#sexy grey warden

[curlycullycullenswife]

DAI Alastair appreciation post. Gotta love a man who can pull off a soul patch.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

my greatest achievement in DA2 is maxing out Carver's friendship

and all it took was begrudgingly kissing a little templar ass in act 1 because Carver didn't want to plan a prison break if my Hawke got his ass arrested for being stupid.

[nelkenbabe]

what i don't quite understand about the criticism of "bioware doesn't know or like the grey wardens, did they even play origin lmao" is that. origins is not even remotely a full representation of grey wardens as an order

the player character is, along with the 6-months post recruiting Alistair, one of the few grey wardens we meet, and the two of them know very little, next to nothing. the whole point is that they are cut off from all other wardens, that they don't have access to information or any leads on how to go about defeating the blight.

duncan is secretive as fuck, and genuinely scary during the joining, and then he's dead. riordan doesn't join until way later, and even though we get some crucial information regarding the matters at hand it still gives us little about the grey wardens as a hundreds-of-years-old organization, their policies and how they actually handle things. the only thing the player character has about what grey wardens even are, is the ideal of what a grey wardens should be

so going off of origins, we as players as just as naive about the grey wardens as our character. i suspect that it's that naiveté that leads people to be severely pissed when it's brought up again and again that the grey wardens, as an order, are a group of people who make fucked up, morally corrupt choices for The Greater Good. that's all the entire order has ever been, starting in origins when duncan can literally blackmail you into joining the grey wardens (cousland origin), and then the whole secrecy around the ritual, where a recruit dies from participating in the joining, and then duncan kills the other recruit who changed his mind.

it's also brought up in the DA:2's legacy dlc again, and of course becomes even more glaring in Inquisition, and genuinely i think all of it is a part of the dragon age series' running theme of "any organization that reaches a certain size will fall prey to morally bankrupt people making bad decisions, regardless of the purity of intent."

now whether that is a good thing or not may be worth a discussion. but my point here is that the grey wardens being a fucked up organization that commits gross, morally questionable acts and is subject to internal politics, is not a new concept. it's a well-established part of the dragon age universe. i understand that a lot of people may not like it. but it does not come out of nowhere

[nekrosmos]

Another Dragon Age OC for artfight !

This one is my canon Warden, her name's Zarynn Aeducan, she's a warrior and romanced Alistair ✌️​

[andragoras-in-vanity]

i know veilgaurd is absolutely incredible for gender reasons, and that it doesnt just let me have top scars but actually lets me acknowledge im trans in conversation like with taash and then when flirting with davrin (still dont know if im gonna romance him or lucanis yes, but asaan did cockblock me?????) but i do wish i could have gotten healing spells....although thinking about it now, because i wish i could have also given my rook my chronic pain/cfs, it makes sense i wouldnt be able to take healing spells, this is my new canon....(like either i get healing spells bevause i know pain and want to limit it for myself and others OR disability is disabling and im incapable of using healing spells since just like real life nothing eases this) anyway..

I like to headcanon that my rook DOES have chronic fatigue or minor pain because im an elf, but im also a mourn watcher, and it feels weird and wrong and unnatural to me for an elf to be living in the nevarra necropolis. i really love that being a mourn watcher has made me weird in conversation and just absolutely ready to let emmerich know how i want to be treated after i die, but nevarra is so dark and dusty, i have to wonder if as an elf being so close to spirits and so far from nature would effect me? so yeah, rook is screaming at all times and loves his home in the necropolis, myrna and vorgoth, the dead and the spirits, but leaving after the war of the banners helped him feel whole once he saw the forests for the first time, connected to his elven lineage (lmfao sorry bro), then he met varric who helped him get his top surgery. but it was the spirits and their lack of genders that helped him realize he also needed to do away with gender tho. i just really love my rook and this is the first time ive played a da game and not felt like i needed to run through it a few times to get everything out of it because i had to choose between male or female. also hes freaking adorable as hell.

[maegalkarven]

Sometimes I wonder why my favorite character in Baldurs Gate 3 is a Chosen of the God of Tyranny Enver Gortash.

But then I remember what my absolute favorite in Dragon Age Origins is Loghain "I'll sell people from Alienage to Tevinter slavers even tho said ppl personally helped me 20 something years prior to fight off orlesian occupants" Mac Tir.

And yeah, actually it's very in-character for me.

[knightsquire]

Ik the da chantry is just fantasy catholicism but the writers did go hard with some of the chants and hymns

[crookytails]

ok orb and dagger is SO SEXY though

[crows-of-buckets]

You guys know that one dialogue Zevran has with a romanced Alistair where he starts offering tips on how Alistair can fuck better

I think Aviae geniuenly would sit and listen to Zevran Sex Tips 101, all while Alistair is standing nearby HORRIFIED. Like.

