#specifically for solavellan if you ask me

[reagan-the-saunders]

imma just straight up say it, if they don't reprise Solas' Dark Theme from the Trespasser sound track in The Veilguard I'm straight up throwing paws, hands, all of it.

[aggressive-p0tat0]

In regard to Solavellan disappointment regarding Mythal. Dragon Age: The Veilguard spoilers (ONLY regarding the Lighthouse murals, so if you haven’t finished but have seen all the murals like me, it’s safe) ahead:

So I’ve been noticing a number of people saying DATV basically cucked Solasmancers the entire game, but I think that A. It’s weird to say because it would have been a PAST relationship so there’d be no cheating and B. Solas and Mythal were not lovers.

Firstly, I think people really underestimate Bellara saying the ancient elves were extremely emotional creatures and that a word like “love” didn’t necessarily mean romantic love for them. Yeah, the Dalish got a lot wrong, but spirits are literally beings MADE of emotion. I imagine they feel in much different and stronger ways than we do, and perhaps even in more black and white ways than we do.

But beyond that, what is important to remember is that Solas was likely Mythal’s slave at one point. “He did not want a body. But she asked him to come. He left a scar when he burned her off his face.” So we know for a fact that the first part definitely refers to Mythal telling Solas to take a body. Which means the second part is also definitely about the two of them. “…he burned her off his face.” What does that likely mean? He removed his vallaslin from his face—specifically, his Mythal vallaslin. And what did vallaslin originally mean?

Solas was literally Mythal’s slave. He says the Evanuris are not gods, he even says this in flashbacks, but Solas wasn’t completely different than the elves who worshiped the Evanuris because they were powerful and brainwashed. Solas worshiped Mythal, even if not in the same way other ancient elves worshiped the Evanuris. Mythal could do no wrong in Solas’s eyes, she was perfect. And even when she wasn’t perfect and she did things he did not approve of, he still worshiped her because she was, in a way, his goddess. Solas was basically brainwashed. We say it’s a friendship or a romance or whatever we believe, but Solas was once her literal slave. Since the very beginning, he and Mythal have been on completely unequal footing.

And more than all of this, we have the Solas romance as what I think is huge proof that he and Mythal were not lovers. Sure, he says “it’s been some time” when they start their relationship, so maybe he did have some one-sided feelings for her (whether or not he loved her, you are not convincing me they had a romantic relationship), or maybe he was just talking about making himself vulnerable or revealing himself to someone. But look at how he acted with Lavellan. Then look at how he acted with Flemeth at the end and how he spoke of her in Trespasser. Even at the end, when she, having evolved into Flemeth, seemed to care about him as more of a friend than a slave, he was not on equal footing. He still worshiped her, as implied by his mural in which he has Flemythal speak in Mythal’s original voice and degrade him instead of the affectionate goodbye they gave each other.

Solas loved Mythal, imo in a non-romantic way. And Solas loves Lavellan. But whatever way you believe he loved Mythal, his love with her was toxic, and it was never equal. Mythal was forever his goddess, and he—to an extent—was forever her slave, despite destroying the markings on his face that marked him as such. Solas worshiped Mythal, and even after millennia of their relationship evolving into something more akin to a normal friendship, he still ultimately loved her like you’d love an idea or a dream. He loves Lavellan like a man loves a woman.

TLDR: Solas needs therapy and an in-depth explanation of imbalanced power dynamics.

[notmeowse]

Solavellan ending and why I hate it

Major Veilguard endgame spoilers under the cut.

I beat the game two days ago and I haven't been able to stop thinking about that ending. I'm not going to get into the rest of the game's flaws. They've been covered at length. But all of those issues aside, the one perfect, untouchable thing I thought I had left as the game drew to a close was the Solavellan ending. After all, Trick wrote the original Solavellan romance and the incredible continuation of it in Trespasser. As lead writer, they were directly responsible for making it happen. I thought we had this in the bag.

So on one hand, my favorite Dragon Age romance finally reunited and disintegrated off into the sunset.

On the other hand, he did not choose her.

This is what ruined it for me. I know a lot of people have issues with her sacrificing her life to join him in the Fade, but that was really a secondary issue for me.

What was the point of their entire relationship if, in the end, when it REALLY counted, he was never going to choose Lavellan over tearing down the Veil? Why did it take Mythal, who he actually killed in the last game in order to take her power, to convince him? Where's the romance in that?

This literally just turned into the story of Lavellan and the elven god who did not love her enough.

Okay, yes, the gamified reason it takes Mythal to convince him is because Lavellan was tacked onto an existing avenue of dealing with Solas rather than being given her own separate option, right? At the end of the game you have the choice to either fight him, trick him, or (if the Mythal-related criteria is met) invoke the essence of Mythal contained in the statue. No Bring Out The Big Guns, Lavellan option.

In my opinion, she should have been the fourth option, only available to players that have an Inquisitor that romanced Solas and encouraged Lavellan to reunite with him mid-game. It would have required about as much effort to do this as it did to have him turn her down once again (which, I maintain defeats the entire purpose of the story being told here). That would have been the absolute easiest fix to this fucking mess.

