

After the Battle of Denerim, newly crowned King Alistair helps Hawke escape the attention by telling everyone that "Warden Amell" has gone to report to Weisshaupt about the Blight. In reality, Hawke goes to Kirkwall to track down his family starting with his uncle and is pleasantly surprised to find them already there.

...the events of DA2 go apace, with a few exceptions. Mainly, 1) Carver and Bethany are both alive, as Hawke's absence in the prologue led the family to flee earlier and faster, and 2) Hawke tells his family that he was captured at Ostigar and held in Arl Howe's dungeons until being released by the Hero of Fereldan. The gold he brought home was "reparations" from the king and goes a long way towards funding the Deep Roads Expedition.

Eventually he does come clean to Carver, who thought his brother looked awfully healthy for a man who spent a year in the dungeons of a notorious sadist, and to Fenris, because it's only right he tell his love interest the truth after they start sleeping together. As for everyone else? He regrows his beard and acts insulted anytime anyone mistakes him for his obviously less handsome and talented cousin. It's quite the act.

After the Chantry explosion, he goes to ground in the Free Marches with Bethany and Fenris while Carver stays in Kirkwall with Varric and Aveline trying to restore order. These three years are vaguely Robin Hood, with the trio moving between the Free Cities doing the job the Templars should be doing - that is, protecting the mages that don't want to hurt people and hunting those that do. Occasionally they'll meet up with Merrill and Isabela for their help ferrying people to safety, but for the most part it's just the three of them.

When news of the Conclave comes, Hawke decides to go - just to watch from the shadows and make sure nobody tries to do anything stupid, like order the deaths of all surviving mages or blow up the Conclave to make a point. He even shaves his beard with the vague idea that if things look really bad he can pop in, shout at people as the Hero of Fereldan, and disappear back into the Free Marches once the talks finish.

...and then the Conclave explodes.

At some point between waking up chained to the Chantry floor and running into Varric again, Hawke decides not again. He is not going to spend the next however many years shaving and answering to a different name, not when his siblings are old enough to protect themselves and he has a life to go back to. He tries to explain but only manages to get across yeah, I'm the Hero of Fereldan before Cassandra drags him out to deal with the Rifts.

Cassandra spends the journey to the first Rift asking where "Warden-Commander Amell" has been all these years. (Hawke tries to explain, but gets tripped up trying to figure out how his alter-ego got promoted when he's been AWOL for the last ten years, not to mention what the hell is going on now.) He doesn't manage it before they run into Varric, who of course greets him with "Hawke!" So he spends the first trip to the Breech trying to explain yes, I'm the Champion of Kirkwall, but first I was the Hero of Fereldan but back then I was pretending to be my dead cousin for Reasons; Fenris, Carver, and King Alistair know and now you three and I think Bethany might've figured it out? I never really was a Warden but I did kill the Archdemon, it's a long story.

It is, of course, a ridiculous mess.

It gets more ridiculous when he wakes up after The Wrath of Heaven and has to go through it again with Liliana and Cullen. (And maybe has a minor breakdown in the process because no, I am not the Herald of Andraste. I refuse. I will send the next person who tries to give me another title straight into the Fade.) Variations of this happen every time he has to go through this conversation, which is an awful lot. (It happens once during battle against a High Dragon, culminating with Hawke summoning a massive lightning storm that kills it dead in three strikes. It's terrifying and impressive and doesn't help things at all.)

...and so Hawke gets dragged into the events of DA:I.

Inquisitor!Hawke is just exhausted by this point. He's still humorously charming, but he's also so very tired of trying to save a world that doesn't want to stay saved. This leads to him coming across as a tired schoolteacher whenever he's not casually raining down destruction upon his enemies.

(There is at least an hour of ranting when Corypheus appears on scene along the lines of why doesn't anybody stay dead these days?)

A week or so after they arrive at Skyhold, Carver shows up with pretty much all the sane Templars left in the Free Marches - along with the remaining Kirkwall crew, minus Aveline. And so Hawke ends up having to mediate the Mage-Templar War.

Things get awkward at Adamant because by the Maker, I never actually was a Warden but fuck it all if I'm not going to use the rank they gave me to march into that fortress and take command. No one is more surprised than Hawke that it worked, though there are still a few jerks that fight and Hawke still falls into the Fade, because that's how his life goes.

Hawke spends all of Halamshiral dealing with questions about what he's going to do with the all Inquisition forces, mages, Templars and Wardens at his disposal - plus the friendship of the King of Fereldan and Prince of Starkhaven. If he ends up snapping, "If I have to end up conquering all of southern Thedas to fix your messes, I will," at the lot of them, who can blame him?

Throughout the entire fic, Hawke gets progressively more tired and jaded but still tries to put on his best face as he tries to clean up all of Thedas' messes, I swear to the Maker. It should also be incredibly hard for him to take most threats seriously after killing an archdemon, once leading to him giving everyone in the Inquisition grey hairs by going off to kill a High Dragon by himself.

He also starts out being very careful to hide his magic (he's something of a self-taught Arcane Warrior, channeling his magic through a sword-and-dagger combo), but gets progressively more casual about it. This isn't helped by the fact he's at his endgame long before DA:I starts. (It takes a powerful mage to flick their fingers to light a fire, but it takes a ridiculously powerful one to wave their hand and shoot a fireball that can kill an ogre.)

This is predicated on the beard making all the difference, but could be even funnier with a female!Hawke who makes no effort to disguise herself at all.

And that's all I literally have room for. Let me know if you adopt this bunny, I'd love to see it.

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