#it is my canon worldstate though... oops

[redlyriumidol]

"Connor will not remain passive forever!" / "Go to the tower quickly then. The longer you are away, the greater the chances of disaster."

I wish so badly they'd followed through on these warnings during the Redcliffe quest. It's just cowardly in terms of writing. The fact that you can go to the circle and do the entire mages quest spending 287485 hours wandering around the fade and when you get back the demon's just chilling and nothing has changed.... It should have forced you to kill Connor upon returning because the possession was too far gone. That would have been fucked up yes but it would have been a realistic consequence. Like what is morally grey and difficult about the choice if there's a clear best option and 0 repercussions for taking it....

Tbh I pretend the Circle option doesn't exist in every single playthrough. Alistair's disapproving dialogue after you sacrifice Isolde is really good and imo it's an important moment in the developing friendship between him and my Wardens- it's more realistic for them to have ups and downs and difficult moments amidst all the grief and fear and pressure they're both facing. That scene always reads as him taking out his feelings of powerlessness on the Warden without realising; the cunning option that mitigates approval loss points out that it's really more about Alistair's feelings towards Eamon than it is about the Warden's choices- which he basically admits. Idk it's a great little character moment for Alistair, it was very intense going through it the first time, especially as I romanced Alistair and had to build up the relationship from there. This moment of tension made it feel like a realistic relationship that progressed naturally as the game went on.

[lasandra]

31 Days of Dragon Age: Oct 01 - Introduce your Hero of Ferelden

(Technically a day late, oops!) Using these prompts. (I probably went overboard though, tbh.) Dragon Age: Origins was the game I got introduced to Dragon Age with back in 2010 when I was but 12 years old and so the HoF forever holds a special place in my heart. HoF is, in my opinion, the best example of being allowed to be who you want to be in the Dragon Age series with the most freedom of personality. HoF truly feels like YOUR character and I love that. Here are my favorite Heroes (because I CANNOT just tell you about 1) of Ferelden in no particular order: 1. Lyna Mahariel (Yes, I kept the default name, I liked it for her.)

Lyna is easily my most tragic character (and it was a total accident). Lyna has this habit of everyone she loves dying and leaving her alone. First it was her parents, then it was Tamlen (which really hit her hard as they were very much in love). She didn't even get time to properly mourn him before getting dragged (kicking and screaming) to Ostagar to join the Grey Wardens when she truly would have preferred to remain with her clan and die. She slowly began to recover and though she still mourned, she DID find herself slowly falling for Alistair... WHO she helped make king and then he ended their relationship. Obviously she was upset (as was I because this was the first time, I'd played a non-Cousland lol and I didn't know you could let him just stay with the wardens at the time). She was FURIOUS when Morrigan told her she needed to convince Alistair to sleep with her. Fastest nope ever, let me tell you. She went into the Battle of Denerim with every intention of striking the killing blow against the Archdemon but guess what? This was also my first time NOT doing the dark ritual and I took Alistair with me. He freaking stops her, tells her he loves her and goes and dies all heroically. (This was the first time this happened to me, and I definitely cried). Then comes Awakening and while everyone else makes it out, Anders and Justice appear to be dead. She mourns those sneaky little twits. Boy when she found out what happened... She was PISSED, let me tell you. And of course, later she finds out that her entire clan has been killed by Hawke and Co. Home girl cannot catch a break. She isolates herself now, never allowing herself to get too close to others, awaiting the day she can finally see her loved ones again. 2. Aurora Amell:

Aurora is probably closest to a canon warden that I have as I usually use her worldstate when I load into Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition because I just love the story implications. She was every bit a circle mage and never understood why anyone would ever want to leave (I think being trained by Irving made her that way), but still helped her friend Jowan when that was his wish. When it turned out he WAS in fact a blood mage she was horrified and never trusted him again. And yes. She liked Cullen. And apparently she just had a thing for Templars because she ended up with Alistair (she also had the sense to keep him in the wardens). Wynne was her most trusted confidante, with Leliana as a close second. She got along with everyone fairly well though. For her, the Dark Ritual was a painful and difficult choice, she didn't want to die, she didn't want Alistair to die, and Morrigan offered both of them a way out. She convinced Alistair and you know the rest. During Awakening, Anders didn't just up and disappear on her. She gave him permission. She had always only conscripted him to save his life and with the blight defeated, she didn't see a reason to force him to stay. She did NOT know about the Justice thing however, she'd have thumped him over the back of the head with her stave if she'd known about that. Also, she kept Sir Pounce-A-Lot when he left. Aurora eventually met Carver when he became a Grey Warden and through him she eventually met her favorite cousin, Amelia Hawke. Though Aurora is younger, she is very protective of her cousin, so much so that when she found out Anders had betrayed Amelia's trust and blown up the Chantry, Aurora may or may not have chased him around the room with fireballs until Alistair and Amelia physically restrained her... Aurora and Alistair have a daughter (because headcanons!) named Lydia who is actually going to be one of my Rooks (who I will tell you more about when it is time to introduce my Rooks in the prompts) 3. Elsa Cousland (No she was not named or designed after the Disney Character, I made her before Frozen was even a thing.)

