#oc: tanner laidir

[invinciblerodent]

I love giving my little hobbies and interests to my characters (partly for authenticity's sake, and partly because I think every little guy benefits from having a hobby), so like Arvid crochets and is interested in philosophy, Iona is a jeweler (I'm, like, super fascinated by historical jewelry-making techniques and symbolism), Petyr does all sorts of weird DIY shit, Tristan does embroidery, and I'm really considering giving Tanner some sort of a writing-related hobby, for those long hours of downtime one has on a ship

I can't decide what'd be more fun: to have this burly, pirate-adjacent, helplessly butch dwarfette writing gorgeous, lavishly written travelogues and memoirs under a pseudonym with sales numbers rivaling Genitivi and Tethras, or for her to like, write actually kind of incredible, and profoundly horny sapphic poetry that never sees the light of day

maybe both

...... and this is not at all because my death grip on my knee turns into a horny grip at the thought of a dwarven stud with a smoker-voice and a sailor's hands tenderly reciting the poetry that she had written for Harding at the small hours of the morning

[invinciblerodent]

i should not be concocting elaborate daydreams about characters i haven't even heard speak in earnest yet, huh

i am vying against the desk, nails bloodied and knuckles white, please let me make up more guys (gn) to kiss those other guys (gn)

[invinciblerodent]

Now that I'm getting close to what feels like the point of no return with Ver (all side- and companion quests done, only a handful of chests and some exploration left to get to), I'm really wondering who of my Rook ideas should be the next I play

like I'm equally excited for all of them, for different reasons!

(just me thinking out loud under the cut- i've narrowed it down to all of four ideas, so that's fun)

Tristan, unlike Verbena, is going to be very straightforward in all his approaches to things- he'll be very direct and frank to the point of crassness, a quintessential "Rook" in the way that his mind moves entirely in straight lines- and it'll be a lot of fun to both experience such a Warden-heavy story AS a Warden, and at the same time roleplay him gradually softening up, and turning that hard edge towards protecting people, instead of only protecting himself.

(Plus, there's that wrinkle that he's not, entirely, uh, alive. And it'll be really fun to play through him and Emmrich kind of stumbling through budding feelings while Tristan is trying to keep the secret that he's kind of, sort of, partially a spirit of Purpose. From a necromancer. Who's teaching him manners. Shit's wild.)

The one thing making me hesitant to go with him is that I can't justify him not choosing to save Minrathous like Ver also did- it's strategically the most advantageous thing to do, and while it's regrettable that Treviso will need to pay its price, someone has to. In Death, Sacrifice. I just don't wanna do the same thing again.

his Inquisitor is my Cadash, with all the opposite decisions from my canon with my Trevelyan.

(he also has a couple "theme songs" in my head already, this one being the latest.)

Tanner, I'm very excited to delve more into all the dwarf-stuff with- she's a Lord of Fortune, a sailor, adventurer, and poet enamored by the ocean, but also an Orzammar-born dwarf- her parents were Warrior-caste, and part of the forces that Orzammar sent to combat the Blight. They decided to then remain on the surface, and Tanner, a very young girl then, fell in love with all the vast openness that the surface had to offer. She first took up arms against the Breach as an agent of the Inquisition- hence the name.

I think it'll be a very interesting roleplaying angle, to romance Harding as someone who also has very personal ties to her storyline, and will likely be tossed into a whole mess of identity issues herself.

She'll choose Treviso I think, but her story and reasoning aren't as well-formed in my head yet, so I'm thinking still a bit about an angle to approach it from- then again, that could form as I'm playing.

her Inquisitor is my Josiemancer mLavellan, with the same decisions as the ones I made canonically.

(my working song for her right now is this)

And Coris, my problematic pretty girl assassin, modeled to look as much like a portrait that hangs in the Dellamorte mansion as possible- I have this whole Plotline thought up for her to romance Lucanis through grit teeth and with a dagger behind her back- her "plan" breaking down to basically

make Lucanis Dellamorte fall madly in love with her

talk him into murdering his grandmother and taking the title of First Talon by force

murder him, but make it look like an accident so that she can wrest control of the Crows for herself- a nobody underling to the Fifth Talon wouldn't be able to, but who's gonna say no to the grieving partner of the second First they've lost in such a short time?

bonus points if Illario, that fucking bastard who ruined her life and then proceeded to not even recognize her afterwards, suffers. Even better if he dies. (I was gonna have her be mad at Viago at first, but yknow, plans change.)

