#morrigan and kieran and flemeth oh my

[rosella-writes]

MAN I wanna write a post or fic about infertility as a theme in Dragon Age but I dunno if I have the fortitude

[miraculan-draws]

Morrigan being good and gentle with kids makes me CRY like she knows so little about the world outside but she knows that the way SHE was treated as a child was wrong. And she won't do that to kids already hurting.

Like the short story about giving the little girl in Lothering one of the feathers off of her mantle? That is so sweet. That is so wonderful. She talks a big talk about not having time for the random acts of kindness the Warden volunteers for wherever they go, but she does little things like this all on her own. You just can't call her out on it.

And KIERAN oh my god. She loves that little boy so much. She watched Flemeth take the Old God Soul and didn't give two shits, it wasn't about that anymore, it was about her SON. She was so scared!! "Kieran. Stays. With ME." And how fiercely GENTLE and EMOTIONAL standing up to Flemeth was. "I am many things. But I will not be the mother that you were to me." I am CRYING???

Overall I think Morrigan's role with the eluvian should have been Merrill—that there were other places in the story to have introduced Morrigan and Kieran if we would end up knowing Flemeth and Mythal are entwined. BUT. Morrigan and Kieran are so important to me.

( Also I love that you can tell the voice actors are mother and son too, even in a little kid you can hear those like dark crackly timbre qualities it was such a cute and fun choice)

[magebutts]

my sincere apologies to everyone who's sick of seeing me talk about all my griefs with veilguard, but i do have more lol

did anyone else feel an extreme lack of connection between rook and the rest of the party? is that just me? like it feels like they spent a lot of time focusing on the interpersonal relationships between the companions and their individual stories, and then rook is just... there. and like i get it, the charcters are important and always have been. but it feels like rook really gets sidelined. (forewarning i also got sidetracked and talk abt a lot of loose story ends and stuff)

and maybe i just missed out on it because i played a shadow dragon who didnt save minrathous, but even their background doesnt feel super important. like i get rook is a hero by happenstance but like.... idk.

yeah idk for an rpg, especially a bioware rpg, i expect more. like da2 might have been super restricted bc there was no origin choice, but at least you were connected to the story. the warden was integral to the story. the inquisitor had the mark and was integral to the story.

and rook was just like... a silly goofy lil guy who cracks jokes no matter which dialogue option you choose and as much as i enjoy the heroes who are like "someone has to do the job so i guess it might as well be me if no one else is gonna do it", it felt incredibly mishandled.

and again, idk, maybe i missed out on a lot bc i did play a shadow dragon who saved treviso and romanced the slowburn guy who had virtually no romancr content which is a whole problem on its own, but... whatever lmao 🙃

oh and as i just saw a post about it on twitter, its WILD that they brought back morrigan AND ALSO ISABELA ???? and you get NO say in their history, when it is very easy to have both of them permanently leave ur party in their respective games. like im sorry, isabela learned the meaning of found family in kirkwall? every game i have ever played, i have never succeeded in getting her to stay even when i was trying to. they couldnt even be bothered to say hawkes name once in veilguard but isabela is gonna wistfully namelessly reference them??? and the fact that a character who could have been trapped in the fade and is never mentioned once in a game that is all about people being trapped in the fade

and do NOT get me started on morrigan and flemeth. we are NOT going to pretend flemeth wasnt a horrible woman who had daughters for the sole sake of creating a posessable vessel. or the fact that in a lot of worldstates, morrigan has a son who we were previously told contained the soul of an old god of tevinter... only to find out that that isnt true, so that boy was also possessed by a fragment of the spirit of an elven god, which flemeth and then solas potentially also stole if kieran existed.

and also never acknowledge the fact that there are still in fact 5 blighted elven gods trapped in the fade, granted they would hypothetically be mortal with their dragons dead but like... theyre still out there.

and dont get me started on the state of the south, i will literally never be able to care about anything else knowing what happened there. and like, idk what bioware expected. we spent three whole games in ferelden + the free marches. and i will argue, that as interesting as the rest of the world is, ferelden + the free marches are the home of dragon age. and that very well might just be me, but i feel like having games set anywhere else created a rift very similar to the rift between andromeda and the main mass effect series

ESPECIALLY with the "secret ending" cutscene (spoilers for that now if you havent seen it)

hinting at the series going even bigger + beyond the fade, its giving pathfinder/dnd outer realms, and im sorry, but if dragon age leaves the medieval fantasy theme to go for eldritch/alien beings, im gone. my interest in the series is dead. implying that everything that has happened has been the design of some greater beings and all of your heroes and their actions were actually someone else's doing all along... its an insult to player agency, and you can NOT continue doing that as much as EA has done in an rpg series. the dissolution of the keep and previous player choices and characters appearing in zero capacity was already a lot, but i could accept it if the scope of the story was beyond our choices. but with solas's dagger being the one hawke found in the deep roads, with darkspawn ravaging ferelden again and there being no mention of alistair or the grey warden who could very much still be alive and in the order, let alone be ruling the fucking kingdom, its fucking insane actually. its insane that the only choice that apparently has any meaning was how you inquisitor felt about solas, and beyond that, if you romanced him. even disbanding the inquisition doesnt seem important anymore, bc there is zero mention of solas and his agents that he had in trespasser.

like yes, sorry, i am mad actualy that no one else and nothing else mattered. the inquisitor and dorian stood side by side and you dont even get to determine their relationship if they arent together. like the man who invented telephones and face time for his best friend can only say "bet u cant wait to go home and see a certain somebody, WINK", not even considering the fact they might not have been friends.

how funny and easy it would have been for varric (ignoring the fact that hes a ghost) to make one singular joke about hawke dating an abomination and rook doing the same. for isabela to mention fenris or merrill, or a romanced hawke. for merrill to never be mentioned again despite being so dedicated to researching and restoring her eluvian. for fenris to never be mentioned despite his ties to seheron and tevinter. for the warden to never be mentioned despite ending one blight just to have two more ravage their country in their lifetime. for the crows to be a main faction and zevran gets two vague unnamed mentions in companion ambiant dialogue. for starkhaven and fucking sebastian vael, a character many people didnt see bc he was a dlc add-on, let alone a highly disliked character who a lot of people with his dlc never even recruited. no mention of hawke or their warden sibling, who were said to have disappeared after venturing to weisshaupt when all the wardens were recalled and the keep went silent. and i am going to harp on this, the cure for the fucking blight. because it is possible, and now with veilguard, we have seen it TWICE in canon.

it really just drives home that actually, the scope hadnt gone past the former heroes, they just cared more about telling their own story than collaborating with the players who make the games possible.

anyways bioware im in your fucking walls, ea i know where you fucking live and i do actually expect better from a triple a studio who was fucking stupid enough to acquire a studio who was revolutionary and famous for their storytelling only to not fucking support that

[invinciblerodent]

13, 16, and 17? 🥺

Veilguard hype asks!!!

13. What's one thing you've seen confirmed so far that you're a fan of?

One thing? Oh, that's very hard to pick. Is it a cop-out if I say the characters? Because if it is, I think I'll have to go with griffons being canonically and unambiguously back in Thedas.

I loved "Last Flight" when I originally read it (many years ago), I will 100% say that it's one of the better ones of all the Dragon Age novels (it might be noted that Last Flight and The Masked Empire are my favorites- it's unclear if that's because they're actually that good, or because I just hate Gaider's style of prose that much lol), but it's been ten years since the publication, so I was thinking that it might kinda just get handwaved away. But, I'm very happy to have very clear and canon, in-game confirmation in Assan that that novel is canon, and that griffons are not extinct.

I think that novel is set in 9:41, so the same year that Inquisition starts in, which (unless griffons mature very fast and there have been multiple clutches since, which I doubt) I believe makes Assan one of Crookytail's babies, and roughly 8-9 years old... which, if true, would honestly make Davrin a pretty important/high-ranking Warden. I don't really know how many Wardens are in Weisshaupt at any given time (gonna guess more than 13 lol), but one would think that if there are only 13 healthy griffon hatchlings to go around (or fewer, we don't know what happened in the ~10 years since), one would have to be a pretty big deal to get one assigned to them to raise and care for.

Davrin confirmed as the best dog-lion-eagle dad in all the realms. ❤️ Sometimes a family is you, your Warden spouse, and the gigantic winged beast who takes up a good three quarters of any bed.

(oh god, can you imagine trying to banish an adolescent griffon from the room. can you imagine the poor thing scratching WELTS into the door with those talons as he's crying desperately to be let in; his little voice, the heartrending cry of a rusted door-hinge. am I willing to put up with that just for Warden dick? ....... yes. yes I am.)

16. What's one crack theory you subscribe to (yours or someone else's)?

Well, I've kind of had this theory (which is in no way substantiated by anything, mind you) that... okay, hear me out.

There are 7 (or 8) Old Gods of Tevinter, and after five Blights, only Razikale and Lusacan have yet to be "corrupted" by the darkspawn Taint.

We saw two figures who are implied to be members of the Evanuris emerge from beyond the Veil in the gameplay trailer.