I understand why Lavellan wasn't counted among his regrets and therefore wasn't in the Lighthouse murals (because he doesn't actually regret falling in love with her) and I acknowledge that getting real closure from Mythal is important to Solas's story, and that it did have its place in that ending scene. Whether she was a lover or a mother to him isn't really the issue here -- it's the fact that she holds sway over him where Lavellan apparently does not. Despite the fact that, again, he killed Mythal in the previous game, despite the fact that he couldn't bring himself to kill the Inquisitor for the anchor, despite the fact that Lavellan was the one single thing in the world that made him really want to walk away from his plans.

(Why wasn't the "I release you from my service" a conversation had between him and Flemythal back in Inquisition? And why is that essence of Flemythal (who now exists in Morrigan) suddenly so chill and pro-Veil? Do we not remember the reckoning that will shake the very heavens? The She was betrayed as I was betrayed, as the world was betrayed? I will see her avenged? No payoff? None? There's so much wrong and bad writing to unpack there, but this is still a Solavellan post.)

Back to him wanting to turn away from his grand plan. The fundamental difference between Mythal and Lavellan, in my opinion, is the way each of them saw him. Mythal asked him to change for her, to leave the Fade, to commit atrocities with her out of love and service. Lavellan only ever loved him as a man, never once asking him to change for her, never asking him to be anything other than himself. In the time they were together, he was able to be the person he wanted to be. It took a very specific set of circumstances and a very specific person that had to fall into place for that romance to happen, which is arguably what made her so special, and what made their time together even more so. It followed, especially with what we know now, that he would want to drop his grand plan to be with her.

In comes Veilguard, which introduced a parallel between Solas/Mythal and Solavellan. In the second memory, we discover that Mythal never once chose Solas over her duty to elvhenan (even when he begged her to lay it down and run away with him) and dragged him along with her to commit unspeakable atrocities (in her words, she broke him). Solas (at that point in the game, when we were witnessing the memories) had yet to choose Lavellan over his crusade, but quite literally loved her too much to bring her along with him. He would not let her do that to herself, he would not do to her what Mythal did to him.

Here's where I feel like I'm losing my mind, because I thought the point of that mural was to foreshadow him eventually choosing Lavellan, as he is very much not Mythal, and is very much looking for a reason to lay it down, to be proven wrong. I also thought the blurb in the Inquisitor character creation menu (who did you romance) was foreshadowing it, as well as the mid-game choice Rook can make to encourage her to reunite with him and change his heart.

So why didn't it happen? I can only assume because they didn't actually want to have any of our choices carry over, let alone the Solavellan option (which they should have realized from the start was a bad call and also fucking impossible to manage given that the game is a direct sequel to Inquisition). The fact that Lavellan is tacked onto an already existing scene rather than being given her own is evidence of this. However, even if she had to be tacked onto the Mythal scene and not given her own, a simple reordering of the events would have fixed the fucking ending. So it could have gone two (very easily manageable and not too much extra) ways:

Remove the part where he turns her down. Remove the entire thing. Morrimythal could have flown up to him before the Inquisitor even arrived on scene, we could have had our statue moment, and just when he thinks he's going to be all alone behind the Veil, Lavellan shows up, they reunite, and she goes with him. (Easiest way for Bioware to fix it imo)

Lav acts as the ace up our sleeve, a fourth option (and a second option to make him lay it down) instead of using the statue to redeem him. Mythal releases him from her service AFTER he chooses Lavellan, thereby releasing him from his guilt over her. I prefer this one. It should have been this. They could have walked away, they could have tied themselves to the Veil, either way works.

Now, I am among those that think the Veil should have come down, which would have rendered this entire thing moot, had it happened. But since Bioware is dead-set on maintaining the status quo in Thedas, it should have been this instead.

In writing this I wonder if I've been completely delusional over their relationship, but going by the reactions to this ending, it seems that what we got was not at all expected.

[nerdee-blondee]

the similarities between solavellan and rookanis that drive me CRAZY

first off, how it is just mere coincidence that these couples met.

it is mere coincidence that lavellan was at the temple of sacred ashes and ends up with the anchor

it is mere coincidence that rook is the one caterina asks to free lucanis from the ossuary (since disrupting the ritual threw the venatori into chaos)

second of all, how lavellan/rook take the men completely by surprise

mr. fen it-was-like-walking-through-a-world-of-tranquil harel was not expecting to even see anyone in this day and age as a real person let alone as someone he could care for. and lavellan with her thirst for knowledge and desire to understand any and everything completely threw him off

then there's mr. lucanis shut-down-completely-think-nothing-feel-nothing dellamorte who literally felt nothing but revenge during his whole time at the ossuary and the first kind voice he hears is rook. and it wasn't a onetime thing. rook continues to always be kind to lucanis and break down his walls

third of all, how anytime the men step back from their loves, they always frame it as their fault

when they have their fade kiss, solas is immediately like "the kiss was impulsive and i shouldn't have encouraged it". and when he breaks up with lavellan it's all "i have distracted you from your duty" all the fault is with me. hate me.

