#please BioWare don’t kill Varric off in this game at any point

[videogame-ocs]

Okay, I have not finished the game yet so no one put spoilers (I’m currently on chapter 11 at the moment and running round doing side quests) but I just can’t help but have this nagging feeling that something death related is still going to happen to the best dwarf Varric.

Varric veilguard related spoilers ahead.

Varric who was stabbed by a lyrium blade, sure, it wasn’t red lyrium but it was still lyrium.

Varric whom he got stabbed with the lyrium dagger that was confirmed by Varric himself in game to be the now transformed lyrium idol from Dragon Age 2 by Varric himself. Just seems too convenient to me that he got stabbed with the thing he, Hawke and Bartrand originally found under Kirkwall and brought a lot of pain to both him and Hawke. That Varric was still somewhat guilty about over finding. It seems too poetic.

Varric who seemed to be too okay upon being stabbed but keeps having to go and lie down after conversations because he’s worn out.

Varric who keeps telling the story but with an ominous tone. I mean he’s got a flare for the dramatic bit this is too ominous.

Varric who is fitting the mentor role/ father figure role to Rook too well.

I’m just very very scared that BioWare are going to go ahead with their original Varric plan but minus the Hawke romance plot (and just after I’ve got into low-key shipping Hawke/Varric too).

If that does happen, if BioWare pulls a twist end with Varric and kills him there, I don’t know what Hawke is going to do.

[pikapeppa]

Pikapeppa wears a tinfoil hat: The Arishok in post-Trespasser times

[Warning: this contains spoilers for Trespasser and for Tevinter Nights. Proceed with caution.]

For anyone who doesn’t know me, I’m a HUGE FAN of Sten from DA:O. While doing research for my current fic, I was reviewing Tevinter Nights and the Dragon Age Wiki, and I pulled together some threads regarding the qunari and their activities during the time of Tevinter Nights. 

In a nutshell: I HAVE CONCERNS ABOUT ARISHOK-STEN’S SAFETY AND WELLBEING.

Read more below the cut!

A quick refresher of qunari rulership

Just as a reminder, the qunari are ruled by three leaders:

The Arishok: the military leader. Leads the antaam, i.e. the army.

The Ariqun: the leader of the priesthood, who are also the scholarly branch of the qunari. 

The Arigena: the leader of the craftsmen and support workers of the qunari people.

Together, these three leaders are called the salasari. The salasari are supposed to make decisions jointly about how the qunari people proceed at advancing their own culture and bringing the uneducated bas into the wisdom of the Qun.

A summary of what we know 

Sten becomes the Arishok around 9:34-9:35 after Hawke kills the current Arishok in Kirkwall. By the time the Inquisition rolls around in 9:41, he is still the Arishok as confirmed by dialogue between Bull and Varric. 

In Trespasser, in the Darvaraad, we find a letter from the qunari to Josephine stating that the Viddasala was acting without the qunari leaders’ official sanction — an indication that their citizens are not as well-controlled and orderly as they would have the rest of the world believe. Of particular note, this letter indicates clearly that “military action has not been approved against the Inquisition. No one in Par Vollen has authorized actions of any kind involving the Exalted Council. Nor will they.” To me, this speaks of an Arishok who is being quite conservative in his actions. Similarly, in world states where Bull becomes a Tal-Vashoth, the qunari did not send military action against the Inquisition even when the Inquisition reneged on their hoped-for alliance.

All but one of the stories in Tevinter Nights take place post-Trespasser, and the qunari feature heavily in these stories. The book opens with Three Trees to Midnight, which tells of the qunari making a bold and unprecedented attack on the Tevinter city of Ventus. Importantly, it is mentioned that the antaam (i.e. the qunari army) are acting without the support of the priesthood or the workers:

Usually the other Qunari were there to support the Antaam—the workers crafting the gear and managing supplies, the Tamassran priests making sure the Antaam were healthy in mind as in body, the Ben-Hassrath spies scouting behind enemy lines and removing any Antaam who might forsake their training and abandon the Qun. This time, the Antaam had attacked the bas of the south without the blessing of the other Qunari, and little things were not working as well as they should. Supplies were late. Ships were not in good repair. 

When I read this, alarm bells immediately went off in my mind. It seems odd to me that the antaam would suddenly attack Tevinter on what feels like an impulsive move, without the support of the two other branches of the Qun. Importantly, the antaam is under the Arishok’s (i.e. Sten’s) rule, and I thought it was VERY out of character that he would do something so anti-qunari as to basically go rogue without the support of the Arigena or the Ariqun. 