We also (very likely) still have Urthemiel's soul in play, with Solas having consumed Flemeth/Mythal's "essence" after she had already extracted the Old God Soul from Kieran, IF he exists and was conceived via Morrigan's ritual.

I don't know if anyone theorizes that the old Tevinter gods and the Evanuris have any overlap between them (which is... kind of possible, they did hint that there was an 8th Old God struck from the records which makes their numbers sans Fen'harel line up), but with the presence of the Wardens in Veilguard, there is a tiny niggling part of me that kind of hopes part of the plot will be to do the exact opposite of what Clarel had intended to do in Inquisition, and hunt down the uncorrupted Old Gods so that they can aid in the fight against the Evanuris, if they aren't one and the same.

I'm not going to descend into trying to theorize about potential outcomes and implications and all that, but there is a part of me that is very tickled by the thought of a "god"-on-"god" fight.

Aaaaaand as much as Ray was deeply pissed off and feeling utterly betrayed by Solas, and much as he vowed to stop him at all costs, I, as a player, do think that there have been heavy enough implications that we'll be forced to work alongside Solas, which sounds quite interesting.

Like... "I have no wish to be the villain in one of your stories"? Gee, Solas, that couldn't be some foreshadowing that you're doing, could it....?

Anyway, that's just me tho. I don't know if this counts as a crack theory or if it's a legitimate one, I have looked only little bits into the lore besides playing the games and reading the comics and the novels, but, y'know. All very curious, lol.

17. Are you interested in all the lore and speculation or do you focus more on the games and stories themselves?

And this is a funny question to answer right after the previous one, but in all honesty, I do try to not get into a lot of theorizing about the plot, and the lore, and what's going to happen. What I think about, I'm not at all attached to- really, I prefer to regard the stories as they come, as they are, changes and all, and not, you know, create elaborate headcanons that I then can't pivot from on a dime.

I've always been more interested in the small, interpersonal stories of RPGs, rather than the Big Sweeping Adventure plots. I've always loved a hero that's just an everyman, forced into a situation that's way beyond their pay grade, and just coping with it and rolling with the punches the best they can. So at the end of the day, I really just want to take the story as it comes, and play with my little toys in my favorite sandbox again. ❤️

[ephemeronidwrites]

🌿🎀💌 FOR REAL FIC WRITER ASKS

🌿 how does creating make you feel?

Drunk on power. Maniacally omnipotent. I am God and I have the power of life and death (or at least great suffering and joy) over my characters' lives.

But also sometimes I feel like the lowliest and most derivative worm ever without a single original thought in my head—or if I do, they're all cringe—and why are words so hard, I sob theatrically into my keyboard for an audience of one.

🎀 give yourself a compliment about your own writing

Oh my god. You are evil. Evil evil evil.

Which is why I am cheating. Fed excerpts of my own writing (very short ones, so I think I've been relatively safe about it) to ChatGPT and let's see what it came up with:

Strong characters with vivid personalities. Use of vivid imagery and sensory details. A good sense of immersion.

All of which I would say are aspects of my writing I am actually quite happy with.

I would also say I like the way I write banter and dialogue, how I feel comfortable using it flexibly to convey multiple different facets of my characters, from the ways they see the world, to their hidden motivations, to how their diction and even things like speech habits and quirks and tics all reflect on their personalities. (That's something the AI model wasn't really given the opportunity to pick up, given that I didn't feed it any of my writing that involved dialogue.)

Not to say that there isn't room for improvement there, but I do think I am happy letting myself be, on those fronts, and maybe investing more of my energy into improving other aspects of my writing. Like practicing more plotting, being more concise when I need to be, etc.

💌 share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

All right, so I guess I'm biting the bullet here and going public with it (no take backsies).

Aside from the updates on my ongoing longfic, I'm working on a one-shot dealing with Morrigan's thoughts on motherhood. Her relationship with Flemeth, the whole process by which she conceived her child, and how she felt when she gave birth to Kieran.

It will probably be released very soon. Soon as in, within the next couple weeks. For... reasons of time relevance. (This is not me being salty about motherhood and family and Hallmark holidays, no, not in the least.)

[sweetmage]

Flemeth for the opinion bingo please! :)

Hi! Sorry for the late response!

Okay so I only just saw Flemeth's inqusition stuff like a week ago and I am still reeling???

I played the games in a kind of weird order so my opinion was all over the place.

For DA2 I was like "Hell yeah! Ominous, sexy dragon GILF!👍🏾" But also very confused and wondered what the point of her was.

Then I played DAO and was like "Oh, she seems a little weird and ominous in a worse way.... oh, okay so she's actually the worst, I actively hate her now."

And then days after doing the whole grimoire thing for Morrigan in DAO (the source of "I hate her now") I got all the stuff with her in DAI and uhhh... UHHH still sorting that out, idk how to feel yet😅😅😅 Need to read a bunch of lore and theory posts I think.

But yeah, I think her DA2/DAI designs are some of my favorite looks in the whole series, I love her voice acting, and she gives me chills sometimes. I am very invested in whatever tf is going on with her, Morrigan, Kieran, Solas, etc. etc. and though it seems like she's (possibly???? Maybe??????) really gone, I hope to unravel more things in the next game!

[veshialles]

like look okay, I kind of get it. like obviously I wasn't expecting to find out like, a ring I returned to an NPC in a DAO sidequest to be an important plot point 4 games later or anything. I understand that moving events to another area of the world we haven't seen in the previous games yet gives us a bit of a "blank slate" as they keep putting it but like...

As others have pointed out, you've got returning characters! Morrigan is there, and as a character she is a completely different woman depending on whether or not Kieran is born and how your Hero Of Ferelden interacted with her. (sure her son would be grown up now, but I think it's an important factor to consider??) Not to mention that The Inquisitor is also there. Either them or Morrigan can optionally drink from the Well Of Sorrows and be "bound forever to the will of Mythal", aka Flemeth aka a wisp of an elven god's soul (potentially embodied by the soul of Urthemiel the Archdemon/whatever elven God that used to be) whose powers/essence Solas absorbed in DAI's post-credits scene?? I THINK THAT SHOULD HAVE SOME PRETTY DEEP CONSEQUENCES GIVEN YOU KNOW, THE RETURN OF THE OTHER ELVEN GODS AND SOLAS BEING SUCH A "CENTRAL CHARACTER" OR WHATEVER. (and if none of these matter, exactly WHAT did they do to my babygirl? [fearful])

Varric is there for gods sake, and Lace Harding. like, neither of them has anything to say about what they've been through, the ripples that have affected their lives up til the time of DAtV?? Really? well.... we might already know why varric doesn't have much to say 😬😬😬

You can select who your inquisitor romanced, yeah that's cool. some of those can play out wildly different if you didn't complete specific quest targets. Like Iron Bull potentially fucking dying by your hands if you ally with the Qunari Fleets instead of turning him Tal-Vashoth. (he's alive and well and happily in love with my Inquisitor Lavellan in my 1st timeline, but I digress.) Given that the Qunari will be a more major antagonist faction in this game you'd think that choice would maybe be impactful! or whatever!!!)

And the whole you know. Inquisition's possible alliance with or exile of the Grey Wardens of Orlais thing MIGHT be at least a codex-able entry? Given the whole visiting Weisshaupt Fortress thing, their fucking HQ yknow

like. I wasn't expecting to see Hawke/their warden ally drop out of the Fade or anything crazy, and I definitely don't want to encourage the opposite extreme "Marvel-ization Phenomenon" where everything is just reduced to cheap layers of references and nostalgia folded over on itself ad nauseam, but I like it when there's little ripples of what came before.

That's like a major part of what has kept me interested in the series, little nods to the impacts you/your characters choices had. I would understand if this game was separated from the rest of the series by oh let's say 600 years of time-space travel to another galaxy (MEA my beloved). But it's literally just a little bit to the north. they haven't even left the continent, only a little over a decade has passed in-game.

I really don't wanna sound like a whiner, because I am genuinely excited for this game, but to me that "dynamic" changing aspect is part of what makes these games come alive, and it adds so much replay-ability too; being able to witness how your characters' actions ripple outwards, even in minimal ways, even as the main focus of the story changes with each game.

So idk, if only 3 Choices in the last game's DLC actually "mattered" in the buildup to all of this, I think even as much as I might enjoy the game, it will just feel a little bit flat and disconnected to me, no matter how much "impact" Rook has on their individual self-contained narrative.

In a game series where "choices matter", this decision just feels... tone-deaf

well I guess maybe I should take matters into my own hands and do that "previously on Dragon Age"/"The Road So Far" video I kinda wanted to make after all, SINCE APPARENTLY BIOWARE ISN'T BOTHERING TO ACKNOWLEDGE ANY OF THAT SHIT! UGH!

