#is this a steamdeck thing??? Because this has never happened to me before

[sarasa-cat]

The one almost-complete timeline that contains at least three of the games (technically all four, but...) is my Shadow Before Me / This Bird Has Flown timeline.

This contains my non-compliant canon for Origins that does all sorts of weird things with Alistair (he leaves, he returns at the very end) and uses Karma's companions to recruit Cullen into the Warden's merry band of misfits which is led by an epic disaster warden: Keres Amell.

She grew out of three things: (1) ideas from a kinkmeme or gift promp for a Solona Amell/Cullen story, (2) my actual playthrough of a Karma's companions run of DAO, (3) my deeeeeep desire way back in 2011-2012 to completely revoice Alistair and remove all of the Joss+Buffyverse speak that Gaider obviously put into Alistair (and recently admitted but lol, dude, obvious is obvious). That lives in my draft called "This Bird Has Flown" which ... idk if I ever posted bits of it?

Early in the pandemic (or maybe pre-pandemic) decided I wanted to have a f!mage!Hawke/Fenris run but never got around to doing more than the initial few hours of Act 1. Vespertine Hawke is still sitting around in the Hanged Man... ;)

Solenne Rozina Trevelyan is the only Inquisitor who I have taken through to the end of the game. She romanced Cullen. All of that happened nearly a decade ago. I really like that character despite my issues with how the inquisitor is voiced.

And....

I don't exactly have a Rook for this timeline.

I mean, I kind of have one-- Zia Aldwir (rogue, veiljumper) is technically using my Trevelyan's world but Zia is a group creation and a bit more of my partner's character to be honest. Zia is temporarily on hold until 2025 due to various holiday reasons (Zia lives on my PS5, not on my steamdeck+PC).

I'm leaving this space open for The Rook Who Eventually Emerges because his/her/their themes fit the themes of this timeline.

My Shadow Before Me / This Bird Has Flown timeline has some thematic overlap with my A History Of Lies timeline. In truth, it took me a while to disentangle them whenever they wanted to merge. While both are heavy on mage/templar and mage/power themesm the key difference in the stories (that i have drafted and outlined, and in some cases partially posted) are this:

Shadows Before Me/This Bird Has Flown: Very much about people falling apart. Set amongst mages, ex-templars, and power that slips through one's fingers like a handful of sand. People. Falling apart. Messy.

A History of Lies: Very much about history. If Thedas was a real place, it would be Historiographic Metafiction without a doubt. Instead, it is metafiction about Thedas. But also mages. Templars. Power. (And for reference: AHOL is my Neria Surana/Alistair, Mari Hawke/Cullen/Merrill; Merrillquisitor/Solas; and Fausta Mercar who has been flirty flirty with Neve).