Another relevant story is Brother Genitivi Dies At The End. In this story, Brother Genitivi, Philliam, a Bard!, and another lesser-known but infamous writer named Formerly Sister Laudine form a reluctant team to recover books from an elvhen library that, for some reason, has “fallen” underground in the Silent Plains in Tevinter. The mission is cut short by a qunari named Rasaan, and the three writers manage to snatch a small number of elvhen tomes before narrowly escaping from Rasaan and her soldiers. It very important to note that in this story, Rasaan refers to the army as being “my antaam”, and it is emphasized and pointed out that she called the antaam “hers”. 

I should say now that I haven’t read any of the DA comics. On a whim, I decided to look up Rasaan in the Dragon Age Wiki, and I discovered that Rasaan is a prominent character in the comic Dragon Age: Those Who Speak, and that she belonged not to the military branch of the Qun, but to the priesthood/scholarly branch, and that she was next in line to become the Ariqun. The wiki says the following: “Rasaan was stranded in the Qunari city of Qunandar, unable to perform her duties. Since a new Arishok was chosen in 9:34 Dragon, Rasaan has been at his side almost constantly.” It’s also interesting to note that Rasaan has a particular interest in people’s ‘true names’ and believes that a person’s many names or titles are indicative of their character, their triumphs, and their failings. 

Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego Sten???? 

OKAY. To sum up, then, the qunari situation in the post-Trespasser Tevinter Nights era is as follows:

The antaam, usually governed by the Arishok, has gone rogue, and it would be very out of character for Sten-Arishok to sanction this without the okay of his co-leaders.

Rasaan, a higher-up of the priesthood, is in mainland Thedas chasing down information about Solas and referring to the antaam as hers. 

From this, I can only conclude that Arishok-Sten is not fully in charge of the antaam anymore, and that Rasaan plays a major role in this. Maybe Rasaan has pulled a coup and is trying to take over as the new Arishok, believing that ‘Arishok’ is supposed to be her true name. If this is the case, WHERE IS STEN? Is he a prisoner back in Par Vollen, perhaps? Stuck working in a labour camp? Or… Maker fucking forbid, is he dead?

Personally, I don’t think Arishok-Sten is dead, and this is not just my undying love for him that’s talking. There are indicators in Three Trees to Midnight that, even though the antaam has gone rogue and some of the qunari are acting extremely cruel, there other qunari who are still trying to maintain the integrity of the Qun. One example is the character named Saarbak, a Ben-Hassrath agent who has been tasked with removing threats to the Qun such as the overly cruel qunari. Characters like Saarbak make me think that the qunari are divided within themselves: there are those who have been impatient to move on Thedas, leading to the hasty attack on Ventus, and there are those who are trying to maintain the integrity and order of the Qun, such as Saarbak. And it’s my belief that Arishok-Sten is one of these honourable qunari, and that he is still alive and may play a significant role in DA4. 

Fen’Harel ma ghilana: Solas’s interference

There's one other piece of qunari involvement that should be mentioned. At the end of Trespasser, Solas says that “in stopping the Dragon’s Breath, you have prevented an invasion by qunari forces. With luck, they will return their focus to Tevinter. That should give you a few years of relative peace.” It does not seem coincidental to me that a year or so after Solas says this, this is exactly what happens — particularly in light of the story called Half Up Front. In this story, it is discovered that Fen’Harel’s agents are purposely trying to fan the flames of the war between the qunari and Tevinter. 

Why would Solas be trying to do this, though? Especially after telling the Inquisitor that he wants the people of the Inquisitor’s time to “die in comfort” free from the Qun? My conclusion is that Solas is trying to prevent the former Inquisitor from allying with Tevinter or the qunari. If they’re caught up in a war with each other, neither Tevinter nor the qunari will have the resources (or fucks to give) to invest in military efforts against an alleged elven god. I also think that Solas has no qualms about screwing Tevinter over by throwing them under the metaphorical bus of the qunari, given their longtime treatment of slaves and spirits. (Please note that I say all of this with great love, as I also have undying love for the Dread Egg.)

DA4 hopes: allying with the qunari 

Based on the above, it’s my hope that a big part of DA4 will involve stopping an all-out war between Tevinter and the qunari, and then gaining the cooperation of both groups to help The Group Formerly Known As The Inquisition™ to stop Solas’s plans. It’s my even greater hope that the qunari portion of this will involve finding Arishok-Sten, restoring him his place as the rightful Arishok, and thereby securing his alliance to stop Solas. It’s my even greater GREATER hope that the Hero of Ferelden will play a role in this and have some ACTUAL FACETIME in the game by helping us to broker an alliance with Sten. 