[foxx-queen]

things I want in da4

different backgrounds for the protag like in origins. da4 is supposed to span different cities etc , so it should be easy to have humans / elves / dwarves / qunari from different backgrounds. pls dont make the only background for an elf a tevinter slave, or the only background for a mage a magister

on that note no more noble human backgrounds. let me be an avvar instead

more tarot card art idk I just really liked it

body sliders let me be a buff lesbian

better hair I'm begging

returning companions from dai. I know it's unlikely but dai does kind of feel like a prequel to da4 what with everything we learned , and I feel like if u were friends with all the companions it would be nice to see them

a dialogue option that says 'cool motive still genocide' when talking to solas

a balanced ratio of female to male companions , and romance options more like da2. no race locked romances cause that was weird

pls do not go 'all elves are working with solas'. there should be at least one (1) big group led by briala, merrill and fenris opposing him. they should also have a big part of defeating him / saving the world in the end that is visible to the whole world, because otherwise elves are gonna be hated more than ever, especially since it seems like the writers might have the ancient elves be the cause of the blight, rather than tevinter

let me actually shit on the chantry. let us discover there is no maker / the 'maker' was mythal whispering to andraste. the writers have destroyed the dalish's beliefs and the dwarves beliefs, time to do the same for the maker. I'm tired of the writers saying actually all these other religions are fake! except the maker!

let the players opinion of solas matter. dont have it be like 'oh u decided to kill him and that's actually the bad ending!!' I get that people love him but people who dont like him due to the lying / racism / genocide are also valid and i dont want 'u were supposed to like him' to be forced on me

mythal is alive and working with the elves opposing solas (led by briala merrill and fenris). her hoast is an elf (merrill mayhaps). I know notes at the end of dai say she was headed to morrigan, but considering that the last scene with flemeth and morrigan could be read as flemeth realising how she's failed morrigan, letting her live her life with kieran instead of becoming a vessel would be nice. also flemeth definitely had other vessel options, especially since she's known for years that morrigan was 'unwilling'

let me see flemeth / mythal fight. da2 hinted but didnt let me see it. we've never seen her actually fight (dragon form aside) and i want to See It.

also let me romance mythal

more stuff about the titans and the dwarves! the descent was my fav dlc

more qunari stuff - lemme see a family of tal-vashoth , and the qun from the inside

if the inquisitor drank from the well let them turn into a dragon / have mastered more of the well of sorrows knowledge

if hawke stayed in the fade flemeth rescued them

warden reappearance

the warden & hawke & the inquisitor having a scene together. also maybe a lil scene with their LI

let me befriend dragons rather than kill them thanks

let me hit someone with my staff as a mage pls I'm begging

okay that's it for now but I'm sure there's more

[imakemywings]

For the character asks thing - do Morrigan &/or Thranduil ?

Character ask meme

Morrigan

First impression

Initially? I thought she was cold-hearted and self-interested.

Impression now

I still think Morrigan is very self-interested, but when you get to know her better you can see how Flemeth raised her not to sympathize with others and to buy into this idea that everyone should be 100% independent and no one who isn't is worth helping.

Favorite moment

Okay so I only just played DAI with Kieran for the first time, and I loved that moment where Morrigan fights Flemeth for Kieran. It was subtle before, but you can so clearly see here how much she's grown to care for Kieran and how much she values him as a person. I think it was a moment of excellent character growth for Morrigan, who is very accustomed to caring primarily and foremost for herself.

I was slightly surprised in general to see how much fulfillment Morrigan seemed to draw from motherhood, and I think she was too. But it's really sweet, and so is her determination to do better with Kieran than Flemeth did with her.

Idea for a story

I would love to see some adventure of her and Leliana's where they had to go off and do something with just the two of them--maybe the Warden sends them on an errand or something. They're just such different people, it's fascinating to see them work together towards a common goal.

Unpopular opinion

I'm not sure what's unpopular about Morrigan...I guess that I don't think it's unreasonable for the Warden to refuse her dark ritual offer, given that Morrigan is so unwilling to explain her motives and goals with it, beyond "I think it'd be neat to have an old god soul"?

Favorite relationship

Her and Kieran, absolutely. With Kieran you see a side of Morrigan that we didn't really know existed, and honestly, I'm not sure she knew existed either.

Favorite headcanon

This isn't mine, but I've seen people toss around that the dress she wears to Halamshiral in DAI is made based on the description Leliana gave of what she'd put Morrigan in if Morrigan let her design something, and I love that XD

Thranduil

First impression

Truthfully the first time I read The Hobbit he didn't make any real impression on me except that I generally loved the Elves and thought they were cool. But The Hobbit is also very light on information on side characters; Thranduil isn't even named in it: he's only "the Elvenking" or "the king."

Impression now

I love him he has dealt with so much shit and yet remains a fundamentally good person and I am a sucker for those types of characters

Favorite moment

In terms of sheer cool factor that scene in the movies where he skewers about five orcs on his elk's antlers and then flips off of it when it goes down was hella

In terms of character, when he changes course from the Elves' march to Erebor so they can instead go to aid the refugees from Esgaroth. In the films, this gesture is portrayed as merely incidental to his goal of getting to Erebor, but in the book, he delays the Elves' arrival at Erebor and goes out of his way to help the human refugees, and I think this was a great showing of how he is compassionate towards others, even if he is very suspicious of outsiders.

Idea for a story

Oh man I have several.

I want to do something with his courtship with Niwe because it was probably the dorkiest we will ever see him no matter how hard he was trying to seem cool

I want to cover some scene after the War of the Last Alliance when he and Niwe regroup, acknowledge that with Oropher's death they are now king and queen of Greenwood the Great, and sort of reflect on the battle and look towards the future

My headcanon is that Thranduil and Niwe had a lot of trouble conceiving, so I also wanted to explore one of their conversations about that

Any modern AU where he came from a rural town but ends up becoming a high-ranking wills and estates attorney

I really want to write something about his reunion with Legolas after LotR because I think he was losing it the entire time Legolas was on that quest. He had to keep it together for the sake of the kingdom but he's rarely been more of a mess thinking that his beloved only child might die in the same place he lost his father.

Unpopular opinion

I don't think this is really unpopular among book fans, but the films did him dirty. I don't mind that they made him flawed, or gave more definition to a character who doesn't get a lot of development in the book, but I hate that he needed some third party (Tauriel) to ~remind him~ to care about other people, and how little they touch on his compassion--Bilbo himself describes Thranduil as the "ruler of a good and kindly people" and the book emphasizes how much Thranduil is loved by those who follow him.

I am also not here for whatever weird Sindar-Silvan ethnic tension they tried to put in there. I've talked before about how nonsensical this is, but here I'll keep it to this: there is literally no reason for this conflict to exist, and the chances are very high that Thranduil's own wife was a Silvan Elf (in part because after the First Age there just are not that many Sindar Elves left).

Favorite relationship

With Legolas <3 I think Legolas' general temperament is evidence of how he was raised and I will never not believe he wasn't spoiled, and that Thranduil doesn't have the world's biggest soft spot for his baby. Legolas is most important to him in the world.

Favorite headcanon

This is hard to choose just one but I'll stick with one that informs a lot of my reading of his character: Thranduil was Doriathrim, but not of any high ranking position.

[drunken-drengr]

Morrigan and Sera for the character ask thing?

Yes! Thank you! My two favorite girl bosses! The goth babes(spiritual in Sera’s sense)! The society haters! The gatekeepers! The gaslighters! The

Morrigan

First impression

Oh boy, for Morrigan, this goes way back. Technically I got my first impression of her back when I was way younger and saw my dad playing it. He romanced Morrigan, and the only thing I remember of her is seeing the ritual scene. Needless to say I didn’t see Morrigan again after that. So yeah, very first impression of her was scandalous. But when I got older, I saw more of her character in Inquisition when I played it for myself. So second impression was sarcastic knowledge hungry goth swamp witch babe. I was wary of her to say the least.

Impression now

Playing Origins, I generally see her in the same light, but I understand why she is the way she is, why she holds her ideals, and I see that she actually changed for the better from Origins to Inquisition. I love her a lot more now to say the least. I swear Im not gay I just- Morrigan…

Favorite moment

Oh boy there’s a lot actually. I’d say, jokingly, the iconic ‘Tis cold in my tent…’ but seriously, I loved the Fade scene where Morrigan encounters Flemeth. I think it properly showcases how she has grown as a person and as a mother. It’s just so satisfying to see her stand up to her Mother.

Idea for a story

I wanna know how Morrigan raised Kieran! In the wilderness and in the Winter Palace! That would be so interesting

Unpopular opinion

Ohoho, I have a hot steamy unpopular opinion, ripe for potential discourse. With that being said, please don’t attack me, this isn’t meant to be offensive in anyway, but- Morrigan never gave me lesbian vibes. Yeah I said it, big deal cause I look in the Morrigan x Warden tag and it’s mostly just Morrigan x Women Wardens. Nothing wrong with that, I just really don’t get the impression that she’d be lesbian.

Favorite relationship

I enjoy Morrigan and Alistairs love-hate platonic relationship, their bickering never fails to make me crack up. Forgive me but I also must mention Morrigan and Ragnar… I just… love them so much….