She'll fail that plan at step one by catching feelings herself. Then Caterina will get "murdered", and everything is gonna fall apart, and it's a whole Mess, but maybe he won't get too mad once she comes clean about it all starting out as a ploy to crush everything he holds dear.

her worldstate has a Solavellan-romance, even though I've honestly never done that- I'm just really curious how that'll work out.

As a Crow, she'd of course choose to save Treviso too, so that adds up. (And have a fun funky lil song to her name, too.)

......

And then there's Marcus Ingellvar my dear, whom I have not even made a face for yet, but I'm just so unexpectedly enamored by Bellara that I'm even willing to play a mage(!!!!!!!!!!), just to make her smile.

I wanna play him as a Mortalitasi, and a he/him(he/they)(he/any) nonbinary person, partly to explore gender feelings (as of right now I'm in the "if I were to unpack this suitcase I might end up with something tangible but also, my native language doesn't even HAVE gendered pronouns so what do I fucking know, maybe THAT'S why 'they' feels a bit more correct than 'she'" part of it all), and maybe a little bit to confuse Taash a bit further.

yknow, they've figured out they/them as singular pronouns, get ready for a genuinely kinda gender-weird little guy, lol.

He however has the same issue as Tristan in being a pragmatic thinker, and I don't really see a way past him thinking "hey maybe letting the Venatori seize Minrathous is not, uh. the right. move, right now. things in Treviso at least can't get much worse....? maybe....?"

He's probably the least well-formed in my mind as of right now, but that has never stopped me before, has it

.......

writing it all out didn't help me decide

[invinciblerodent]

if bioware doesn't release the veilgaurd cc for me to play around with (and I don't really have the hard drive space to whack on another game with a better cc), I just have to make do!!!!! :c

rambling about each of them under the cut, going clockwise from top left

Verbena (or Ver), my "main" Rook and a Shadow Dragon from Minrathous, I picture with a wavy shag of messy chestnut hair, warm autumn skin, and striking grey eyes that look almost colorless, as long as there's nothing for them to reflect. (I wanna call them her dagger-greys mostly, but there's so much room to play with reflections and metaphors and stuff with a color like that!!! and, with that darker border, it calls back to Ray's blues a bit, since they are sort of distantly related.) She'll have a longer nose (slightly hooked if I can get it in a way I like), a scattering of freckles, and a rounded cupid's bow but a somewhat more squared jaw- this face looks way more sculpted than what I'd like for her to have, but none of the others worked even this well. :/ I'd like her to look younger than she is- like she's supposed to be roughly 32, but looking at her, I kind of want people to not think her much older than 25. She's somewhat short, but wiry-strong, with toned limbs and a very straight spine. She'll be a sword and board warrior, as I usually go lol.

Tristan, my Fereldan Grey Warden, will, on the other hand, look older than he is: at ~40, he'll easily seem middle-aged (undeath and general warden-hood will do that for you). His eyes are somewhat vacant, smeared in tired purple, and a vaguely unsettling sort of brown that seems almost red if the light hits it just right. He's overall tall and broad (if carrying himself somewhat crooked), and I kind of want him to have some sort of body modification, maybe body tattoos (for battles he's been in, general reminders) or a number of discreet piercings, kind of to make his body feel more his. Might give him a facial tattoo too, just for fun. Probably a great weapon warrior, something long and heavy like a greatsword.

Coris, my Antivan Crow dwarfette, will get sort of unremarkable, but somewhat feline, playful-looking features, with upturned eyes, and lips that seem to be always smiling. I want her eyes to be so dark that they seem to be lacking a pupil, and I couldn't quite get the skintone right, but I want her to be sort of olive-skinned, with thick, dark hair she'll keep just long enough to pull back and out of her eyes. No visible tattoos or notable piercings (an assassin can't afford to stand out), but I really like that mole right under her right eye, I want to keep that if I can. She'll be agile, and pleasantly plump, with quite generous curves- probably an archer rogue.

