#most teams do it to some extent and get away with it but apprently this is a recurring them for port

[brittapcrrys]

sorry to mention a ridiculous sport like afl on here but oh my god they've gotta stop letting clubs get away with the most irresponsible decisions regarding head-knocks and concussion protocols. bring in an independent doctor (alongside both teams' docs) to every game like in nrl. u knock ur head, u get a concussion test, no arguments. u fall UNCONSCIOUS in the air in the milliseconds after a head-knock??????? u give that player a concussion test. set the standard to keep players off the field for a longer period after head knocks and concussion tests!! start penalising and punishes the team coaches and doctors, and the clubs as a whole, if they send players right back out to play after a head-knock, or otherwise don't priotise their players' health and wellbeing in cases of head-knocks and concussion. strip them of premiership points !! take away draft picks, lower them in that pool !!!

[thedosianexplorer]

Get to Know Ladwyn Lavellan

[Gah, I am so late to this party but it’s done!! Life has been insane.]

Tagged by @vir-ghilani​ and @drysia​

(Picture by the inimitable @fawxblogs)

NAME: Ladwyn Lavellan

AGE: 29 in 9:41 Dragon

GENDER: Female

ORIENTATION: Bicurious

PROFESSION: First of Clan Lavellan, the Inquisitor, and the elected Dalish Ambassador to Non-Andrastian Peoples (translated title). Secretly a Red Jenny.

BACKGROUND:  

Ladwyn was born as Ellana into Clan Raleferin (9:12 Dragon), and lived with her parents and aunt alongside the rest of her clanmates. Her magic manifested at age four, but her clansmate Neria was older and more advanced in her studies. Ultimately Neria would stay with Clan Lavellan apprenticed under Keeper Elindra and First Cillian, and Ellana would be placed with a new clan at her first Arlathvhen.

Keeper Deshanna of Clan Lavellan chose to sponsor Ellana (9:19 Dragon). She left Clan Raleferin at age seven, and joined Lavellan. The Free Marches Lavellan called home were leagues away from Raleferin’s new course through  Nevarra, and it took months for Ellana to cope with the isolation. Mahanon, the son of Lavellan’s story teller, became her closest friend and helped integrate her into the clan she would one day lead.

When Ellana was sixteen (9:28 Dragon), a nearby village hired “rabbit-catchers”, who ambushed the clan on the banks of Minanter River. The team of mercenaries found Mahanon and his scouting partner first, but they were able to warn the clan before they were overtaken. Ellana arrived to find Mahanon’s fellow scout dead, and him severely wounded. Ellana’s backup arrived to find Mahanon bandaged but bleeding, the mercenary dead and weaponless, and their First nowhere to be found. 

While the clan searched for Ellana, a clearing of trees deeper into the forest exploded in flame. The elves brave enough to walk the burning path found Ellana first, covered in blood and ash and wielding a stolen axe. She walked back with them calmly, not saying a word, until they arrived back at camp. 

Findros, the Hunt Master, was the first person Ellana spoke to as they approached their Keeper: “Don’t burn them, that’s what shems do. Send them down the river. Let them rot in the sun.” 

Within a month, Ellana bore Elgar’nan’s full crest over her healing scars, and chose her adult name: Ladwyn, the pre-Tevene name of the Minanter river. 

Clan Lavellan avoided all human settlements as they prepared for the coming Arlathvhen. Ladwyn spent those months accelerating her training with Deshanna, eager to prove herself as an adult in the clan and twice as eager to put that night behind her. She spent her first Arlathvhen as an adult in a state of manic revelry, chasing the clan’s story of her vengeance with cider and spending her nights “re-connecting” with a former clansmate. 

Several weeks after the Arlathvhen, Ladwyn found that she was with child. The news was celebrated by the clan, so soon after the death of one of their own. Ladwyn’s daughter Haleni was named for their fallen scout; it was tradition, and it brought a smile to the fallen Haleni’s family. Privately, Ladwyn panicked over safeguarding her daughter and her clan and it drove her deeper into her duties. Her daughter was the spitting image of her father, but for years Ladwyn could only see Haleni’s still face, cradled in Mahanon’s bleeding arms. 

Mahanon spent most of his time with the young Haleni to forget the same face, to the extent that she considers him her father. He was there when Haleni’s magic first manifested, and was the first to tell Ladwyn that they could not support another mage in the clan. Lavellan had heard whispers of the unrest in far-off Kirkwall, and Clan Sabrae sent warnings that their own wayward First had drawn Templar scrutiny to the Clans. The coming Arlathvhen was hastily moved to the Marches to aid Sabrae, and Ladwyn sent a desperate missive to Keeper Lanaya of Clan Ostagar. 

Lanaya accepted Haleni; the land holdings Warden Mahariel earned came from the Queen herself, and Lanaya’s years of diplomacy had eked out a stable existence for her clan. Moreover, the collapse of Ferelden’s Circle years before had left the region relatively free of Templars. Haleni would be safe, though all the Keepers feared they were facing their last Arlathvhen. 

It was Lanaya who suggested electing an ambassador for the People, in case tensions within the Chantry became an all-out war, but the Clans could not come to a decision. Ladwyn had been rejected outright when she volunteered; her past vengeance could come back to haunt the People. Ladwyn was undeterred, and she had her Keeper’s support. It took two years, but when one of Deshanna’s spies reported that a Conclave was gathering to negotiate the terms of the ongoing rebellion, she sent Ladwyn that night. 