Favorite headcanon

I love that one analysis that motherhood didn’t really change Morrigan that much. I forget the details but it really brought up some nice points about her.

Sera

First impression

Gremlin. Spunky gal. I was questioning her sanity, but I liked her vibes. Didn’t mind her flirting with me, a surprise when I first played.

Impression now

Still a spunky gremlin. One of my favorite characters, and I’ve really taken her character to heart. I love everything about her, including her flaws, to a fault. I’m totally romancing her next play through, so sorry Baewall

Favorite moment

Boy where do I start? Her shooting dude in the face when we first meet? Letting her literally beat that noble to death in her personal quest? The rooftop scene? Literally all of her banter with Blackwall and Solas? I fucking love everything she does, okay?

Idea for story

Story about she and Inky after Trespasser, assuming Inky joined the Red Jennies. I must know about their wacky adventures, terrorizing nobles and whatnot.

Unpopular opinion

She’s the best. That’s it. And I know it’s an unpopular opinion cause I know how many people absolutely loathe her.

Favorite relationship

Sera and Blackwall, love their friendly dynamic! Also SeraxAdaar and SeraxCadash, Cause she loves big muscly women. Woof…

Favorite headcanon

She’s fucking god awful at cooking. Also immune to bee stings, she’s probably been stung so many times already. Cough cough also.. I think the Sera=Andruil theory is very interesting….

[bumblewarden]

Valendrian, mid-Origins: Sweet Mythal, keep those two troublemakers safe

Flemeth, somewhere very far away: *sneezes*

Thankfully, the Pilgrim's Path connecting the two cities sees a lot of traffic. Novhen can join with the first northbound one that won't automatically turn down a suspicious elf. He does not have a lot of naturalist skills to survive otherwise

I usually use grogblogging's calculations which... 😬 Assuming he joins up with a slower merchant caravan (he offers his skills in cooking, mending, and childcare for the duration of the trip), i'll say it's 5 days in one directions + 2 to reorient himself + 2 relay horse to take message to the alienage, so it's more than a week until they can hear he's alive again

If the Tabrises can find the right guardsman, they may be able to pester them far enough to get something. The guard'll only be working off a vague memory of his appearance, but there's technically a chance. Idk if the family would be able to find them before the letter arrives. Hopefully, they can

Based off the small amount we see of Amaranthine's elves in Awakening, i'd bet they'd see Novhen as a bit of a curiosity. He knows how to make the story as complimentary as possible without deviating too far from the whole truth. They'll mostly welcome him in, but there's always be at least one someone who'll be cranky about it

And yeah, you've got Novhen dead on about guilt and isolating himself. A lot of it is that he doesn't want to feel even more guilty by making someone else bear the burden of listening to him. He's convinced it's his responsibility to bear the pain silently. It will only make everyone worry more if they have confirmation of the crimes he commits to keep the family safe and fed. The cult and the fighting are also secrets from the entire rest of the alienage for everyone's safety that were actively drilled into him to keep secret. The secrets he is sworn to keep throughout the story only accumulate

A predisposition for shadows comes at a cost. It's. Not the healthiest perspective

Novhen won't betray the smuggling ring as a whole, but he's pointing out to Astala the guy who turned him in at the first opportunity. "Don't look now, but I think we just found the shem who got me conscripted– I said don't look!"

Astala gets the arlessa title and responsibilities, but we have to give a little something to Novhen for the Dark Wolf plot. Astala would know he's the Wolf, so when confronting him in Amaranthine, to give him the choice of how much to discolse, i'd imagine she'd bring Novhen and say something along the lines of

A: Oh, the Dark Wolf! I've heard about your work in Denerim. *turns to Novhen* Weren't you the one who told me?

N: Yes, but he's not quite how I remember him. He was a lot shorter then. Had a different accent.

DW: I'm sure you're mistaken. I don't make many public appearances.

N: I think I'd remember what I look and sound like.

DW: What you...? Oh.

If Ilanlas is present and in charge, Novhen's still begging to handle the Dark Wolf business. "These shadow games are my playing field, Ilan. Let me worry about this conspiracy business for now and you focus on the darkspawn. Unless you want to be the one to work with these shems?"

(How does Ilanlas feel about getting his name nicked like that? Novhen might be tweaking his nose a bit here lol.) (Also, on that note, i do think Schrödinger's Companion might be the best way to tackle that, good call)

Is the mage baby one of the adopted or biological ones? If adopted, i imagine it was already known by then but otherwise... oo boy that must have been a shock. Once their family units are reunited, Novhen is going to try very hard to get Morrigan to agree to train them (only if Astala is also on board of course). Maybe they could even share lessons with Kieran. Morrigan would probably dislike too many observers during these lessons, but if she's holding it in a remotely accessible place, you can bet Astala and Zevran will be dropping in from time to time

Also!!! Novhen is definitely going to ask Astala to support him when he introduces Kieran to the rest of the family (and before that step even when he just tells them about him). He's terrified of familial (but especially parental) disapproval. It'll be good for him to have someone's hand to squeeze and to encourage him to say what he came to say. (Also if-- Maker forbid-- Cyrion shows any sort of displeasure, to defend him and keep him from drinking the pain away after)

And yeah, Novhen is suuuuper nervous about the dog at first. And now there's two of them!? Dread Wolf preserve. Yes wolves are also canine, but wolves are cool and and an important part of elven culture! It's completely different!

Alistair is getting too much of a kick out of the dog-based nerves for sure. Get back to grieving, you! Morrigan's eye is twitching, and she's internally swearing about her mother even more than usual

Novhen's not a great solo fighter tbh, so there may be some objections to him claiming the blow on those grounds. Being a rogue and an archer will do that to you. He's a good strategist, but on the actual battlefield, he's a support unit more than anything

He's not volunteering for the kill until after he knows about the ritual at least. He's no more excited to die than Astala. "We have a long road ahead of us. Let's take the night to let this soak in and talk about it in the morning." He'll also joke (a bit sullenly) at this point, "It's almost a shame we didn't conscript Loghain. There'd be a nice poetry to making him die to end the Blight."

Ilanlas does have a point about it not being necessary to designate ahead of time someone to kill the archdemon if Riordan is unable. The flow of battle with dictate that for them

Although he wouldn't be prepared to tell her the whole truth, at least the night before they're expected to reach Denerim, he's going to pull Astala aside for a little chat. Share some food (Plums are out of season, but before then, he made some jam in anticipation just for her). Tell her he's sure Riordan was exaggerating (For what reason would he do that?). Make her promise to not take the final blow for herself unless she has absolutely no choice (Only if he promises to do the same— Novhen? Novhen???? Get back here! You can't leave in the middle of this conversation!!)

If she catches him, he'll comfort her by saying he won't be too eager to slay it, but i don't know how much she'll believe him

Honestly, we have so many Wardens, we may be able to split them up into an extra party at Denerim. Riordan did suggest small parties after all. Our main party will have Novhen, Astala, and Alistair (and Morrigan, Novhen is very insistent she fights at his side, and one other person). Ilanlas, Khêd, and Sulri might split off into their own party with one or two additions of their own. Everyone else stays at the gate

Riordan tells them to go after a general in the market and one near the alienage. It's a convenient enough way to divide the remaining Wardens. The Tabrises are taking on the one at the alienage without a doubt

I imagine the Wardens as they recover after the battle cooperating to fill in the blanks on how the battle went down. Most of them were incapacitated if Astala took the final blow, so it's not impossible that a lot of them were unconscious or otherwise unable to remember everything. Especially if they were split up, they may share reports from opposite sides of the battlefield. They're all very confused how Astala's still alive, and as far as they know, so is Novhen

Also, Astala's probably going to see him without a shirt sooner or later, whether it be while in physical therapy or training or what-have-you. After witnessing the live injury, that's probably going to cause a bit of a jolt seeing those scars...

(For some reason, i thought i remembered Astala receiving some facial burns, but i can't find any drawings with it. If she does, Novhen's going to try to get a joke in about her sun-kissed face before she can get any in on him. If he hurts her feelings... uh-oh, uh-oh. He's going to backtrack so hard)

Alistair definitely deserves a joke somewhere about dragon's breath! The best place imo would either be right before the final battle (but he seems too willing to accept killing the archdemon if he must so maybe not) or in response to Novhen teasing him that maybe he's just ~jealous~ of his relationship with Morrigan.