and "Tanner", my Lord of Fortune dwarfette, will be an ex-Inquisition agent (probably from Orlais) who adopted back her old name assigned by Sister Nightingale for this (and will only reveal her actual first name to Harding once they're together ❤️❤️❤️ thinking something very Orlesian, like an Elise or a Jeanette or something) - I want her to have sort of the sunkissed, if slightly ruddy appearance of someone who spends a lot of time outside (or at sea), a fuller, friendly face, kind hazel eyes, and a mass of slightly coarse, dirty blonde hair. Her time adventuring (as well as spying) has likely left her with a few notable scars, but I'll want to figure those out once I'm there in the cc. (I may want her to have a pirate/sailor/adventurer type of stick and poke tattoo or two, something that looks wonky but has a lot of emotional significance to her.) She'll be kind of robust, and rather tall for a dwarf. I'm very undecided on the class yet, I kinda don't want to romance both rogues with other rogues, but the concepts just lend themselves well to being rogues.

[invinciblerodent]

Thank you for your dwarf propaganda, Brosca origin slaps so hard and I love my short girl so much

I'm ALWAYS down for dwarf propaganda, I'm so glad you gave them a go! ❤️❤️

.... so who wants to hear more dwarf shit?!

Last night I took a crack at making my Orzammar-born Lord of Fortune dwarfette I plan to kiss Harding with, Tanner! (<-definitely not her real name)(yeah i didn't want to only make my boykissers first)

I only took her through the opening cutscene as of yet, but, as I was making her, I was trying to think "what's the hottest butch I can make with this CC fighting me this hard", and I ended up with 500 pounds of whoopass in a 120 pound bag, desperately wishing for some lip- and tongue piercings to add to her. (I mean, her tongue is for sure pierced. There's just no question about it. You can't see it tho.)

In her spare time, she writes horny poetry about the ocean.

(kind of loving the thought that if you have a dwarf rook, the prologue is like a very reduced budget stage play. Snow White And The Three Dwarves Becase We Couldn't Afford Another Four Actors.)

[invinciblerodent]

I feel like as the release draws near, I should update my Rook concepts a little bit, post a bit more about how they've been taking shape in my head... (no visuals of the designs yet- while I have loose ideas, I'm also undecided, and kind of going back and forth on many things, lol.)

Divvying them up by class, the warriors are gonna be:

Verbena Mercar, main Rook

the Idealist, who likely wouldn't really be in this mess if it wasn't happening right on her doorstep (and ngl, fully thought she was just taking this job for like, a month at best), but someone has to do something, and it might as well be her. So far what I know about her is that she has a good head on her shoulders, a strong sens of justice, and few scruples about breaking the rules to do what's right, and she will trip over her knickers the first time she sees Davrin.

She'll be the first character I play, a human sword and board warrior- she's had a first name since roughly 2016, and I can't wait to explore her personality more. For now, I'm kind of torn whether on her appearance I'll want to lean more into her being from Minrathous (so stealing Dorian's color scheme a little bit), or her being distantly related to my Inquisitor Trevelyan (so kind of resembling Ray)(and Kate Bush)(I can see her looking more like Ray's sister than his actual sister, that'd be fun)- but either way, the one design thing I'm firm on is that she'll have some really interesting steel-grey eyes. (I'm calling them her dagger-greys in my head, and I love the thought of them looking cold and almost colorless until there's something for them to reflect- like the warm light of the fire in Davrin's room~)

Tristan Thorne

the Professional, who is Totally Not A Zombie or a Wandering Spirit looking for Purpose, but maybe, just maybe, saving the world will be the way to finally find it. (maybe it's somewhere in Emmrich's pants, who knows, he'll need to investigate.)

For him, I've a short snippet of his backstory as a very normal 17-year-old human Fereldan boy who once took up arms to fight for his village, and "died" in the Battle of Ostagar, so I hope to kind of lean into the "undead" angle a bit more.

I know regardless of what the CC actually allows, he'll have a number of tattoos chronicling his life (and death) all over his body, partly as a way to reclaim ownership of it, and I'm hoping that in the background, I can kind of start off what he'll have going on with Emmrich underscored by a ~purely clinical~ interest. (until the pierced nipples on a wide, hair-littered barrel of a chest come out, which is when all scholarly sense goes out the window.)

(I'll need to see the CC for him most I feel, because no picrew I've found lets me make burly greying gentlemen with appropriately sad and haunted eyes, lol. But I'm thinking fairly low-maintenance short hair, maybe a touch lighter than the black I had planned initially [so he'll not look like a knockoff Blackwall], pale skin, and eyes that are a shade of brown that look unsettlingly red if the sun hits them slightly wrong.)