when they have their almost-kiss, lucanis is the one that pulls away. and although we are not given confirmation on the specific reason, we can assume it's either spite or his own trauma related. right before the almost kiss he says "you deserve better than to deal with my mess" you shouldn't have to deal with me.

fourth of all, the beauty and the beast motiff is strong with them

solas is the one who sundered the titans from their dreams. solas is the one who destroyed the ancient elven people's world. solas is fen'harel. and yet lavellan loves him

lucanis has spite. lucanis is traumatized to the point where he thinks he's not worth the effort. lucanis sees people as "family, enemies and contracts". and yet rook loves him

and concluding this all with the little, tiny similarities between both

both men hate tea. one was a spirit, one had a spirit/demon forced onto him. both men pine pathetically. and any other thing you can think of LOL

these men drive me CRAZY

[sabreist]

Keeping within the confines of DA:TV, here is how I'd "fix" the DAI romances in Veilguard. No, I won't address Solavellan, as this is about QUANTITY of content, not quality.

Talking to Harding about the Inquisition:

Rook could ask Harding about the Inquisitor's love life, and Harding will have a comment about it. Must be specific to the romance, no generic crap.

First meeting with the Inquisitor:

No changes except for the Dorian romance; the Inquisitor will not call him "a good friend" because WTF Inky.

If Minrathous was saved over Treviso, you will have a limited window to catch the Inquisitor and Dorian together in the Shadow Dragon hideout with some ambient banter. (There is no way for this interaction to exist if you save Treviso as the hideout is destroyed and Dorian's not a reckless idiot enough to just be hanging out in public; the man is in hiding and he will stay in hiding.)

Additionally, and this is just me being selfish! Ambient banter between Dorian and Mae, and/or Dorian and Tarquin (I doubt Viper would get in on it although if he would, I want it) about Dorian's love life would be hilariously wonderful, too.

Talking to Solas about the Inquisition:

No changes. (Honestly, while Solas having a comment about the Inquisitor's love interest would be delicious, I completely understand why he wouldn't say anything about the romance to Rook.)

Second meeting with the Inquisitor:

The "let's gossip about your love life, Rook" would not be limited to just Solavellans. There would also be a line from the Inquisitor about their romance and it will be very specific based on who they romanced, not some generic thing.

Choosing the Archon:

When discussing with Maevaris and Dorian who should be the next Archon, a special dialogue option to ask Dorian about what this means for his relationship to the Inquisitor would be SO appreciated. Dorian leaving southern Thedas to get involved in Tevinter politics was a Big Sticking Point in their romance in DAI twice, I was chomping at the bit to see if it was going to at least be addressed but noooo...

Final Battle:

The ambient dialogue between Dorian and the Inquisitor remains the same if Dorian was romanced. For everyone else, they will get a specific line of dialogue from Dorian and/or the Inquisitor about their romance in place of the dumb generic one that's already in game.

Epilogue:

Only for the Dorianmance, and tbh this is probably optional: if he is made Archon, then an additional line about the Inquisitor to close out their story, i.e., they stopped being in a long-distance relationship because the Inquisitor moved into the palace, or something. If he's not Archon, then it probably wouldn't make sense to have this line.

Ideally, we'd have text-only epilogues like in DAO and DAI so we can get more details for ALL the Inquisition romances, which can then include a Dorianmance epilogue if Mae was made Archon instead. It doesn't need to be long, just a sentence or two would satisfy many people.

Disclaimer/Conclusion: I'm no game designer, so to me, these seem like small things that could've easily been included. There are many reasons why I understand why we couldn't have the Inquisitor's love interest (who weren't Solas or Dorian) show up in the game, and as much as I would kill for a Dorianmance specific moment in a cutscene, I get why this may not have been in the cards. But non-Solavellans and non-Dorianmancers deserved at least a couple of more crumbs, and Dorianmancers deserved at least a tiny slice of the cake that Solavellans were able to enjoy.

[dayntee]

So I finished Veilguard a while back, and of course I have thoughts. I'm sure none of them are original and have been plenty stated, but hey, we all need to mourn a game when we're done with it for better or worse, so here's mine.

Note: I wrote and queued this before I was aware of the layoffs at Bioware today. This is, in no way, meant to rub salt in the wound or point fingers. If anything, I'm gutted for the people who poured their heart into this game only to be found jobless today. I'm in the exact same position myself, and have nothing but empathy for the situation. To spoil what's below - I enjoyed my time with Veilguard. It could have been better, and if you're a dev that worked on it, you probably know that. I'm sorry it's turned out the way it has, but thank you for the experience regardless. It was a fun game.

Spoilers after the break, obviously. Be aware there will be discourse, but I'm not here specifically to bash. If anything, I'm actually still grateful for the experience.

Overall, I did enjoy my time with Veilguard. After all, my final save file was around the 85 hour mark, so clearly I had no issues continuing to sink time into the game. I itched to play when I wasn't, and I got my Solavellan ending I've been waiting 10 years for, and I damn near 100%'d the whole thing (including getting the hidden cinematic after the credits). So what went wrong? What did I not like? Why do I feel so… empty now that it's over?