Shes a circle mage, and if I'm being honest I don't think the circle has much sex ed besides just going "Don't do it 👍" and sending the apprentices off (I mean. Anders flat out talks about how mages weren't really allowed to have relations with each other so I can definitely see the towers taking the "safe" route when it comes to sex. By that I mean the least safe option (not telling them about it) lmao). So it's just a whole fuck ton of misinformation stacked on top of each other. I think Aviae would know a bit more than her peers, just by the fact of her being a spirit healer and having been trained for that since she was young but yk. I still don't think it's proper sex ed

So when offered the chance to yk. Learn about it, she jumps at it. Zevran finds it amusing, but who is he to stop someone from learning the ways of wooing?

[finneander]

I can't even articulate why I love dragon age origins so much that game just makes me so happy. I think they put cocaine in the code

[curlycullycullenswife]

My other love!!!! I love his Witty one liners.

[tiredthespian]

The DA:TV panel was so fun! The cast seems to really enjoy their characters and each other.

Some tidbits I enjoyed:

-For the “which DA character would you romance question”: Zach Mendez was very flustered over his love for The Iron Bull. There was a pause when no one else was answering the question and he said, “you’re just gonna leave me hanging when I just said I want to have sex with the Iron Bull?” 😂 Also, Ali Hillis was flustered over her love for Emmerich and said she’d be joining his admirers. Nick Borraine said he loves Manfred (unclear if he’d romance Manfred if giving the chance????), and he thinks Solas’s story is very sexy.

-As others have mentioned, Zach did mocap for Assan and he said “when you’re hugging Assan, you’re hugging me” (after they showed a clip of him filming mocap for the Assan hug).

-Jessica Clark described playing Neve as “freeing”. Ashley Barlow helped her embrace her lower register, which she said was a refreshing change from often playing roles where she is asked to use a softer/higher voice. She also talked about doing mocap for Neve and how creating such an imposing, badass character (especially ad a tall woman herself and as someone who doesn’t get to embody those roles in her other work as much) was freeing.

-Ashley Barlow said Zach Mendez is very funny IRL and brought some of his humor to Lucanis. He also voices and did mocap for several other roles. Apparently he recorded lines for Antoine the Grey Warden in a “bad French accent”, but he’s not sure if they ended up keeping him as Antoine’s voice

-Nick Borraine just really loves Emmerich (and Manfred)

-Ali Hillis got a lot of love from the rest of the cast/crew and the moderator (who said Scout Harding is “Inquisition inner circle in my heart”

[dragonagedreaming]

okay so. picture this.

emmrich is romancing a grey warden rook. they're the dashing hero type, probably a little rough around the edges, that sort of thing. very sexy, very much emmrich's kryptonite.

but think about one very key thing- The Calling.

Rook is canonically on the younger side. So they do have a few years. but the Calling is also very secretive. does emmrich know bc of the whole mourn watch knowing things thing? or are the grey wardens keeping that one as close to the chest as possible.

does thorne tell him- hey, ik you think i'll outlive you, but the likelihood is that it's probably the other way around? and there's nothing you can do about it, and i don't want you to because i chose this? i know how i'll die, and i know you're scared of yours, but i choose death every day. and i don't want you to change that.

if anyone else has any other thoughts about this I'd love to hear them <3

[jentrevellan]

Davrin. Pretty sure he’s gonna be my 1st romance in Veilguard. He’s a sexy elf with an eyebrow scar AND he’s a Grey Warden. I’m sold.

[letzterpartygast]

Dragon Age - The Veilguard. A better story?

It's not that I think the whole game is bad. There are parts that I really like. Every encounter with Solas is one of them. And the whole ending of the game.

But step by step.

The Beginning

It's understandable that a beginning is sudden, that as a player you first have to find out who and where you are. But the fact that I'm standing alone in a pub and Varric joins me after my decision: To ask or to fight - is strange. 

A little foreplay would have been good. Even if it had only been a conversation with Varric (and Harding) at a pub table.

Even better: a little movie explaining why Rook had an interest in joining the hunt for Solas.

My version would be the following: Rook is a Dreamer - like Feynriel in DA II. (In that case, Rook couldn't be a dwarf) They don't know about it, don't even know what a Dreamer is. But Rook has always had strange dreams with a strong pull. Lately they have been about Solas. They have heard of Solas and finds him either fascinating, repulsive or both.

How Rook and Varric met is not important. They could be traveling together in the next sequence. Rook's dreams help to track down Solas.

At the ritual site, it would be appropriate to show groups of Solas allies and opponents fighting in the background or as a short movie.

The rest of the beginning could stay the same. Only Solas wouldn't need to use blood magic to face Rook in the dream. And Rook's reaction could be different depending on their ambitions:

Fascination: At last I can not only see you from afar, I can talk to you!