The rogues:

"Tanner"

(or Nalinda Bramunt, Elena Firavanti, Loseck Brovo, Stéphane Rousselot-Poincaré, and honestly, who even knows how many more, the list goes on and on- but as far as anyone is concerned, Laidir will do), the Daredevil: adventurer, treasure hunter, poet of some renown, spy more than just incidentally. She's an Orzammar-born dwarf and ex-Inquisition agent enamored with the ocean, she's 500 pounds of whoopass in a 120 pound bag, she likes knives a bit too much, and she's here to sweep Harding off her feet and get paid.

I'm thinking a butch/futch lesbian(? unsure on that, could be bi, she'll have to tell me herself) dwarfette with dual daggers, I'm thinking blonde and sea-tanned, I'm thinking pierced lip/tongue, I'm thinking tattoos ("gaatlok-spots", as a reference to gunpowder-spots of actual sailors), and I'm thinking her having more trouble confessing her actual first name to Harding than she'll have confessing her romantic feelings. (She smokes. She 100% smokes. And if there's at all a chance for her to have a poly romance with Harding and Taash, she'll TAKE it.)

(myesh i knoooow that there's a Sister Tanner agent in Redcliffe and a Tanner in Bull's first Skyhold friendship scene, I figured it's both a spy's profession name and a fairly common unisex name in Ferelden- I was thinking about tanning leather, because I wanna call her and Harding "leather and Lace" in my head.)

Coris de Riva

the Cynic who'd like to correct all in the rumor that she once dispatched a mark by tearing his still beating heart out of his chest with her teeth. (He actually bled out when she bit through his windpipe- she only cut his heart out afterwards, upon the client's request.) A pretty surface dwarf with a checkered Chantry past, enough arrows in her quiver, more than enough resentment in her heart, and no small desire to force the First Talon to his knees- if only he'll then actually look her in the eye.

Her plan is going to be to live out her grudge deeper than a Titan's asshole against the Crows by making herself the Lady Macbeth whispering in a Dellamorte's ear, and she'll be very pleased to have the more favored grandson that was believed dead (she had her doubts on that one) dropped into her lap. Except she'll not expect to realize that, along the way, he'll actually worm his way into her cold little shriveled up heart, and suddenly, pushing him to take over the Crows and then stabbing him to take over herself doesn't sound like that fun an idea anymore.

The mage:

Marcus Ingellvar

the Scholar with more talent, curiosity, and compassion (and excellent sideburns) than good sense, who's not really had a conversation longer than 20 minutes with a living person in more years than he can count, and will likely feel his very core turn into warm vanilla pudding the first time he lays eyes on Taash.

I'm toying with the thought of fucking with gender a little bit on him, but I'm unsure what that means for him. I'm getting a Vibe, but I'm wondering if it's just that he'll have an interesting approach to masculinity (which sounds like heaps of fun to explore and contrast a little bit with Ray's fairly traditional masculinity), some flavor of nonbinary-ness, or if this guy is just... trans, and that's it lol. But for him, I'm really thinking of an appearance that's rather tall and lanky, and... kind of if Rezaren from DA: Absolution was both very, very tired, and a semi-starved Victorian urchin child. (With, again, excellent sideburns.)

Either way, my goal is that people will look at him, and immediately want to feed him warm soup. I hope Taash will need to physically pull him from danger and carry him to safety more times than either of them can count, and I think he'll be very, very pleased with that. (And let's be real, no matter who happens to be wearing the penis at the time, she'll be the one topping.) (And again, he'll be very, very pleased with that.)

Undecided:

Syl Aldwir

the Double Agent who, after having worked with the Friends of Red Jenny as an Orlais-born elf (long story), joined the Veil Jumpers in hope of connecting with her elvish roots, but wound up with her butt planted firmly on the ground between the two proverbial chairs she could have landed on.

Her design is the one that varies the most wildly in my mind, but my inspo for her is a certain piece of Tabris concept art, so she'll probably look either a bit like that, or like Cid, the Tabris I had played once.

I'm planning for a lot of sapphic yearning with Neve, but depending on her relationship with her elvishness, I can see it ultimately being Bellara too- it'll need to unfold during the gameplay (hoping for a love triangle type of thing, or some jealousy-dialogue, if there is any in the game), but personally I'm leaning towards Neve- partly as a rejection of the elves' clinging to the unclear ancient past, and partly because, well, fucking look at her lol.