Of course, it’s a Bioware game so there has to be choice, so the choice here might be between helping Sten vs. helping Rasaan, but I’m sure you can all see where I would stand on this. (I just want Sten and his kadan to have a sweet sweet reunion, okay?? My tender heart is soft and weak for him.)

Okay, that’s it! Them’s my thoughts! Sorry if this has already been laid out before by somebody else – I just had to word-vomit my thoughts because of STEN FEELS. 

Feel free to comment or reblog, but please do not use this as a forum to discuss the pros or cons of the Qun. I am wholeheartedly middle-ground on the Qun and can see both sides, so please refrain from that rhetoric here.

Finally, a little self-promotion: I ship Sten with my Warden Yara Mahariel, and have written a relatively short fic about their romance, which takes place during the ship ride from Denerim to Par Vollen after the Fifth Blight is ended. It’s called Fall Into The Tide, and you can feel free to check it out on AO3!

- Love from your friendly neighbourhood Pikapeppa xoxo

[enchantment1385]

🐉 Age Questions

I was tagged by the very lovely, @nerdierholler to give up some of my darkest gaming secrets... Yaaay! Thank you, darling XD 

1. Favourite game of the series? Wow... Not pulling any punches, are we? Honestly, they all have things I adore and all have things I dislike. I’ve played DAO more than the others, but that’s because it’s the oldest of them all. I love the camp mechanic and just how in depth Origins is, but the combat is... dated? Da2 has Hawke, which for me is a winner in itself.  And DAI has so many wonderful characters.  

2. How did you discover 🐉 Age? I honestly can not even remember at this point! I remember playing DAO when it was quite ‘new’. I remember dying, aaannnnd then i didn’t play it again until someone showed me how amazing DAI looked. So, I bought it and then got back into them all in a big way, and destroyed my life in doing so! 

3. How many times have you’ve played the games?  Ahahahahaha... Umm... I don’t know..?  Let’s put it this way, on my laptop alone (as in ALL my console hours, which is a whole lot, not counted.) I have clocked up over 1200 hours on DAO, 720 on DA2, and 1250 on DAI... So, yes. Now you all know how very sad I am... 

4. Favourite race to play as? Dwarfs, they hands down have the BEST and funniest dialog options.

5. Favourite class? DAO; Dual wield rogue  DAI & DA2; Mage. Oh, so many mages...

6. Do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time? I kinda vary it, but not as much as I sometimes want to. I’ve never done a pure ‘asshole’ playthrough, even though sometimes I would like to see how it ends up. I blame Bioware for making the NPC’s likeable.

7. Go-to adventuring group? DAI: Alistair, Zevran, Shale. DA2: Varric, Fenris/Carver, Anders. DAI: Varric, Dorian, and random. My 3rd spot always changes so I can hear as much awesome dialog as possible. 

8. Which of your characters did you put the most thought into?

This poor sod...  Viridis - My DAO dalish elf is a close second, but she’s dead, so her struggle is over, and she went out a hero. Poor Faeron suffers every. single. day. And still finds some reason to try and smile. 

9. Favourite romance? Alistair. But that is helped hugely thanks to cute (and not so cute) mods.  This is actually hard because, Although I like to romance certain people more than others, that isn’t me saying that their romance is my favourite.  I mean, I freakin’ love Dorian, but out of all the romances I feel his was done really well, but... A little quick compared to others which had a nicer, spread over time, thing, going on. 

10. Have you read any of the comics/📚? I read one... But that was a long while ago now.  It was good! They’re just pretty pricey and very rarely on sale. 

11. If you read them, which was your favourite 📓? The one I read? 

12. Favourite DLCs? All are acceptable answers, bar trespasser. - I don’t care what you say, I know it was amazing. I know it was stunning. I know it answered a lot of questions and set up DA4 in a great way and such - BUT

This. This is too much. HE’S ALREADY LOST HIS LOVER - AND THEN THE AVERAGE, BALD, WOLF, WHO STOLE FAERON’S ARMOUR BTW, THEN RIPS HIS SODDING ARM OFF?! 

FUCK YOU, BIOWARE.

13. Things that annoy you? Invisible walls. Boundaries and made to be broken!  And doors in DAI. I am always getting stuck behind one instead of running through the doorway. Please tell me it’s not just me?! I miss the doors of DAO and DA2. I am willing to sacrifice immersion on that one small point, I just want to get through the doorway, please. 