Ladwyn arrived at the Conclave under cover of night, and bartered with a lyrium smuggler to convince the Chantry guard that she was one of their runners. That night by the Minanter River was never far from Ladwyn’s mind as she crept through cold marble halls, but she steeled herself forward. There was no reason to believe the Divine could bring peace, or that the ongoing war would not consume the People. At least they were all under one roof. The second the Divine chose one side over another, Ladwyn could end it quickly.

All Ladwyn remembers of that night is cold marble under her feet, and the smell of stale incense. Everything else was burned away. 

[The above is only an excerpt. The rest of this biography can be found in Varric Tethras’ All This Shit is Weird: The Tale of the Inquisition]

PHYSICAL

[Faceclaim Dichen Lachman]

Body type: Tall, athletic build (conditioned by staff-based martial arts and mountain/tree climbing)

Eyes: Mostly grey with flecks of orange. Were brown when she was an infant, but slowly changed as she grew into her magic.

(I’m so glad BioWare confirmed that elves can have “unnatural” eye colors. It justifies all that character creation time)

Hair: Darkest brown, was hennaed in preparation for the Winter Palace

Skin: Light tan with golden undertones. Heavily scarred over one eye and multiple scars all over her body from close-quarters combat or close-quarters stupidity (she has fallen out of a lot of trees). Her complexion is mostly even, with a tendency to freckle in extreme sun.

Height: 5′ 9″

Weight: Around 165 lbs

SKILLS (S.P.E.C.I.A.L + M)

Strength- 6/10 - Definitely strong enough to pull herself up a rock face, but she isn’t beating Cassandra at arm wrestling any time soon.

Perception-  9/10 - “Elf eyes” jokes aside, how the fuck else would she be able to find those shards?

Endurance- 10/10 - Ladwyn’s most impressive skill is sheer durability.

Charisma- 6/10 - I’m referring specifically to diplomacy/persuasion here rather than strength of presence (for which she’d score higher). Ladwyn starts out at a significant disadvantage when it comes to human diplomacy (she certainly wasn’t at the Conclave to negotiate), and is generally unwilling to soften herself for their comfort.

Intelligence- 8/10 - Extremely knowledgeable about herbal medicine/foraging/wilderness survival, along with her Keeper training in elvhen history and magic. Research at Skyhold is difficult for her, since she didn’t grow up reading/writing Common. She adapts as well as she can, but she prefers to have a friend (usually Dorian) read out loud while she takes her own notes. Delights in learning new things, but much prefers a digsite to a library.

Agility- 7/10 - Drops to a 6/10 after the events of Trespasser because damn those last several years were hell on her joints.

Luck- 5/10 - Ladwyn weighs the shit that happens to her against knowing her family, husband, and clan and considers herself even. On good days.

Magic- 8/10 - She has always been an incredibly powerful mage, from a magic-touched family (though spells other than simple wards are beyond her parents, three out of four grandparents and several relatives are mages). She can push herself when she needs to with the Anchor, but the drawbacks (nerve pain, insomnia, muscle spasms) are severe. Since Clan Lavellan did not have trade with the dwarves, Ladwyn is a lyrium newbie and can get a lot of mileage from lyrium draughts, but she prefers not to use them.

LIKES

Colors- Earth tones and dark reds. Green is a solemn color for her people but she wears it well.

Smells- Woodsmoke, brewing tea, amber resin, embrium, pine, dried oranges/citrusy smells. Hates the smell of spindleweed tea, crystal grace, lamp oil, and red lyrium (it smells like mold and charnel and rotten roots).

Food- Dalish hearth stew (with rabbits, barley, and fairy potatoes when they can forage them), halla yogurt, bone broth with pulled barley noodles and meat (based on thukpa)

Fruit- Dewberries when they’re around, rasperries if they’re not. She is not above using her connections as Inquisitor to import an absurd amount of dried persimmons since she used to wait every Arlathvhen for them (link refers mostly to the hoshigaki preparation unique to Japan, but Ladwyn is most familiar with what would equate to the Chinese “shìbǐng” style).

Drinks- An herbal tea for every mood and/or complaint. Black tea was carefully rationed out when she could trade for it, but halla butter tea is her favorite. Her mother brought it to Raleferin from her clan, and makes it during the winter months. Ladwyn keeps that up whenever she can, but using goat or cow’s butter is not as good.

[the above is based on the IRL beverage po cha, a staple drink in Tibet and throughout the Himalayan region]

Ladwyn avoids coffee at all costs after drinking some of Bull’s blend.

Alcoholic drinks- Antivan rum, Dalish cider, and Avvar mead, in that order. She drinks anything fermented in small amounts, because it turns her bright red and hits like a Revenant. She takes her distilled spirits by the mugful.

OTHER

Smoke: Elfroot occasionally, with black lotus ground in when she’s feeling adventurous. Tobacco makes her dizzy.

Drugs: See above                    

Driver’s license?: Learned how to ride a horse, but much prefers to ride a dracolisk. They’re slow to trust but less anxious then a horse, and climb mountains like a dream. Also they unsettle the shems and that’s just the best.

Gonna tag @fawxblogs @flameysaur @oatmealaddiction​ and @celeritassagittae​