(She'll either be an archer rogue or a sword and board warrior, depending on which type of gameplay I enjoy more.)

[invinciblerodent]

actually going a little bit insane over this Sappho fragment

[invinciblerodent]

Some random useless headcanons about my upcoming characters (that are hopefully not going to be overwritten by the game's canon)-

Thinking about giving Verbena some slightly "bleached", brighter streaks in her "shag of chestnut" hair from having spent a lot of time outside, so she can be a "Sun-Blonde Vint" ❤️ (which is also gonna be her favorite drink, and it'll give me some nice imagery to work with, vis a vis her being intoxicating as a spirit, and "strong enough to fluster a Tranquil" ❤️❤️❤️)

Whatever the Antivan Crow Rook's last name will wind up being, Coris' real last name will be "Alcoforado", for backstory reasons, and the one used in-game will have nothing to do with her actual family that's still alive. (I hope the game will be vague about how Rook came to join the Crows, because I have a very specific idea based on a false rumor about a 17th century Protuguese nun, lol.)

Tanner will be 500 pounds of whoopass in a roughly 120 pound bag, she'll like knives a tiny bit too much, she'll be a smoker, very sunkissed and freckled all over, and she'll be the (slightly unusually tall) butch dwarf woman of my (and Harding's) dreams. I am unwilling to back down on any of these statements.

Also played with something of a base appearance for Syl that I'll be sort of going for in the Veilguard cc-

All I have in my head for her right now is that one piece of Tabris concept art, where she's in the wedding dress? that's sort of where I'm coming from for her. (Thinking hard about whether she too is bi, or a lesbian. I'm leaning towards lesbian.)

Tristan's "Isolde" is going to be a Grey Warden mentor whose actual name was Iselva, she'll have been a city elf and a healer mage, one of the only (if not THE only) person who knew about his secret, and she'll have died during the events of Inquisition.

[invinciblerodent]

i have a million things i should be doing right now, yet here i am, falling down a rabbithole of traditional sailors'- and legionnaires' tattoos for two side-characters who don't have faces yet (who i plan to play far after finishing my first run as a completely unrelated character), for a game that isn't coming out for another two months

........ anyway, Tanner, my Lord of Fortune dwarfette, is going to have basically been a treasure-hunter at sea (so kind of a pirate, but I'm gathering visual inspiration more from Vikings), and she's gonna have what the qunari she served with called "gaatlok-spots", based not-so-loosely on the gunpowder spots of 17th century buccaneers. which are basically stick and poke tattoos made by rubbing finely crushed gunpowder into needle-marks made on the skin. (maybe a swallow in a style reminiscent of the American traditional style of sailor tattoos to signify distance she's traveled, or just something I can get in the cc that makes her extra hot, just on her biceps, because I can.) (I want her tall for a dwarf, strong as hell, and generally to sweep Harding off her feet.)

Tristan, I'll have to see the cc's options, because there aren't really many constraints there (i'm picturing this sort of thing so far, kinda more warden'd up, but his might be a mishmash), i just know i want to poke many holes into that guy- not necessarily his face for the sake of Warden respectability, but... there are many more places to pierce and draw on, especially considering that I want him to be Large in general

(am i also going to retcon in my Brosca having similar types of stick and poke tattoos beyond his casteless brand? you betcha)

[invinciblerodent]

Far into Ver as I am, I'm kinda also having a good time thinking about all the future plans I have for my other characters I plan to play.

I think Tristan and Marcus are both also going to choose to save Minrathous, and Coris and Tanner are going to choose Treviso. (I'm not yet sure about Syl, but her whole Deal is gonna be symbolically choosing between Neve and Bellara, so I'll have to see how she feels once I get there with her.)

Tristan is a Grey Warden. He's no stranger to making uncomfortable choices that hurt people, but ultimately are made in service of the greater good- if Minrathous falls, then the Imperium also falls, and then there's nothing to stop the Antaam from expanding further and further South- first through Tevinter, then the Marches, and if Orlais falls, the entire South falls. It's unfortunate that Treviso has to be the one to pay that price, but... someone has to. In Death, Sacrifice.