If I were to summarize my issues and feelings with Veilguard, it's that it felt like it gave just enough to be passable content, but never committed to being a truly exemplary experience. In every way, from system design to companion design to overarching story to itemization, everything is fine… but not great.

Knowing that DAV went through development hell contextualizes a lot of these issues. If the art book is to be believed, the project had two full blown restart buttons pushed and many leadership handoffs. I've been in conversations, though, where folks ask "Why on earth could DA2 pull off a great storytelling experience, but DAV couldn't?"

There's something else at play, and after my own experiences in the game industry and squinting between the lines to try to glean what I think may have gone wrong, I have a hunch. Pure speculation ahead: I don't think leadership ever fully agreed on a committed vision.

The broad strokes are there, and they are strong:

The Lighthouse is a cool fucking hub. It grows with your group, responds to their needs, and shapes itself around you as you experience the world. The concept of this is dope AF.

The goal is closure on all the questions left unanswered after DAI. It does get to most of these, even if not as fully and as satisfying as some of us lore nerds would have liked.

Combat is fluid and pretty engaging (at least at first). It's simple, fun, and generally fulfills power fantasies well (for context, I specialized as a full Veil Jumper Archery Rogue).

WE GET TO EXPLORE NORTHERN THEDAS. This is so cool and a place we've all wanted to go for ages. TEVINTER. NEVARRA. WEISSHAUPT. All exciting prospects.

Level design and map design are pretty A+, imo. Landscapes and set dressings are beautiful and artfully crafted. Even if there are aspects of the visual design you disagree with, they committed to it and fulfilled it well.

Exploration is fun. I rarely hunt down every chest in a game. I could not stop treasure hunting for the life of me, and some of those hidden treasures felt really special and rewarding to uncover.

The cast of characters and factions you interact with are interesting and very different - from one another and from previous casts. It's nice to see some new tropes that either haven't been used or have been out of rotation for a while.

Solas is a good antagonist. He was before, and he still is, and biased Solasmancing aside - I always looked forward to the breaks in the game where I got to banter with the Egg.

Voice over cast is fantastic. I know some folks were less fond of non-British/American accents, but honestly, I was very fine with it. It reinforced that this part of Thedas, and this time in the overall storyline, is new and different. Thedas is changing, and so are its people.

All these things said - every single positive I have above feels like they were baseline requirements for a AAA Bioware RPG. That they don't go above and beyond these bare minimums is where the game feels like it fails, especially as a payoff for a critically acclaimed entry that's 10 years old and has a passionately dedicated fanbase.

A phrase I've been using a lot with folks is that DAV feels like the Lacroix of Dragon Age games. It's got the branding, it looks like Dragon Age, and it kind of tastes like Dragon Age, but… just barely. It leaves you feeling like it's lacking. It's a hint of it, and going back to drink it again doesn't quite satisfy you.

What we call this in game development is minimum viable product (MVP), which is usually trotted out at the point by production and/or leadership when you realize you've meandered on the project for so long that you just gotta ship something. This works if you're actually going to commit to polishing it up and continuing to make it better after launch for a live service game; fix it later is fine when that's a reasonable expectation.

But Veilguard walked back on that concept. It no longer was going to be live service, but a one-and-done, and the final, late pivot meant it just had less time to cook in its final form and likely a ton of wasted work that got chucked out. There are so many places where the experience feels like an alpha or beta version of what they actually wanted to do. The Lighthouse and Companions as a whole both exemplify this; they feel and look cool, but the experience of both are shallow and underdeveloped. They felt like they were missing something.

The most egregious issues, in my opinion, in no particular order:

Apologies in advance if they're your favorite, but Rook is probably the worst protagonist we've ever been given. Not because their concept is inherently bad, but because I couldn't really make them mine. Rook has no arc, makes few decisions that truly matter, and no moral conundrums barring maybe the Treviso/Minrathous decision. Even then—it feels like there's a right answer to that decision.

To explain: Minrathous gets fucked at the end of the game anyway. If you pick to save Minrathous, you've just doomed two metropolis level cities to excessive death and destruction AND locked yourself out of a potential romance option for no particular reason.

Rook's actions in Thedas also matter the least. The end state of the game is the same no matter what: the Evanuris fall, and the Veil is preserved. How you do it is largely immaterial. In every other game entry, shit can seriously go sideways and it's always directly because of your decisions.

Companion arcs are largely shallow and so reliant on Rook, they fail to feel real. Some of these arcs are more egregious in this manner than others, and some of them have truly excellent stories to tell (oh, hi there Emmrich). But even with the best arcs, this person asks you to make utterly life-altering decisions for them and you've probably known them for like a month or two at best. It just doesn't feel like I, as the PC, have the right to make that call, or that I've earned it. There's not enough time nor enough high stakes prior to those moment.

I won't beat this one to death, but the limited amount of previous choices not mattering in this entry hurts, and I know how complicated it would have been to explore all of them. That said, there were a few that had a ton of specific investment that deserved better resolution: Kieran in particular would have mattered so fucking much if he existed as canon. I understand that's the crux of the problem, but it makes it so that if he was part of your world state in both DAO and DAI, his absence is all the more noticeable.