Elsa is my "evil" character (or as close as I come to running evil characters). She is not cruel by any means, but she is rather power hungry and is very manipulative, buying affection, lying to make herself seem better than she is. She had always been an opportunist, looking to advance her and her family's station whenever possible. When Arl Howe killed nearly everyone in her family, she swore she'd have revenge, though that didn't mean she didn't deeply resent Duncan for coercing her into the Grey Wardens (that's how she felt about it). For the first time in her life, she felt resigned to her fate and she hated it, though she of course put on the facade of the selfless heroine. Morrigan was the only one she shared her true nature with, and they quickly became the best of friends. Alistair was strange to her, in more ways than one. Though she found him to be a bit of an idiot, she also recognized him as being genuinely kind, a trait she was not used to in those she knew. As much as she wanted to deny it, she did find herself falling in love with him, even before she found out he was Maric's son. When Arl Eamon suggested Alistair take the throne, she saw an opportunity to get what she had always wanted--the throne. So naturally during the Landsmeet she named Alistair king with her as his queen. She agreed to help Morrigan convince Alistair to do the dark ritual, as it seemed quite practical for her plans to become Queen. During Awakening she almost killed Nathaniel but thought it would be better revenge to have him become a Grey Warden instead. As for what she's been doing since, mostly she's been looking for a way for her and Alistair to have heirs. 4. Rita Brosca (Not to be confused with her sister Rica)

(And no, the background isn't bleeding through her face, I was trying a shading thing out on her and I didn't think to use a different color.)

Rita is the most reckless of my wardens never quite thinking before she acts, luckily she's pretty good at getting away with it (mostly). She thought Duncan was just the coolest dude ever even before he saved her life. When he died, she was almost as upset as Alistair, he was the first person to ever treat her like she was anything more than dirt. She and Morrigan bonded over their terrible mothers. Unlike my other previous Wardens, Rita didn't end up with Alistair. She found him to be more like a brother figure. Instead, she ended up with Zevran. Coming up from similar backgrounds, she could really relate to him and felt like she could be herself around him without judgement--heck if anything, approval! Leske's betrayal wasn't particularly surprising. She was really only surprised she couldn't talk him out of it. Idiot duster. During Awakening, when she found out about Oghren becoming a father, she really worked on encouraging him to get his crap together. To be more than some drunk loser to his child, so that his kid wouldn't end up resenting him like Rita resented her mother. Also she totally stole Anders idea of running away from the wardens. She ran off with Zevran and has been keeping quiet since. They even ended up having a daughter (who, yes is going to be another Rook of mine) named Wynnie (who is affectionately named after Wynne). 5. Ciara Surana:

Ciara is the sweetest of all of my wardens, always helping others and sparing her enemies when possible because she just saw the best in people. The Fifth Blight really didn't deserve her. She was fascinated by spirits and demons, always wanting to learn more about them. Solas really would have had a field day with her. She'd have pestered him non-stop with questions. To mine and everyone else's surprise, she did NOT end up with Alistair, rather with Zevran. Not that Alistair hadn't tried, Ciara was just too oblivious to notice Alistair's flirtations while Zevran made himself very clear. I like to think she had a positive influence on him. When Morrigan told her about the Dark Ritual, she felt very uncomfortable. She did tell Alistair about it but accepted his "no" without argument. Having made Alistair the king, she was determined to keep him alive and so she did not take him with her to fight the Archdemon, therefore it was her who dealt the final blow, sacrificing her life to save Ferelden and the rest of Thedas. I like to think her soul was not destroyed. That instead she was given a second chance at life as (you guessed it) another one of my Rooks, a mourn watcher Rook, to be specific. 6. Elena Tabris:

Last but not least, is Elena. Though she was considered quite the troublemaker in the Alienage, she was actually genuinely looking forward to getting married (and then the stupid shems just had to show up and completely wreck her wedding. Rude). She was grateful to Duncan for saving her when the guards came but was lowkey terrified of the man after watching Daveth and Jory die at the joining. She literally only drank the blood because she watched him kill Jory, before that, she'd been thinking about slinking off and running away. She used to be terrified of spirits and demons (so you know, the circle of Magi was fun for her) but Wynne's circumstance gave her a new perspective. They still give her the heebie-jeebies but she tries to keep an open mind (which is the only reason she was able to recruit Justice in Awakening. Him animating a corpse was deeply unsettling). Though she'd had a brief flirtation with Zevran (it never went anywhere beyond flirtation) she ultimately ended up with Alistair. When it came time for taking Alistair to see his sister, she let him give her money but I headcanon that she totally sneaked back in and stole it back for being such as massive b-- At the Landsmeet, she did not make Alistair king since he had always said he didn't want to be king. She didn't want to force him into anything that he didn't want. Elena had the hardest time with Morrigan's offer of the Dark Ritual, given her past. She also really loved Alistair and didn't want to risk him dying if she could prevent it, which is why she ultimately convinced him to do it. Eventually they had a daughter named Carwyn, who, would you believe it, is going to be another of my Rooks. But not just any Rook. My first Rook. I am very much looking forward to playing her on the 31st! That's it! That's all of the HoFs I want to share! I have played Origins NUMEROUS times and thus have many more, but it already took me all day to make all these portraits and quite frankly, I don't have the patience to do anymore. Thank you to anyone who was interested enough to read all this! You're a real trooper!