Marcus, I'm also thinking of as a fairly pragmatic person- he's on the Mourn Watch, he's gonna be a scholar, and I quite like the thought of him being especially invested in stopping the Venatori in particular. They're the living representation of all the worst things magic can do: they control, they destroy, they enslave, and even beyond the immediate threat they represent, there is an ideological reason for standing against them.

Neither of these guys are thinking about the city specifically, not in the way Verbena did (honestly, to her, what Neve said there was like the fucking icy terror unzipped her spine, and there was immediately no way she would choose otherwise- it was an emotional choice, a personal choice, and one she believes in her heart as well as her mind was the closest to a right choice that she could make), I don't think they've ever even been there- but they both have their reasons for why they'd choose to prioritize it over Treviso.

While Coris, to her, Treviso is as much of a home as it is to Lucanis- and, I'm pretty sure that'll be the first moment when she looks and Lucanis, and doesn't see the hated First Talon's repulsive grandson she's been playing the nice girl for, but him, for the man he is. That'll likely be their first moment of genuine bonding, as Crows, as people, and it'll set a shaky foundation for their future relationship being something genuine, too.

And Tanner, well... I figure that she isn't one for ideology. As a Lord of Fortune, she's going to be thinking about the people, first and foremost- the Blight in the waterways, the innocent bystanders, all those who can't protect themselves. Minrathous is, simply put, far more capable of defending itself. With its military, its magic, its covert militia of Shadows, it simply has a better shot than Treviso is with its handful of assassins and people already straining under the weight of the Antaam.

Treviso is flying on a hope and a prayer, and even though in the metagaming way we can know that Minrathous, too, falls... well, at that moment, it sounds like Treviso needs the help more.

I think I'm satisfied with these choices so far, but I'll be really interested in seeing where Syl falls. She'll be a Veil Jumper, a city elf originally, and from Orlais no less- she needs a lot more developing until I can figure out where she falls in all this.

[invinciblerodent]

god please let me see the body tattoos in veilguard, i can't take this

i'm like fuckin...... scuffing my metaphorical hooves, chomping at the equally metaphorical bit over here

"I need to rein it in, I don't know the characters yet, so I won't write fic about them- it'd just end up being out of character anyway."

(proceeds to write like four pages)

"well, okay, that's.... fine, it's ambiguous enough, they barely speak. but i won't mention the kind of tattoos this character is supposed to have without seeing what options I have for them in the cc, just to keep things neat and canon-accurate."

(proceeds to spend like half an hour brainstorming ideas for exactly that)

[invinciblerodent]

woke up very in my feelings after talking just a little bit about this girl last night actually

there is something so compelling to me about the idea of an Orzammar-born dwarf who, instead of confusion and apprehension (which also compels me so so much), took in the surface with sheer wonder. someone who spent their formative years hidden away under a rock, staring at the walls, and then as an adult took to open sea and open sky, and found that it moves something in them, then yearns never to be confined again.

.... anyway so I've decided that she indeed does write profoundly horny sapphic poetry, but most of it is, in at least a roundabout sort of way, about sailing, and the water, and the inherent eroticism of it

whether it's the chopping waves of the Waking Sea, the embrace of Rialto Bay, or the quaking, frigid depths of the unknown that is he Sundered Sea, she's just so deeply entranced by the beauty and vastness of the world that she just... can't help it.

"The sea is our mother, the cloud is our brother, the waves are our comrades all."

(also this is a great reason for her to actually have the mermaid tattoo that I had been picturing her with, since mermaids in sailor tattoos are generally a symbol of that beauty and danger represented by the ocean.)

I love giving my little hobbies and interests to my characters (partly for authenticity's sake, and partly because I think every little guy benefits from having a hobby), so like Arvid crochets and is interested in philosophy, Iona is a jeweler (I'm, like, super fascinated by historical jewelry-making techniques and symbolism), Petyr does all sorts of weird DIY shit, Tristan does embroidery, and I'm really considering giving Tanner some sort of a writing-related hobby, for those long hours of downtime one has on a ship

I can't decide what'd be more fun: to have this burly, pirate-adjacent, helplessly butch dwarfette writing gorgeous, lavishly written travelogues and memoirs under a pseudonym with sales numbers rivaling Genitivi and Tethras, or for her to like, write actually kind of incredible, and profoundly horny sapphic poetry that never sees the light of day

maybe both

...... and this is not at all because my death grip on my knee turns into a horny grip at the thought of a dwarven stud with a smoker-voice and a sailor's hands tenderly reciting the poetry that she had written for Harding at the small hours of the morning