The South being destroyed off-screen through text will never not bother me. The Inquisitor is apparently faffing about doing fuck all with the resources they've built over time, especially if they chose not to disband the Inquisition. They didn't chase after Solas, who they knew was going to be a problem, and then they ALSO let the South fall? I'm sorry - it does a hero that the majority of this fandom is most likely heavily invested in the worst service no matter which way you look at it.

Veilguard feels like a game that couldn't get out of its own way. The part that has me grieving the most is that you can see under the surface a great game was there, but just not fully realized.

Without being one of the people who made the game, we can only speculate and can't presume the cause for why we got what we did. Hell, as someone who works in game development, sometimes you never get the answer yourself as to why things went so horribly sideways. The larger the game and studio, the more blind spots you're likely going to have on the overall project.  That said, I have nothing but empathy for the Veilguard team. It's very clear that at least the majority of folks working on it poured in a ton of work and cared a lot about it.

It's not my place to blame anyone in particular for it, because I don't have the first-hand knowledge necessary to cast that judgement. I hope the folks who worked on this don't let it get them too down; you still made a fun game. And I'm sure you're just as disappointed it wasn't the love letter to Dragon Age that you probably wanted it to be, as much as any of us fans who feel it didn't meet the bar.

You had an impossible job to do; the expectations here were so high, and you had more obstacles than any dev team should reasonably have during their project, regardless of the expected fires we all run into during development. Despite that, I still had fun, and I still care quite a bit about these characters.

That's worth something. Thank you for the experience.

[crabs-with-sticks]

Okay, but I just watched The Return (2024), which is an adaptation of The Odyssey, specifically the part where Odysseus returns home to Ithica, and oooh boy its giving post-veilguard Solavellan vibes! And y'all are going to get a long ramble of my thoughts because I have classicist training and you can't stop me.

Because Odysseus (and Solas) have changed. They both went to war for 10 long and bloody years. Neither particularly wanted to go to war, even though the seeds of the war were unknowingly sowed by their hands (the Oath of Tyndareus and the creation of the fade), and Odysseus does his absolute best to get out of it (similar to how Solas was going to tell Lavellan everything). But he went anyway and the war was brutal. A 10 year long siege, of throwing bodies at a wall. And then, when the war is at its end, when they are finally winning (because of Odysseus' plan), the sack of the city is brutal. Like I cannot emphasise how fucking brutal it was. The reason why Odysseus takes 10 years to get back (like most of the greek heroes end up dead) is divine retribution for the sack of Troy.

But now to Penelope (or Lavellan in this analogy), Odysseus' wife. She has waited for her husband to return for 20 years. She too has been under siege for three from the suitors who all want to marry her, and thus become king of Ithaca. She has been trying to keep her kingdom at peace. She devises cunning ways of putting them off and is in a fight (of a different kind) to regain her autonomy, but she cannot hold out forever.

Which brings us to the lead up to this scene. Just before this scene, Odysseus has murdered the suitors, as well as made their son into a murderer who has now left. And Penelope is horrified at what her husband has done. And she is angry, angry at the bloodshed and angry at being left alone for so many years. And when she asks him why, Odysseus responds "would you still love the man I had become?" And it is when he asks her for forgiveness that her anger breaks into tears.

But oooooh boy her helping him wash the blood off?? And seeing his new scars and saying "there is so much I do not know", him saying "you do not want to know" ahhhhhhhh and then "your past will be my past, and mine yours" its so perfect!

Because they've both changed they're 20 (or 10 for solavellan) older, and they've changed and they've both gone through so much trauma (I love the way this film portrayed Penelope), but they're choosing this. They're choosing to forgive and to heal together, literally washing the blood off him.

[pinacoladamatata]

Art Commission questions

(bc target solas really blew up on twitter and a lot of new people started following me and asking for comms/requests)

Art Requests

I don't take art requests. You're free to like, @ me or suggest something but I really generally just don't have the time. Unless it's a silly meme sketch or something, i.e. "pathetic man summer but draw it as solavellan" or "target solas but he's doing this meme" but Please please please do not send me huge requests that are actually commissions (i.e. your OC in a specific pose with x character etc).

Commissions

I haven't taken art commissions in about 10 years. Since things are slow right now (hope i didn't just jinx that?) I MAY open 1 or 2 commission slots. Pricing would be around the 80-150 USD range for stuff like this

Comic style stuff and fullbody pieces with backgrounds would be more; like ~200+ depending on how many characters/etc

(the last one with Tamlen is unfinished but you get the idea. That kind of piece would be ~300+ USD)

In CONCLUSION: No comms at this time. Maybe (big maybe) in future. If I do I'll pin the post with a link to a google form for people to submit. In the meantime, i'm just gonna be drawing target solas

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

Tags List Masterpost

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If you'd like some sort of content tagged, please let me know. Most of these are fairly obvious, but here’s the clickable versions.