That's the real reason the Wardens failed at Ostagar. They assigned damn near half of their units to light one signal fire XDDD

Novhen might have been assigned a more floater position on the battlefield alongside Sulri and Khêd perhaps? Up to you where you think Ilanlas should be assigned. He's going to notice the signal taking an awful long time to light and investigate. I could see the other two staying behind and scraping by on their own will and luck to catch up with the others later (whether at Flemeth's hut orrr assuming they were dead and moving on to Lothering thinking they had to fight the Blight alone now 👀)

I assume Novhen and Alistair have been with the Sulri long enough to start picking up on some of the sign but still heavily rely on Khêd for translations

Radka's not a Warden, so we can prioritize Khêd between them. She's a pretty late-game addition, getting picked up during Paragon of Her Kind. (Novhen doesn't revisit Denerim at all until everything else is completed. Besides being afraid of what he'll find there and still worried about his banishment for whatever silly reason, Eamon is lowest priority. He abused Alistair, and Novhen doesn't believe the ashes will work anyway.) We can also remove her family backstory if need be to make her another Carta grunt who messed up and was paying the consequences when the party found her

Also, according to someone in the the notes, i got it wrong, and it wasn't even a chestnut! It was a bay! Embarrassing for Pavle if true XD

And that comment about the tasty-looking plums conjured the very potent mental image of Astala glowering at Novhen for doing Crime unnecessarily and he offers her a Plum of Peace! Stealing Loghain's crown is going to be so fun for them. "Stala, I need you to act natural, but if you hear trouble, charge in." He ends up not needing the help, but it makes both of them feel better to have her present just in case. To relieve the pre-Landsmeet stress, there's a lot of passing around Loghain's crown at dinner the night before for impersonations. Radka and Zevran were probably the best (except for Sten whom they had to sneak the crown onto) (Also Radka is up for carousing with Astala any day or night!)

Ohh and of course Andras is trying the prisoner's dilemma! That little sneak! His lead-in is going to be asking her [if everyone's been faring well since the battle. Nobody acting quiet or strange lately?] and framing it as about their welfare and making sure nobody is shell shocked and He Definitely Doesn't Suspect Anyone Here Is Potentially An Archdemon Abombination With Astala As His #1 Suspect (cons of killing the thing). Astala's smarter than that. Ferelden doesn't guarantee a right to an attorney, you say? One second, let her speak with Anora about that real quick

Also the demanding a thank you akjsbjb

Andras: Astala, please. I am on your side, but I can only help you if you tell me what you know.

Astala: You know, I haven't heard a thank you yet. If not for us, you might've had to be the one to kill this archdemon.

Andras: Thank you. Now–

Astala: You're welcome.

Novhen's smart enough to not always fall back on the same pseudonym, and he probably would've planned ahead for the Orlesian Court. There wouldn't be much attention given to him as an elven "servant", but still, this is the last place he's letting his guard down. I imagine Renan is a name he's been waiting for a good chance to use for a while now if he uses it in two AUs now XD

I am now imagining the whole exchange with Astala and Zevran following whichever of our Lavellans (either work equally well for this) through the servants' quarters and meeting Briala with Novhen now shooting at her side. He quickly signs to Astala to be as strangers. This is probably the highest stakes encounter where they've used it yet, so it's a good thing it was designed to be as unassuming possible!

Briala has her comment of "Inquisitor Lavellan. Slumming in the servants’ quarters with the rest of your people for once?" and then implying Astala and Zevran have more of her respect. The drama! (That comment seemed to me to be partially rooted in Lavellan being Dalish, and even if Astala's now nobility, she's still a city elf with a reputation for charity iirc.) Novhen doesn't get too many words in before the ambassador leaves, but he will offer to safely escort anyone back to the court who wants it. Quizzy's got some looting to do and a retinue of their own, so they won't be taking up that offer, but if the Hero of Ferelden and her guest are interested... 👀

I might have to take you up on pushing it off. The Cure hasn't been found quite yet, but Astala and Zev may have just discovered a huge piece to the puzzle and used that as their "justifcation" to finally take their honeymoon(?) I elaborate in a minute.

If they tell him about the honeymoon, he's going to get a jab in about not being invited to the wedding. A jab that is liable to end with him bopped upside the head for giving her no way to contact him! If he wanted an invite, he should've told her where he was sooner! Recipes don't count!

I imagine Novhen making a one-sided game of what recipes he sends. He knows the message he's sending, and as much as he wants to see her, he can't just *tell* her. Subtlety is a must! Also, it's fun. I think he would plan in advance red herrings to give her a whole path instead of just a random city now and then (although that's not off the table lol). It's also fun to imagine her receiving a local specialty from whatever Antivan city she and Zevran live in. Just her holding the letter like "you cheeky little... if you don't give me a return address now!" then her and Zevran spending the afternoon turning the town upside down XD

After Morrigan learns that she's to travel to Skyhold, she would break the news to Novhen first and then he's going straight to Astala! It's got to begin with a little teasing for how nice she looks in that fancy dress (a Tabris's due punishment for making it big!) He'll explain that he'll be leaving with Morrigan and Kieran (who she has to meet before everyone leaves!!!) with the Inquisitor. After their time there is done, who knows? "I've been thinking about stopping by near Denerim. I hear there's no place quite like it."

Also, you mentioned Merrill earlier, and i completely forgot that Ilanlas gives us pretty-much guaranteed access to her knowledge!! She seems like she'd get along well with the twins as a bonus. I think a decent way to handle the Calling research is that Astala and Novhen were both separately finding key components to the Cure. Not enough for the final answer but enough to celebrate a major victory. Once they get a chance to properly reunite, they can combine their research and realize the puzzle is almost complete! Just a few more dabs of information, and they'll live to be old. It might take a hot minute to get that info, but with the team we've assembled, it's in the bag!

I am currently in the process of reworking Rescue the Queen & Captured in Novhen's canon 😔 He's too tiny to pass for a guard and too risky to pass as a servant again. He might be sneaking around in the rafters and shadows for a decent chunk of it. Here though, he could probably get away with a servant disguise. He had nothing to do with that original mission. And even if he is less familiar with the layout than Astala, they have Erlina to guide them. Novhen would try to tell Astala she doesn't have to go back there and he can lead the rescue. If she insists on accompanying the rescue party, he'll relent easily enough, but he's going to be keeping a close eye on her the whole time. She's not sounding quite like herself during her grisly tour :(

He would want the extraction team to be as small as possible. As far as they know, Loghain wants them dead or alive. If Cauthrien has them so severely out numbered, he may surrender to gamble for the "alive" side of things. I tried to fight in his original playthrough, lost severely, and haven't gotten to that point yet in my replay.

If Astala is also on the mission, she'll probably take point. Novhen will be slinking behind at the rear once they've secured Anora and got her in disguise. He'll have an arrow pointed at Cauthrien (non-lethally) the whole time. He'll be lucky he has enough control to not release it from shock when Astala surrenders. If he's in hiding, he's taking over getting Anora out safely. Otherwise, it's time he finally saw the inside of Fort Drakon since Cauthrien is taking every Warden she can grab

If he's among the captured, Morrigan's ring will come in clutch. I personally prefer her and Leliana for the rescue team, but Zevran can cover for her lack of social skills equally well! Lovers to the rescue! Fort Drakon probably has to separate whatever Wardens they capture. They're too powerful together. Hopefully, that doesn't delay the rescue too much. They could still all be in the same room, just different cells. Idk about Astala, but to prevent an escape attempt from the Chronic Justice Escapee Novhen, they have him cuffed, concussed, and gagged. He's in no state to shoot a bow when it's time to fight their way out

Also!!!!!! Re: Broken Circle. As much as i love shape-shifting Novhen, if Astala gets POV for that quest, Adaia can appear to her after she bests the false Adaia to guide her through the Fade! (only if you want ofc) It works since Adaia only appears halfway through Novhen's dream anyway and was never intended (on my part) to be intended (on Sloth's part). It also gives a fun image of Novhen at the table with the family and he sees Astala and happily greets her but doesn't even finish when he sees Adaia and reality rushes back in. If this is the case, he might be one of the few to not help fight in his encounter. He's a bit busy reliving trauma, sorry. Hope Astala can handle the extra demons without him!

So!! I've been wanting to do this for a while, but life got in the way, so now I'm here to take that thing up again because!!! Fun!!!! This is about the relationships between OCs, and I don't want to impose anything but. Regarding how Novhen and Astala would get along:

What if they HAD grown up together? Maybe not in the same family (although, it would be fun 👀👀👀👀👀👀 they are very similar and very different from each other in different aspects. For example both are very loyal and community oriented, but also Astala is loud and boisterous while Novhen is quieter and more underhanded), but definitely the same Alienage. They'd know each others' quirks and habits. Maybe Novhen got frustrated with Astala because she'd always hide in these really obvious spots when playing hide and seek and Astala in turn would never be able to find Novhen? Maybe Novhen would at some point have stolen a plum tart for her and maybe Astala would've helped him against another kid who made fun of Novhen? Maybe, if we wanted them to meet up later during the Blight, Astala had to move away from Denerim at some point. I think she's a bit older than Novhen; maybe she got married elsewhere. Or, if not, now we gave more elves storming Vaughan's estate, which is alwats fun. I think Novhen would get to lead that one operation until Nelaros's death, because before that, stealth does seem to be the best option.

I think these two would get along well, differences aside. Astala would make an effort to lower her if needed, and having a familiar face to lean on during the Blight year would probably be a big comfort to them both. I think they'd be comfortable enough with each other to talk about the recruitment and how it didn't exactly happen willingly; they could gripe about nobles and politics; they could just. Sit in silence after Broken Circle and try and digest Sloth's nightmare. They could kill the slavers at the Alienage together!!! I think having a like-minded person from the same cultural background would help enormously.