14. Orlais or Ferelden? Who in the shit picks Orlais? For Ferelden!! 

15. Templar's or Mages? Mages. Especially as i’m playing one 95% of the time.

16. If you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one? Depends.  Jereth, Xander, Tobias, and Faeron & Nico, are all from the same timeline, and my ‘canon’ run if you like. Xander also has a sister (other than Bethany) who is from the same time, but also has her own separate parallel play-through.  I mix and match backgrounds. 

17. What did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc.) Jereth called his mabari, Captain blightballs, because he is forever 12, and thinks it’s funny. Xander’s mabari was named Wrex, as in Wrex from Mass Effect.  Faeron’s Halla is named Ghilas, which is elven for ‘to go’.  Nico’s horse (yes a horse and NOT a halla) is called stormy, which is a RP in joke.

18. Have you installed any mods? Oh hell yes! Many, many mods. Gods bless you mod makers! You guys make everything so much better! And I say this as someone who has played all the games, many times, totally un-modded.  Lots of better textures for CC, gameplay changes, cheats. You name it! It’s not like I don’t know the base game at this point. 

19. Did your Warden want to become a Grey Warden?       Yes, and no.  Did Jereth want to get out of the circle, and possibly being made tranquil? Oh yes! Yes indeed. However, did he want to drink blood cocktails, watch his bromies die, and actually have to do stuff?  Not so much. 

20. Hawke’s personality? Purple. They always all end up as purple... Or at least, varying degrees. I can’t not.  Xander is 100% purple, bar maybe 4 occasions in the whole game. 

21. Did you make matching armour for your companions in Inquisition? Heh... I have TWINS. I had to try and remember who was wearing what, and which parts were dyed, and then make two sets... Utter nightmare. 

22. If your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change? Jereth wouldn’t change anything, because he isn’t that wise. Plus, in his mind he ended up coming out ahead.  Xander would have tried to save Bethany and paid more attention to his mother. He’d just try and be more responsible, I guess, but probably end up failing and just being the same smartass as ever.  Faeron... My poor boy... Faeron would do it all differently if he could. I think, if he could change one thing, he’d have let Morrigan drink from the pool. Having yet MORE voices in his head was the last thing he needed, not to mention a constant reminder of who Mythal really is...  Nico wouldn’t let Dorian get close enough to Faeron for the relationship to start in the first place. It was was a big enough thing for her to accept it in the first place... But when he decided to leave, and said Faeron couldn’t go with him... Nico didn’t take kindly to it. 

23. Do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon?  Twins? Someone dating Varric? The fact that Hawke, Amell & Alistair are all alive?? Sorry Stroud. (not sorry) Yeah... I substitute that bit... You know all those pictures of Hawke or Alistair’s LI waiting on them? Well, I just can’t ever kill Alistair and leave poor Jereth holding some wilting daisies, pouting. I mean... Who would put up with him full time?? Leliana?? I think not! 

24. Are any of your character(s) based on someone? Yeah, me. All of them. Well, mostly. Tobias for example is nothing like me in any sense. But Jereth, Xander (& his sister Lola), Faeron and Nico are all some part of me. Some of my other wardens and Hawke’s too. 

25. Who did you leave in the Fade? Sorry again Stroud. (Still really not sorry...) 

26. Favourite mount? Faeron on his Halla is definitely most epic... But the Hart sound... It’s like having PTSD, I’m forever on edge and thinking ‘Don’t stop suddenly... DON’T stop suddenly...’  I did get this awesome Dracolisk mod which made them look like Maleficent’s dragon, which was so good for my qunari mage. 

Tagging: @heraldofwho @tessa1972 @keeperscompanionsdai @ielmoe @shannaraisles @dreadhobo @gugle1980 @inquisitorsmabari @sassylavellen @dickeybbqpit @dalish-ish @john-cousland @long-liv-prairies

[jamiedodgerart]

hey i marathoned da2 over the course of a week at @1500birds‘s house and drew a lot of stuff for it. there’s info in the captions but im gonna talk more about him under the cut (spoilers for all of da2)

this is mal hawke! (short for malcolm, he was named for his dad.) he’s a rogue

mal’s pretty purple, his emotions are behind 7 layers of jokes but he’s very dedicated to his family. he took his role as eldest sibling seriously- haha, no, he teased the shit out of carver and let bethany climb irresponsibly tall trees with him, but he did really care and look out for them. he was kinda lowkey a highwayman before the blight- probably did some poaching, robbed a few rich merchant vans, stuff like that. gambled and got drunk a lot.

blight happens, ogre smushes carver. in the moment, his mother blames mal. and although later she apologized and forgave him, he never forgot, and never forgave himself.