The games:

Dragon Age all | Dragon Age: Origins | Dragon Age: Awakening | Dragon Age II | Dragon Age: Inquisition | Dragon Age: Veilguard

Mass Effect all | Mass Effect trilogy | Mass Effect: Andromeda

Spoilers:

Currently tagging "da4 spoilers" for plot-related content in Dragon Age: Veilguard. NOT tagging as spoilers on things like character art. If you wish to block all Veilguard content, blacklist my game tag "dragon age: veilguard"

Characters:

My OCs: Jade Surana | Hawke | Jacinth Lavellan | Juniper Aldwir | Jade Shepard

General protags: Wardens | Hawkes | Inquisitors | Rooks

Origins Companions:  Alistair | Zevran | Morrigan | Sten | Leliana | Wynne | Shale | Oghren

DA2 Companions: Fenris | Isabela | Anders | Merrill | Aveline | Varric | Sebastian

Inquisition Companions: Cassanda | Solas | Varric | Iron Bull (the Chargers) | Cole | Dorian | Vivienne | Sera | Blackwall | Josephine | Leliana | Cullen

Veilguard Companions: Lucanis | Davrin (Assan) | Lace Harding | Bellara | Neve | Taash | Emmrich (Manfred)

Treasured NPCs: Calpernia | the Architect | the Arishok | Corypheus | Teia & Viago

Main ships: Solavellan | Hawke x Fenris | Warden x Zevran | Rook x Lucanis | Shakarian 

basically, everyone is tagged with their name, if there’s anyone else you’re looking for just go to /tagged/[name]

Similarly most ships tagged as “[character] x [character]”)

Writing/Fanfiction:

Fanfic posts and links

Drabbles

My fanfic and writing specifically, but better navigated through the ‘My Writing’ masterlist

Fanfiction as a subject, aka posts about fanfic

Writing as a subject, aka posts about writing

Critical:

Not every post on this blog is positive. If you wish to blacklist those for your own enjoyment, please block the below

DAV critical | Bioware critical

Other:

My personal DAV thoughts tag

My way too many posts about Lucanis

Thedas ecology (collecting posts + adding to it myself)

Anything DA romancey related (semi defunct)

The garbage elf boyfriends (semi defunct)

Kisses

Hawke in the Fade

Comics and DA comics (dao comics | da2 comics | dai comics | dav comics)

Fan tarot

Angst (& tragedy)

If you wish to blacklist certain topics for your own enjoyment, please refer to the below categories, or you can ask and I’ll tell you how I tag certain things

“DAV critical” and “bioware critical”

“body horror”

“gore” (if it seems more excessive than typical blood/injury depictions)

anything “nsfw” tagged as such. As of 2024, since tumblr now filters personal blog search results using “nsfw”, i have switched to “nsft” as in ‘not safe for tumblr’ instead

anything borderline nsfw tagged “nsfwish”

my personal posts, dragon age related or not, are tagged with “ramblings”

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[thevikingwoman]

Author Interview

tagged by @galadrieljones thank you!

1. how many works do you have on AO3?

57

2. what's your total AO3 word count?

197,188

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Dragon Age, Uprooted (Naomi Novik), Wayfarer IF, Final Fantasy XIV.

only the latter two in the past year.

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

Temporal Arrangements (Dragon Age Inquistion, Solavellan, E) Time Travel canon-divergent AU

Home (Uprooted - Naomi Novik, Sarkan/Agnieszka, T) Canon coda

Ar Lath Ma (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Solavellan, T)  Post canon fix it fix

Pies (Uprooted - Naomi Novik, Sarkan/Agnieszka, M ) post happily ever after domestic fluff

Temerity (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Solavellan, E) post canon enemies/not really enemies bdsm smut

5. do you respond to comments?

I try to respond to all of them! I love getting comments and when I comment I love getting replies on comments myself.

I may forget though, and I'm sorry! I love comments

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

God Slayer (Solavellan, T) I really like this one.

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my fics have happy endings, though I really like them with a tinge of uncertainty or bittersweetness.

the most straight up happily ever after is probably Hay, (Solavellan, E) which is just a very self-indulgent little happy fic.

8. do you get hate on fics?

I don't think I ever had?

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

I do write smut! I love writing smut, it's such a good challenge and it makes me happy. I love characterization through smut - and it's such an interesting way to do characterization. That said, sometimes I'm just thirsty and I want to see two characters smash. I'm not pretentious about it. I'm here to have fun and I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to read or write porn.

I write all sort of smut? I do love playing with power dynamics in sex scenes.

10. do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've written?

The closest I've written is Comfort, a Solavellan vampire fic, which uses some BtVS lore? It's not crazy tho!

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I know of either. I think I'd be a little apprehensive.

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

nope. I'm not sure how i'd do that? writing feels like a solitary thing, even when asking for feedback and input.

The closest is a shared timeline/ideas where my OC interact with another person's OC and both of us wrote in the same continuity.

14. what's your all-time favourite ship?

hmmm. Once I've not written for and probably never will, Spike/Buffy.

if it's writing for, I'd say it's still Solavellan.