One thing Astala probably wouldn't be on board with is the Cult of Fen'Harel. She'd let Novhen practice alright and defend him if accusations about this were levelled against him, but I think she would either have fallen out of it if she'd ever been introduced to it (it didn't save Adaia after all, so...), or never warmed up to the idea of this elvhen trickster god

These are my thoughts as far as they go. What do you think? Also I hadn't thought of it, but if you want to move this conversation to DMs, they're open ^^

(And if this doesn't tickle your fancy anymore, feel free to ignore ^^)

👀👀👀👀👀 I am eating this ask up like breakfast. Or, er, ramen. Which is the thing i am actually eating atm. But yes yes yes to all of this, i love it so much

Full response under the readmore for length, but i'm realizing now my response is mostly about them as kids 😅 Oops

[Ask Game]

The way i play with companion!Novhen, i'd assume he and Astala are probably either siblings or cousins (i waffle), except this time on their mothers' sides. I don't know Astala's exact age, but Novhen was born in *pulls out notes* Wintermarch of 9:7 Dragon. If we try to stagger them based on Adaia's death, that's probably close to a decade between them which seems a tad bit higher than it should be. We'll just have to dance around that matter

Even if Astala isn't significantly older, there's probably never a single moment where he's taller than her XD Add onto that that girls tend to hit puberty first, there's gonna be quite the height difference around age 10

But yes, their personalities go in very different directions but are probably pretty compatible, especially if given the benefit of a shared childhood! They're both very sociable, but i suspect most people like Astala more, especially authority figures. She's much less of a troublemaker, and Novhen definitely took a while to come into his own as a social mastermind. (This also would make her the ideal candidate for a distraction whenever Novhen’s a-scheming. That’s gonna do her a lot of favors when trying to get him to steal plum tarts for her XD These two are the real blight as far as anyone in the alienage is concerned XDD)

Oh, actually! If they knew each other, i can imagine pretty well him practicing with or studying Astala to get better at social situation! And clearly it worked! (A: "Ok now make an angry face... You just look like you can't find a chamberpot. You have to scrunch your eyebrows like this." *jams her thumb down his forhead*)

Astala seems to prefer her hair shorter during the Blight, but how was it as a child? Because if it were in some sort of puff, i can imagine her child-level object permanence resulting in her hiding in an empty barrel with the puff still peeking over the top! (Artist's Rendition Below)

I don’t think he’d be too frustrated with her poor stealth outside of team games at least! (If they’re partnered is another story…) He does sometimes tease her that she’s not going to be a very good criminal when she gets bigger. Idk, how would she respond to that? Because how does she feels about the fact that she's not going to follow in her mother's footsteps (or how aware of that she'd be as a child) or maybe she would retort about how she’s already bigger or something else? Definitely a lot of ways to take that one lol

But also the idea of Novhen as alienage king of hide and seek is kinda cute. He's usually the last one left (all that damn thief training), so it’s not unheard of to see a parade of Astala, Shianni, Soris, and whoever else they've wrapped into their game (which with Astala could be quite a number) turning the alienage upsidedown to find him. There's probably at least one time he gets found in the first minute, and he thinks he's going to die of embarrassment. Because of that, they almost never let him be a hider in the first round. Sometimes when he’s hiding, they'll accidentally pick up seekers who weren't even playing along the way because they want to see him knocked down a peg XD That's what happens when you win too much!

Astala probably has him beat at wrestling tho! And the game where i imagine they’re most evenly matched would be arm wrestling. As an archer, Novhen has insane upper body and especially shoulder strength, but Astala has insane everywhere strength

On the less competitive side, imagine them as dance partners as little kids ☺️ Astala’s probably the more enthusiastic one about it, but i’d imagine she could drag him into it Easy whether through blackmail or Ole Reliable (puppy dog eyes). There have to be lots of events in the alienage that call for dancing, so it’s good to have a go-to dance partner! And if they ever get a Silly Urge while dancing, the one thing that i’ve found little kids most reliable to do is spin so fast they nearly make themselves sick, and when there’s two of them spinning each other, there’s no stopping them until the centrifugal force throws them both to the ground. At least they’re having fun lol

The Cult of Fen'Harel thing makes sense. I wouldn't expect Astala to be into that. I imagine in this case that Cyrion and Adaia agreed to expose the children to both sets of beliefs, so they could choose once they got older

It's a good thing Novhen's good at keeping matters hush because otherwise Astala would likely get stuck constantly mediating between Novhen and Ilanlas on matters of religion 🤭

Tbh Novhen would slightly begrudge her for choosing the Chantry, but i don't think he'd ever let her know if he could help it. It's just not worth it, and you can't talk about that without talking about Adaia's death which nobody is excited to talk about. Still, it's a potential source of drama, esp as the politics of DA:D are winding up

Back in the present day, if the endgame configuration is one where they live in the same location (which i think could only be the case if they were both companions), Novhen would offer her once for him to educate her child/ren in the way of the Cult of Fen'Harel and/or the Vir Banal'ras fighting style, probably get denied at least on the first one, and never bring it back up. He knows she's Andrastian and also wouldn't expect her to teach them that fighting style herself (too rogue-based), but if he had permission, he'd want to at least try to expose them to their family's traditions, so they could make a choice themselves like Novhen and Astala did

And honestly, if he's present for the origin, once Nelaros dies, Novhen would more than happily hand leadership of the mission over to Astala. Stealth only goes so far, and she has first dibs on revenge #SupportWomen

And with Unrest in the Alienage! As soon as Caladrius is dead, Novhen is scampering over his corpse to pick the lock on Cyrion's cage. Doesn't even wait for someone else to pilfer the key. Astala is free to react to that little scene however she wishes, and we get the whole Tabris family reunion after

Whoever’s Warden, i imagine those two leaning on each other a lot for emotional support during the Blight because not only are they the only alienage elves in the party, they’re family (or at the least childhood friends). Once we personalize the Broken Circle dreams, they get upsetting fast. If either of them get sent into that mission (or Maker forbid both of them), they’re definitely going to need to share a blanket by the fire for a minute

EDIT: the paragraph looks like it's been eaten but also! Novhen would be very cautious about Astala's Zevran romance at first. ("Yes, Stala, he's very dreamy, but let's not forget he's only here because he was hired to kill you.") We know he's very protective, and they're both so eldest sibling-coded

[ohsweetflips]

WAIT OH GOD MORRIGAN. MORRIGAN CAN DRINK FROM THE WELL OF SORROWS. IVE NEVER HOPED SOMEONE ISNT IN A GAME MORE SHIT

ANON YOU BRING UP A WONDERFUL POINT AND ARE ALSO GIVING ME A REASON TO TALK ABOUT MY FAVORITE THEORY

it is a theory that i call “you thought leaving hawke in the fade was bad? how about killing your inquisitor? :)”

have i factored morrigan into this theory? nope bc i cannot think of an actual reason for why she’d be in da4, so you may be in the clear!!! or maybe not akjsjksdjk

but like!!!

when flemeth had the power of the well, she could control who ever drank from it

with morrigan, i believe flemeth just stops her from charging at her when she’s trying to take kieran?

with the inquisitor, she has them restrain morrigan

both morrigan and the inq are used against their will, but they both had no control until flemeth released them!

then, solas kills flemeth and takes whatever power she held

flash forward to trespasser, and remember those guardians in the temple to the dread wolf? for a lavellan inq who drank from the well, when they speak to you, you have the options of either trying to match their ancient elvish with your modern elvish, or you let the well tell you how to answer 

now, what does that mean?

it could mean that the well is just actively filtering its knowledge into the inquisitor

or it could mean that, whoever holds mythal’s power (aka solas) can mentally access whoever drank from the well

and, maybe this is just me, but with the amount of times we have heard in da4 promos “solas knows who all of us are, so now it’s time to find people he doesn’t know,” it almost feels like a chekhov’s gun?

like, at one point, that idea will actually be challenged and the da4 crew will truly have to figure out if they’ve been so secretive?

and who poses the biggest liability for that? an inquisitor who drank from the well of sorrows

now, i don’t think the inq is gonna be like. The Hero. but!!! i don’t think it’s a stretch to say that they will be involved, perhaps even as an advisor. if hawke was called back to help with corypheus, why wouldn’t the inquisitor be involved to at least strategize for solas?

so my Big Conspiracy Theory is that, if your inq didn’t drink from the well, you’re gonna be fine. there’s gonna be a moment of questioning the true secrecy of their plan + the involvement of the inquisitor, and in Whatever they’re planning (whether it be a fight or a heist or what have you), it will be successful, minimal casualities

if you did drink from the well, though? it feels like solas is holding onto a timebomb that he’s just waiting for the perfect opportunity to set off

who’s to say he isn’t watching everything through the inquisitor’s eyes? that he doesn’t know every plan, every companion, every movement? that he can’t access the inquisitor’s power whenever he needs to? who’s to say that, no matter how remorseful, he isn’t just waiting for the perfect opportunity to use his biggest pawn?

to pit the inquisitor against the da4 crew would be the most devastating thing to happen to the da4 crew. even if they don’t die, the inquisitor would be rendered not only useless but an active threat, and would have to leave the picture

and, of course, the inquisitor would be unwilling, or perhaps even mind-controlled for all of this

but wouldn’t that make fighting them even worse? 