(aveline killed the ogre btw. mal was taking care of grunts, halfway across the field)

he joined the smugglers when they got to kirkwall. it wasn’t too far from what he did before and he wasn’t keen on going out of his way to harm people. he was good at finishing fights, though, and he gained a reputation for it over his year with the smugglers. it got his family into the city, and for that it was worth it.

mal got along REALLY well with varric, merrill, and anders (whom he later fell in love with. more on that later) he didn’t always agree with aveline, but they were still close, and he really didn’t get along so well with isabela or fenris. ah well. he tried to be friends, tried to help, but it didn’t work out.

he almost took bethany to the deep roads. almost. but as he was planning who to take... well, out of the game, my friend bran spilled the beans and said something very bad would happen if i did. EDIT bran said i got that part wrong and that i figured it out myself, which i forgot, and ordered me to clear their name. official statement: bran kept that secret. so mal had a really bad gut feeling and took merrill instead. bUT SHIT, SHE GOT CAUGHT BY THE CHANTRY INSTEAD OF DYING. i GUESS that’s better. but still, mal blamed himself for not being there to protect her.

so apart from lingering guilt, mal’s doing pretty well in act 2. hes got a relationship going with anders, hes financially stable, bethany’s doing pretty well, considering, he’s got a cool house- oh and kirkwall’s headed towards possible war but that’s nothing new, is it. 

a bit more bg on mal hawke: he’s real fond of compromises. in his mind, there’s always a way out, always a third option. he’s pretty pro-mage, bc he did grow up w two mages in his family and never really learned to fear magic, and later because he spent a lot of time with anders, whose enthusiasm for mage rights is kind of infectious.

that third option thing? a really bad philosophy to have in kirkwall. why are people so polar. have none of you ever heard of nuance

anyway can’t remember a whole lot more bc this post was supposed to be done and posted in june, when i actually played, but his mother is murdered. because he wasn’t there/because he didn’t get to her fast enough/because he didn’t solve that mystery in time/because he screwed up. so guess who he blames (it’s himself)

so amidst mal’s grief the whole city is going to shit, because the qun won’t fuck off and isabela stole a book. mal asks if she’ll please give it back, because Everything Is Going To Shit, This Is The Best Resolution We Have, and she refuses bc if she does she’ll be in deep shit herself, and runs off with it. damn. so mal fights the arishok, wins, and decides hes had enough of kirkwall’s shit for a little while and takes a long-ass nap.

three years later, kirkwall’s going to shit again, because it just can’t keep it together. come on, kirkwall. the templars and mages are fighting, and everyone expects mal to have some kind of authority on the shituation. he doesn’t bc hes literally just some guy who happens to fight good that everyone seems to think has a handle on things. he asks meredith and orsino if they could maybe chill out for two seconds but of course they don’t because this is kirkwall and nobody knows how to chill in kirkwall except varric. mal ends up supporting the mages

anders asks mal for help with getting un-possessed. mal 100% wants his bf to not be possessed anymore, bc it’s getting scary, so he readily helps out getting the stuff anders needs. but. it’s a little fishy. look mate i know the qunari are the only ones who know what gunpowder is rn in history but you’re asking me for saltpeter and i dont think you’re supposed to ingest that. anders is like ok, i did lie a lil bit, but there’s a point to this- and mal’s pissed! bc anders lied to him! but agrees to help a little more

so that’s how mal ended up chatting with the grand cleric about the shituation and how there’d probably be an ok solution if people just sat down and chilled out a little, while anders set up the charges to blow up the chantry and escalate the whole thing to hell tier

as you might expect, mal’s hELLA PISSED when anders blows it, not just because he lied, not just because he took advantage of mal trusting him, but because now the templars are going to, yknow, kill every mage, so mal’s remaining family (bethany, and merrill, bc she counts as family too) are in danger, and at this point mal doesn’t have a lot of family left to lose. he tells anders to gtfo before he kills him.

aveline, varric, and merrill stick with him, and fenris leaves to join the templars. later on, they fight. mal doesn’t WANT to fight, and makes an attempt to hash out some ending that didn’t involve one of them dead, but fenris isn’t having any of it. he’s not a fan of mal never wanting to make a straight decision on anything, and forces him to make a choice: die, or fight and kill his former friend. 

fenris dies.

the remaining boss fights continue as expected- bethany rejoins the party, orsino panics and goes full corpse-monster, meredith goes nuts and full lyrium-monster, the mages and templars are left without leaders and if things weren’t on their way to hell in a handbasket they sure are now. mal decides it’s time to retire, and never set foot in kirkwall the hell city again. 

hes got a cabin in the woods, living out the lumberjack life and drinking away his problems