15. what's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I think if I want to finish it, I will? I have some old WIPs, but the reason I'm not finishing them is lack of want? Do or do not kinda thing I think.

16. what are your writing strengths?

I've told I've had good pacing. I think I write pretty good smut.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptions? I tend to not want want to describe things. I'm also not great at moving characters through space - he went to the door, he looked out etc? I tend to slip into passive voice when writing characters moving around unless it's combat action or sex.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

nope.

"Hello," he said in Spanish

is perfectly valid.

A few short words like endearments - where the speaker would use a specific term in a different language than what's spoke is fine. Items that are specific and not translatable and would typically be borrowed words in a different language are fine too (kimono. computer. kayak)

19. first fandom you wrote for?

Dragon Age

20. favourite fic you've written?

This is SO hard. I was just looking at some old fics I really really love?

but I think right now, I'll pick my newest fic, Passing Through (wol/Tansui, E) because I love it very much and I had so much fun with it.

tagging @myreia @roguelioness @coldshrugs @allaganexarch @bearlytolerant @buttsonthebeach @scionshtola @galadae @wickedwitchofthewilds @redinkofshame @ellstersmash and @kittlesandbugs and anyone else who wants to! tag me!

[thedragonagebigbang]

Bang Creator Interview: Tumblr: @ladyofc  

The Collaboration period has begun! In these quiet months before works are due, we want to foster a sense of excitement, camaraderie, and celebration among our participants. To that end, all participants were given the option of a formal interview by our mod, Dema, or an informal “ask-game” survey. We hope you enjoy getting to know our phenomenal creators as much as we have!

Q&A with Lady

What is your favorite DA culture?

I absolutely love Ancient Elvhen Culture, there's something about how a lot of Thedas is built upon its ruins, what is the possibility that most of the cultures we know just took elements of their culture and twisted it to their benefit? I mean we've seen hints of Mythal everywhere, Tevinter to Orlais! I'd love to know more, even the more... unsavory bits.

What is your favorite specific moment in the DA series?

Can I pick two? In Hushed Whispers, the moment where you go through the portal, seeing your companions die for another chance. It puts a lot of perspective into Solas plans with the Veil, and how he sees the world. Playing it back with the bonds with the companions makes the moment all the more sad, and it's a trauma Dorian and the Inky will have forever. The other moment was the end of Trespasser, I cannot begin to tell you how much it made me cry as a Solavellan to see Solas so defeated, losing the love of his life for duty.

What do you listen to while creating?

As silly as it sounds, I try to find edited hours long live streams on Youtube; Kitchen Nightmares, RTGames, Markiplier. A Lot of Lets Play. Music, unless very fast is not a go to, somehow Lo-fi makes me more unfocused than focused on my art. The Jackpot is if I find a new song that relates to what I am drawing. Musicals are very good for that, especially for Dragon Age.

[baejax-the-great]

[20 Question Fic Writer Tag]

tagged by @findusinaweek

How many works do you have on AO3? As of yesterday, 125.

What is your AO3 word count? 1,054,586 💀

What fandoms do you write for? Currently: Hades/Iliad and as of yesterday BG3. Historically Dragon Age and Mass Effect and I wrote a few Arcane one-shots. I believe I'll probably write Mass Effect fic again.

What are your top five fics by kudos? Sunset in Your Veins, Void, even if it's a lie, First Contact, and Relinquish (Hades/Iliad, Hades, Hades, Mass effect, Hades)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yes! I think fanfic is most fun when it's a conversation between author and commenters, and I mean that from both sides of it.

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Chintz or Lost

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? The Edge of Sadness has a pretty happy ending. All my Bethistair stuff does. It would be a crime not to give those two a happy ending.

Do you get hate on fics? Rarely.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yes. I don't understand what "What kind" means. I have an annoying habit of trying to make sex scenes funny. Maybe that gives you the answer.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? Answered this question recently, but I did a DA2 + Mass Effect fic set in the plot of Mamma Mia!

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge.

Have you ever had a fic translated? No, but someone once asked if they could translate a Bethistair fic into Russian. I said yes, but they never contacted me again.

Have you ever cowritten a fic before? Nope! And I don't think it's for me. I'm honestly too ADHD to work that well with other people.

What's your all-time favourite ship? A difficult question. If we go by number of words written about them, it's going to be Patrochilles. If we go by reading habits, it might be Solavellan or very possibly Shenko? For a while I think I was the biggest fan of Bethistair out there and it remains a love of mine, but I haven't read DA fic in ages now.

What's a WIP you'd like to finish but doubt you ever will? Overboard 💀💀💀 I still believe I will finish it, I do I do

What are your writing strengths? Dialogue. Character voices.

What are your writing weaknesses? Imagery. Complex plots.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I think if you want to write dirty talk, you should absolutely not be using google translate. And I think writing dialogue in fake languages and providing translations at the end of the chapter is inaccessible and frankly tedious. There are ways to say that the characters were speaking a different language and then giving or hiding the meaning depending on what you want the reader to know.

First fandom you wrote for? Dragon Age, specifically Inquisition.