[otinytwigso]

A Small DAI Freak Out (Part 1????)

ANYWAYSSSS GUESS WHO’S ALMOST DONE WITH MY DRAGON AGE INQUISTION PLAYTHROUGH AND IS CRYING AT THEIR BAD DECISION???????????? THIS DISASTER BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!

So, spoilers ahead (I mean, this game did come out six years ago so this probably doesn’t mater).

I made bad decisions. My warden had Alistair sleep with Morrigan, mostly so that I could get Kieran, and let her live because that option sucked as a female warden. So, I finally saw the repercussions recently in DAI. Great, right?

I uhhhhhhhhh made some bad decisions  ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

What Pride Had Wrought came around, and I decided, “Oh hey, what if my Inquisitor was unsure of what to do and decided to take the well herself, because wasn’t sure she could trust Morrigan?

Anyways Half my party was very angry with me. My Inquisitor herself wasn’t too bothered after the first weird instance, with hearing the voices and stuff, right? After getting past that, smooth sailing?

Well, you’d think that it wouldn’t be too bad after getting the hang of it?  That’s what Asala said at least. And now, she’s dealing with Sera pointing an arrow at her face, Solas yelling at her (you egg slut you, Solas. I know why you’re angry you insolent zucchini), Vivienne acting like herself, surprisingly the only one who asks how Miss “I Make Bad Decisions” Inquisitor Adaar is feeling, and then going into the Fade, A G A I N, among other things which I will now list-

-running into the fade after a child

-realizing Mythal is not truly dead

-Realizing that you done messed up

-WATCHING FLEMETH TAKE THE SOUL OF AN OLD GOD OUT OF A CHILD

-being confused at the mother/daughter dynamic with this problematic family

-Fighting and befriending a dragon with a “1 time free” ticket

Back to the “1 time free dragon friend” coupon, I took The Iron Bull with me cuz he likes fighting dragons(which is why I take him to every dragon fight), along with Cole and Solas(CAUSE HE KNOWS WHAT HE DID, I JUST WANTED TO MAKE HIM AS UNCOMFORTABLE AS POSSIBLE). THEN BULL HAS THE AUDACITY TO SAY “THAT’S PRETTY IMPRESSIVE” AS IF I DID NOT TAKE  A BUNCH OF ELVEN VOICES INTO MY HEAD AND YOU DID NOT BAT AN EYE.

Long story short, I love the Iron Bull, and he’s my favorite, and I don’t actually hate Solas either cause he is my nasty egg man and I thought he and my Inquisitor were friends until he stole my hand. I’m just bitter and really excited.

[fandomn00blr]

Don’t mind me...

Just finding ways to work in angsty parallels to make this Morristair argument hurt me almost as much as it hurts both of them...

Fiona (from The Calling): “I want him to be fully human and not in line for your throne, not competing with your other son and tied to this royal blood that has brought you nothing but grief.”

...

[Alistair (after The Silent Grove/Those Who Speak/Until We Sleep) has just finished accusing Morrigan of conspiring with her mother and sister to use his blood or something, and Morrigan has told him she knew nothing about her sister or her plans or his father, and she almost cries because how dare he, and he actually believes her and feels bad, but also really really wants to be involved in Kieran’s life more than ever and everyone is hurting and so am I...]

"Come to Ferelden,” he pleaded. Morrigan had lost count of the number of times he’d suggested this over the years, but he sounded more desperate than ever. “We’re planning on granting asylum to the rebel mages at Redcliffe. You don't have to stay at court with me in Denerim or anything like that, just...somewhere safer. Somewhere closer than Orlais. Please, Morrigan.”

"What does your wife think of this arrangement?" Morrigan tried to hide the bitterness in her words, but she was still hurting from his previous accusations and the revelations he’d shared with her about the sister she’d never known. 

What was Flemeth planning? What were their parts to play in all of this talk about awakening dragons and Calenhad’s blood? She needed to get back to her studies in Orlais. She’d need to write Solona to see what she had uncovered about the connection between Maric and the Grey Wardens. She was wasting time having this pointless conversation yet again, with Alistair. He’d given her plenty of other things to consider and she was beginning to get anxious about returning to their son, even though she knew Kieran was as safe as he could be in Leliana’s care.

"It has nothing to do with Anora," Alistair said, determined to counter her stubborn reservations with his own resolve.

"You may be the King of Ferelden. But she is the Queen. I refuse to put myself or my son at the mercy of another. And I most certainly do not wish for him to be viewed as a competitor for your throne.”

"You wouldn't be at anyone’s mercy! And you know I wish to protect him from this burden as much as anyone. But I can offer you and Kieran protection! From Flemeth. From the Templars. From...whatever horrible thing is comes next.”

"Oh, don’t pretend to be so naive! We are safer on our own.” She turned away from him, gazing out over the horizon. “Perhaps we should return to the Wilds? If we head west...? Chances are she will still find us. How best to delay her until I know more...” she muttered, more to herself now than to him, “If she reveals herself in Orlais, at least we have the mirror...” 

"Shouldn't I get some say in this...at least in the fate of my own flesh and blood?”

She whipped back around to face him, the fierceness of a mother dragon in her golden eyes. “This blood that you speak of with such conviction...what has it ever brought you besides grief?”

Way harsh. Finishing and editing this next chapter is gonna be...hard, so apologies for that if it takes me another six months or so (I hope I’m kidding). But they’ll get a chance to work it out (sorta) during Inquisition, I swear (I’m already writing that because balance)!

[bigfan-fanfic]

Vir’abelasan

~A story detailing the repercussions of Tash drinking from the Well of Sorrows~

Tagging @darlingrutherford​ 

“I can feel it... it’s... hungry.” Tash shuddered. He winced, the echoes from the Fade swirling around him. He had always felt the comforting presence of his guardian spirits swirling around him, but now... they were outnumbered. There was a throng of spirits out there, angry and vicious. But a presence beyond that nestled in the depths of the Well. 

Morrigan scoffed. “How could you possibly know that?”

Tash raised an eyebrow, although he kept his eyes fixed on the Well, as if it might reach out and grab him with a watery hand. “Abelas said that the priests put their will into the Well, right? What if it’s some sort of magical compulsion? A geas or something?”

Solas gave a soft noise of affirmation. “It is said that Mythal’s priests were exceptionally powerful, granted magic by their mistress…”

The witch seemed disconcerted that the child before her had thought of that and she hadn’t. “It is... possible. But that is all the more reason that I should take the power of the Well. I assume the risks.”

“The risks... and the rewards.” Vivienne scoffed. “I would sooner trust the Well to the false Warden than to the witch, my dear.”

“And you would have a child risk binding himself to the lingering will of elf priests?” Morrigan sneered. “And I thought that Madame de Fer could sink no lower.”

“Careful, darling, your famous husband isn’t here to mind your tongue for you.” Vivienne said tartly.

Blackwall huffed. “Can you two quit bickering? This isn’t a tea party.”

Tash nodded. “Play nice.”

Gale knelt next to him, putting an arm around the boy’s shoulders. “What will it be, Tash? I hate to rush you, but Corypheus is coming, and we’ll need to get out of here.”

Tash glanced at Cole. “Can you sense the others? Are they safe?”

Cole closed his eyes for a moment. “Yes. Aura and Lottie are helping them take Samson. But… I can hear him.”

“We should go, then.” Tash sighed. “I wish Henry was here. He’d know what I should do.”

Morrigan clicked her tongue. “My husband is from the same world. He has told me that often the events here are changed from his foreknowledge. The choice is yours alone, young Inquisitor.”

Tash gave a soft whimper, his gold eyes looking from Morrigan to Solas to where Abelas had vanished, and finally to the Well. “It’s mine. I’ll drink.”

And despite Morrigan’s protests, despite Solas expressing his misgivings, Tash waded into the Well, the water rising up to his chest. He did not look back as he moved to the center of the Well of Sorrows, but his voice carried clearly to the others. “Mythal… if you’re real… mythal’enaste. Er… I don’t know the elvhen for it, but please… just don’t hurt me.”

And as soon as he reached the center, he shuddered, and then went limp, slipping into the pool as though he was a marionette and his strings snapped.

The Well exploded, water turning to dense blue fog, swirling around and around where Tash had fallen. Solas and Vivienne held up a barrier as Gale and Blackwall attempted to approach, unnerved by Cole’s mutterings of “He’s talking to her… she shouldn’t be there.”

Blackwall went charging forward as soon as the barriers were dispelled, Tash lying still at the bottom of the empty, dry Well. “Lad! Lad, are you alright?”