Hate: Damn it! I was hoping the dreams of you would have gone away after you disappeared into the rift.

Distrust: I can talk to you now? Okay - what do you want?

Companions and Factions

I was pleased to see Varric and Harding as "old acquaintances". I found Harding's companion quest fascinating. It's a shame that Kal-Sharok wasn't a fixed region for regular excursions.

Davrin and the Grey Wardens faction were also believable for me. In my opinion, the Weisshaupt quest was the best part of the game before the endgame.

I thought an answer to the question of why the griffins were thought to be extinct and a way to save them was great. Assan anyway!  I would have liked to see groups of Grey Wardens everywhere there was Blight.

Neve. I had hoped for much more from the "Shadow Dragons". When a group fights against the superiority of the Magisters in Tevinter and the slavery there, it should be recognizable. Nice to meet Dorian again. But – where was Fenris?

Lucanis. An interesting introductory story with the underground prison, the vial of blood (as a parallel to Anders) and the demon implanted with blood magic and violence. Also sexy and charming accent.

But no. 1: A demon of malice whose only action is to say what it smells like? If Spite were a descendant of Grenouille, he would at least develop a lust for murder towards the scent-separators.

But No. 2: The crows as some kind of Robin Hood gang? That's such a distortion! Although Lucanis says that he murders for money, you don't see that. Murder scenarios involving harmless citizens are missing, as are gruesome training camps for slave children like Zevran.

Professor Emmrich is sympathetically naive and Manfred is amusing. But necromancers in Dragon Age are no harmless, cranky graveyard society. At the very least, alongside a friendly group that concentrates on researching spirits, there could have been a defense against dangerous liches and summoners; with Hezenkoss as their leader, if you like.

Bellara. For my feeling, a cute girl with such a childish behaviour doesn't fit into the world of Dragon Age. And the introduction of the "Veil Jumpers" with the young woman desperately struggling with her artifact until the warrior accompanying her finally steps in and saves the day is as silly as it is patriarchal. Why "veil jumpers" at all? Has anyone ever jumped? Except over tree trunks, I mean. "Artifact researcher" or simply "Dalish" would have been more appropriate.

And then comes Taash...

Taash could have been such an interesting character. When I set out to find a famous dragon hunter, I expected anything but a petulant teenager who still lives with mom. Also, a companion quest that focuses on bird feeding, eating with mom and transsexuality is poor.

My ideas: A Qunari born as a woman who resists the Qun's stipulation that only men can become warriors and has left Par Vollen because of it. (It could also be that her mother left Par Vollen with her because she wanted to protect her daughter).

A transsexual in her prime, for whom sexuality has long since ceased to be a question, but rather an exclamation mark. When asked whether they are a man or a woman, they would answer "I am a dragon hunter" in a tone that would make any contradiction stick in the throat.

Possible companion quest/s:  1) Search for the last free-living dragons whose extinction is imminent

2) Hunting a gang of ruthless dragon hunters who only care about their own profit

3) Protection from Qun/Antaam, who were set on the hunt for Taash and their mother

All three storylines could - as before - end in the lair of the Dragon King.

The Romances

The romances were the most horrible I've ever experienced in a roleplaying game. And since I've always seen romance as the most beautiful thing in these games - the romance with Zevran was the reason why I fell in love with DA:O like no other game before it, and why I had played it what felt like 1000 times - that was the worst flaw in Veilguard for me personally.

What could the romances have looked like?

Flirting in the first part - brash or reserved, depending on the character.

Kisses after Weisshaupt and from then on always possible.

The decisive intimate scene BEFORE the "Point of No Return". It could have been tied to the end of the respective companion quest and the platinum brooch in the personal file.

+++Attention! Endgame spoiler! +++

Embedding such a scene at a point where the group has just lost a close companion is in absolutely poor taste. Consolation, hugs and tearful kisses would have been appropriate here.

Even in the moment before the last fight, there could have been another hug and a kiss.

+++ End of endgame spoiler +++

So - enough complaining and revealing my own ideas. But when I associate the game with such dreams, it only seems half as bad to me. That such or similar dreams will ever come true is unfortunately illusory. Unless Bioware says in 1-2 months: "Sorry, guys, that was a bad joke. That was all just the alpha version. The final version will be out in the summer."

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Thanks @a-driftamongopenstars for her friendly welcome here an tumblr and their help with my very first steps here! ❤️

[sotc]

So I've been thinking a lil more about my Rook/Emmrich romance for my 2nd pt and idk... Emmrich romance with a Grey Warden Rook is kinda sexy to me... death shapes them both in different ways and in so many aspects. Need Emmrich to soothe and provide a different perspective to a traumatized Warden who has seen countless, horrid deaths and the fear and resignation of what kind of death a Warden can only have. Emmrich falling in love with a dead man walking, doomed to the calling. Tasty and tragic.