[invinciblerodent]

Just gonna pop the tentative specializations here too, just for safekeeping-

Ver is probably gonna be a sword and shield Champion, or if that makes combat with Davrin in the party too unwieldy, a Reaper (continuing the trend of my main guys being S+S warriors and sort of Reaver/Berserker/Barbarian-adjacent in combat)

Tristan is looking at a Slayer, big man with a greatsword and a death wish, that's just a hole in one, also works very well with a mage boo ❤️

Coris will likely be either an archer Saboteur or Veil Ranger- I'm thinking those are kind of the spiritual successors to the Artificer and the Tempest specializations of Inquisition- the Veil-thing should be kinda interesting to play with a dwarf.

And Tanner is likely gonna be a dual-wielding Duelist, because not only would that play off Harding being an archer nicely, it also sounds fun for a sorta-swashbuckling, pirate-adjacent Lord of Fortune.

if bioware doesn't release the veilgaurd cc for me to play around with (and I don't really have the hard drive space to whack on another game with a better cc), I just have to make do!!!!! :c

rambling about each of them under the cut, going clockwise from top left

Verbena (or Ver), my "main" Rook and a Shadow Dragon from Minrathous, I picture with a wavy shag of messy chestnut hair, warm autumn skin, and striking grey eyes that look almost colorless, as long as there's nothing for them to reflect. (I wanna call them her dagger-greys mostly, but there's so much room to play with reflections and metaphors and stuff with a color like that!!! and, with that darker border, it calls back to Ray's blues a bit, since they are sort of distantly related.) She'll have a longer nose (slightly hooked if I can get it in a way I like), a scattering of freckles, and a rounded cupid's bow but a somewhat more squared jaw- this face looks way more sculpted than what I'd like for her to have, but none of the others worked even this well. :/ I'd like her to look younger than she is- like she's supposed to be roughly 32, but looking at her, I kind of want people to not think her much older than 25. She's somewhat short, but wiry-strong, with toned limbs and a very straight spine. She'll be a sword and board warrior, as I usually go lol.

Tristan, my Fereldan Grey Warden, will, on the other hand, look older than he is: at ~40, he'll easily seem middle-aged (undeath and general warden-hood will do that for you). His eyes are somewhat vacant, smeared in tired purple, and a vaguely unsettling sort of brown that seems almost red if the light hits it just right. He's overall tall and broad (if carrying himself somewhat crooked), and I kind of want him to have some sort of body modification, maybe body tattoos (for battles he's been in, general reminders) or a number of discreet piercings, kind of to make his body feel more his. Might give him a facial tattoo too, just for fun. Probably a great weapon warrior, something long and heavy like a greatsword.

Coris, my Antivan Crow dwarfette, will get sort of unremarkable, but somewhat feline, playful-looking features, with upturned eyes, and lips that seem to be always smiling. I want her eyes to be so dark that they seem to be lacking a pupil, and I couldn't quite get the skintone right, but I want her to be sort of olive-skinned, with thick, dark hair she'll keep just long enough to pull back and out of her eyes. No visible tattoos or notable piercings (an assassin can't afford to stand out), but I really like that mole right under her right eye, I want to keep that if I can. She'll be agile, and pleasantly plump, with quite generous curves- probably an archer rogue.

and "Tanner", my Lord of Fortune dwarfette, will be an ex-Inquisition agent (probably from Orlais) who adopted back her old name assigned by Sister Nightingale for this (and will only reveal her actual first name to Harding once they're together ❤️❤️❤️ thinking something very Orlesian, like an Elise or a Jeanette or something) - I want her to have sort of the sunkissed, if slightly ruddy appearance of someone who spends a lot of time outside (or at sea), a fuller, friendly face, kind hazel eyes, and a mass of slightly coarse, dirty blonde hair. Her time adventuring (as well as spying) has likely left her with a few notable scars, but I'll want to figure those out once I'm there in the cc. (I may want her to have a pirate/sailor/adventurer type of stick and poke tattoo or two, something that looks wonky but has a lot of emotional significance to her.) She'll be kind of robust, and rather tall for a dwarf. I'm very undecided on the class yet, I kinda don't want to romance both rogues with other rogues, but the concepts just lend themselves well to being rogues.