He scooped the boy into his arms, trying to determine what to do. And Tash’s eyes flew open.

They were blue. An unnatural, glowing blue that seemed to be bleeding from his irises across the rest of his eyes. Glowing blue lines etched themselves across his skin and up around his horns in a mimicry of the pattern on Abelas’ face.

”Vallaslin.” Gale murmured in awe. “Fenhedhis.”

Tash took a shuddering breath, but a strange chorus followed his voice, the whispering bass and tenor tones of men and an alto tone of a woman. His eyes, now completely a glowing blue, flashed as he stood and looked at Solas, head tilting.

The elf gasped and reeled back.

“Solas.” Tash said softly, in a strange way, as if he had not seen the elf for a long time. The chorus repeated his speech, just slightly out of sync, a few soft trailing whispers after his mouth had closed. “Ar-melana dirthavaren. Revas vir-anaris. Emma enasal, lethallin.”

But any response was lost in the arrival of Corypheus. Tash smiled cryptically and waved his hand toward the eluvian, and it shimmered at his command, opening the gateway. He turned his back on the rapidly approaching Elder One and moved at a stately pace towards the mirror, blue light streaming behind him to become water that formed the shape of an elf woman, rising up to combat the darkspawn magister.

Morrigan chanced one glance at the boy as they tumbled from the eluvian, safe in Skyhold. His eyes were still bleeding blue, his face lit up with the unnatural light.

Something was wrong.

- - - 

“It’s been three days! There is something terribly wrong with Tash!” Blackwall roared. And he was right. The young Inquisitor had not left his room in the intervening hours, not eaten a scrap of food nor a sip of drink. He had launched a terrible and powerful display of magic upon exiting the eluvian, breathing an unnatural fire in all the colors of the rainbow, blue light manifesting around him as a second pair of horns.

Awful sounds came from behind his door (he would not let anyone in, not even Gale), sometimes inane singing, and sometimes a babble of rapid-fire Elvhen, and most disturbingly, screams utterly devoid of the strange echo Tash’s voice had taken on, consisting only of the child’s cries. Cole had only approached the stairs to the Inquisitor’s tower when he collapsed, clutching his head in agony, repeating over and over, “Get her out get her out get her out get her out get her out.”

Varric had sent forward inquiries to Tash’s status, ones that Morgan could not answer. Morrigan had stated that there would be shouts from the Well, but this was something more. Even Henry couldn’t answer the question of what was happening.

“Solas…” Henry whispered to the elf, in the dead of night on the third day. “Mythal… is alive. Well, more like a shadow. Is it possible that she’s… possessing Tash?”

The elf cursed. “Why didn’t you say this before?”

“I didn’t want to change anything!”

Solas grabbed Henry’s wrist and dragged him up to the Inquisitor’s quarters, hurling open the door with magic, forcing their way past Gale, who had sat at the door with red eyes from worry and sleep deprivation.

Tash was perched on the railing of the balcony, staring at them with eyes that were now normal, except for the fact that they were ice blue. The vallaslin had vanished. And Tash cackled, the sound having no business coming from such a youthful throat.

“Mythal. Let him go.”

Tash leaned over the railing and let go.

“No!” Henry screamed, charging forward. But Tash had simply vanished. The Outworlder turned to Solas. “Kieran. Morrigan’s son. He’s in danger!”

 - - -

Kieran sighed as he walked away from his mother. He hadn’t been able to sleep since the Inquisitor returned. Mother usually let him stay up if he had nightmares, and he would sometimes play among the magic lights glowing in the night while she studied in the garden.

Morrigan felt a cold wind tingle the back of her neck and shuddered, suddenly realizing that she had lost sight of her son. “Kieran?” she called, standing up.

- - -

The Inquisitor was… different. He loomed out of the shadows, a finger pressed over his lips. “Hello, Kieran.”

“Your eyes are blue.”

They were. Tash didn’t have blue eyes. He was bright, and happy, and had gold eyes. This was… something else. This wasn’t Tash.

“I want to show you something, Kieran. Something amazing.”

“I… I don’t think so.”

Not-Tash’s face twisted in anguish for a moment and he looked terrified. “Run, Kieran!” he screamed. But almost instantly he resumed his oddly Tranquil-like state. “No, stay. I can help you, Kieran. I can stop the dreams. Just take my hand.”

“Kieran? Kieran!” Morrigan’s voice drifted on the wind, sounding oddly far away.

Not-Tash smiled. “I can help you, but you need to come with me. Now.”

- - - 

Morgan breathed a sigh of relief, even as he ran with his wife through the Fade, accompanied by Henry, the boy from his world, and Blackwall and Gale. Morrigan had been frantic, unable to find Kieran, until Henry had shouted that he had been led into the Fade, through the eluvian. Which technically shouldn’t have been possible. But his fatherly instinct made him relax just a bit when he saw his child.

Although, seeing Kee accompanied by Tash and … oh no.

“Ah. Morgan. Long time no see. Still consorting with my daughter, then?” Flemeth chuckled. Tash spoke with her, their expressions identical.

Morrigan gasped. “Then… you…are Mythal?”

Gale immediately knelt in shock, and Blackwall yanked him to his feet. Mythal and Tash looked on in approval.

“See, girl?” they said. “Those are manners.”

“You will not have my son!” she yelled, advancing.

Tash and Mythal held out their arms, and extending from Tash came a pulse that rocked the Fade, barring Morrigan’s way with spikes of crackling green energy.

“This boy-Inquisitor is a Dreamer, you know. And he gave himself to my service because you couldn’t convince him otherwise.” Mythal-Tash taunted. The spikes faded. “But you need not worry. I mean neither him nor my grandson any harm. Merely to… exchange.”

She knelt to Kieran, and they witnessed her remove the Old God’s soul from him, promising no more dreams and letting him run to Morrigan and Morgan. Then she turned to Tash, who stilled.

“You came to me, honoring the old ways. With a clear mind and pure heart, you petitioned me for aid and drank from my Well. Though you are not of the People or my blood, you are mine, and I shall strike down your enemies for all your days. You have the knowledge from the Well, but now I shall grant you the wisdom to contain it. The voices shall not overwhelm you.”

She waved her hand over the Inquisitor’s face, and he sighed. Blue light flashed from his eyes before they faded back to gold, the only sign of his ordeal a thin blue ring just around each pupil.

“The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, boy. And it must be treated with caution.”

Tash’s eyes widened. “You… you hear them too?”

“They are the voices from Beyond, Tash. Pay them heed, for they protect you even as they evaded the grasp of the People’s gods.”

- - - 

And they exited the Fade, where Solas was waiting. “Holding open the gateway,” he had said. The elf looked to Tash. “Tash… are you well?”

“I think so…” Tash said, pensive. “I hope so. I’m worried, though. Flemeth…Mythal… she has power over me now. I’m worried about what she can do with it. But… either way, I know what we have to do next. I can hear the voices of the Well, but I’m in control. I can shut them off.”

Solas looked pale and deeply concerned, but nodded, his eyes scanning Tash’s face as if he could still see the vallaslin etched on his face in glowing blue lines. “I shall help you, Tash. I promise… I shall free you...”

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Inquisition, day 19.

You know you’re in the late game when you’ve nearly run out of war table missions and Cullen in particular spends the majority of his time on resource gathering.

My thrones are going to be so fancy, you guys.

Chasing trail markers around the basin, yay. *headdesk* At least the last few have been close together.

That Knight-Enchanter ability where every hit you land tops up your barrier? Love it. Especially when Linniva is fighting a whole squad of Hakkonites alone because where the fuck is the rest of the party. Boys, on me, this is not a sightseeing trip.

So, that Old Temple, huh?

Not that I wasn’t already constantly thinking “oh shit oh shit oh shit”, but the warmth mechanic really adds a certain something to it.

GET OVER HERE YOU STUPID MEMORY BALL

Welp, dragon time. Which normally wouldn’t warrant a “welp” with a level 26 party, but this is a DLC dragon. Let’s see how it goes.

That was less difficult than I feared. Cole needed some healing, and Varric went down towards the end of the battle, but otherwise the “oh shit” factor was pretty low.

I seem to have reached, or be fast approaching, the “ran out of interesting things to do” point, so we’ll see how long my patience for sidequests holds out before I say “fuck it, endgame time”.

“So, this is the Dales. Well, Daisy, wish you were here.” *sniffle*

Taran’s going to make it home safely from Weisshaupt and give her lots of hugs and they’re going to come see it together after all the fighting is over and it’s relatively safe. There. I have spoken.

Only “slightly approves” from destroying a red lyrium deposit? Clearly Varric’s approval is now pinned. I’m sure this lot can’t replace the Kirkwall crew, Varric, but I’m glad you’ve obviously found a new friend.

...right, I’ve completely neglected the Forbidden Oasis. Time to go exploring.

Status of my patience: Running low. Let’s look in on Morrigan.

Flemeth, Morrigan, Kieran, you’re all being terribly creepy. Apparently it runs in the famly.

And the endgame proper will have to wait for tomorrow, because I’m tired.