Favourite fic you've ever written? Oof. A toughie. Probably All That Glitters. And I'll always be fond of The Edge of Sadness. And Void. And A Hawke's Breakfast. All of these were written with intense bursts of inspiration that was almost obsessive at times, and I found those experiences to be really rewarding.

Tagging forth @johaerys-writes @dandenbo @annalyia @genginger @rowanisawriter @nerdierholler

[vir-tanadahl]

Suggesting Writing Prompts

I’m always happy to receive writing prompts! While I can’t promise to write something for every submission, I’ll definitely jump on prompts that really spark my interest or inspire me.

You’re welcome to use the following format as a guide (no need to copy it exactly, as Asks are capped at 500 words).

Theme of Prompt: (e.g., "Second Chances"; "The Truth in Legends"; if no theme, feel free to ignore and go to #2 .)

Description of Prompt: (e.g., A story about redemption or rekindling a lost connection; A myth or story turning out to be real.;)

Pairing: I am currently focusing on Solavellan. But other pairings I do write about: Fenhawke and Cullvelyan.

NSFW?**: Just a yes or no! If you are looking for something specific, feel free to include what it is! (e.g., "First Time Together" - Exploring the tension and excitement of a first intimate moment; "Bound and Vulnerable" – Situations involving restraint, trust, and intense intimacy).

**Note: I will NOT write the following types of smut: anything underage, anything that is forced/nonconsensual, etc.

Submit your Ask here!

[ablubluh]

for the salty asks! just cuz. 3, 6, 8, 13. idk if i'm supposed to give you a fandom or not, but dealers choice. tell me about your faves and least faves. also unrelated i think this is the first time i've been on Your Page in years that's not on mobile and wtf, this theme is sick. have a good one!

i'm currently back on my dragon age bullshit so i'll go with that for any that are fandom-specific!

3: Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion? A: once or twice! it's not common because i'm generally a big proponent of the ol 'it doesnt hurt anyone who give a shit'. but sometimes someone will just say or reblog something that makes me go HOO BOY like WOW you didn't actually read the source material and are approaching this from a massively bad-faith position. not generally mutuals though

6: Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated? A: for dragon age? idk if there's any pairings i'd say i hate. i think there's fun to be found in just about any pairing, whether it's in a romantic healthy way or a 'wouldnt it be fucked up if' way. i would say i've come round on solavellan in terms of how i see the pairing though.

8: Have you received anon hate? What about? A: i don't think so?? i don't post enough strong opinions to get hate LOL. the closest i can think is people leaving condescending tags on my posts when they reblog

13: Unpopular opinion about XXX character? A: hmmmmm... i never got into iron bull. he's not weird enough to activate monsterfucker appeal, the habsburg jaw doesn't do it for me, and i kinda felt like his storyline was slapdash and didn't tie into the rest of the game very well. i didn't feel very connected to him on my first playthrough and that's a hell of a thing when i was playing a qunari. i'l see if that changes on the second playthrough i'm currently doing. oh and his romance scene that played out like the writers had just looked at the wikihow page for 'beginners bdsm (healthy)'

[trevelyawn]

For the fanfic writer ask game! Hope a few questions are ok to answer or just choose one :D 💥 What is one canon thing that you wish you could change?

💕 What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

💭 What inspires you and your writing?

🤩 What led to your interest in the fandom?

fanfic writer ask game.

you're the sweetest. lemme answer all of them <3

---

💥 What is one canon thing that you wish you could change?

i'm honestly not sure! there's nothing particularly egregious that springs to mind.

💕 What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

honestly, i have never completed a fic. i've written short one-shots before but nothing immense. before dragon age, i was active in the attack on titan community. i ran an erwin smith (shocker, i have a thing for troubled blond men) rp account, so my favourite thing i've written is probably somewhere on there.

💭 What inspires you and your writing?

the source material, obviously. but i'm also super inspired by music. when i want to get into the right headspace to write certain scenes, i'll play music that reminds me of it. the fic i'm currently working on has me playing Breaking Benjamin's Phobia album on repeat, especially the songs You and Topless.

(for the solavellan fans, Evil Angel reminds me of them.)

🤩 What led to your interest in the fandom?

i've been a huge fan of dragon age for... a while. over a decade at this point. a friend recommended i play origins when i was around twelve and the obsession took hold. it wasn't until recently that i was replaying inquisition for the kajillionth time and i chose to play a mage that i realised that i loved the dynamic between a mage trevelyan and cullen, especially when you've played the first two games and you have witnessed how his character has changed.

in the fandom specifically, i wanted a place to share my writing and meet others with the same interest. it really helps that the dragon age fandom seems more mature than others i've spent time in.

[broodsys]

okay, changed some privacy settings so hopefully this time it'll show up in the tags. a solavellan series totaling 23k. tons of spoilers for trespasser.

important note: author chose not to use archive warnings means that yes, archive warnings do apply, but they'd be spoilers for the story, so please pay attention to those. if you want/need more specific content warnings, you can either reply to this post or send me an ask and i'll tell you privately

reblogs and comments are always very appreciated <3