#specifically Aeducan origin

[dragonologist-phd]

(in regards to my Aeducan intro post)

@bharv Aaah thank you for asking…and also sorry for how long this is going to get!

(and if this doesn’t scare you off, please check out Of Diamonds And Dust!)

Okay so. Imagine you’re Marja Aeducan. It’s a familiar story- your trusted younger brother betrays you and frames you for the murder of your asshole older brother, and you vow vengeance.

But before you can get vengeance, you have to join the Wardens. And there’s this other Warden there- Brosca, a Casteless dwarf- and he immediately hates your guts. Which isn’t fair, because you’re not one of those traditional assholes in the Assembly. You’re progressive, you acknowledge that Casteless are people, you even think they should be allowed to have other jobs! You even call him by his name instead of just “brand”, and he’s not even grateful- he’s just rude and uncooperative, and you decide to just avoid him.

Then Ostagar happens, and you can’t avoid him. You have to work together. Neither of you really want to, but that doesn’t matter. And you fight all the time and he’s always undermining your authority but you’re determined to make this work because there’s just no other option. So you keep on trying to talk to him and break through that wall…and little by little, you do.

He tells you about his family, and the sister he’d do anything to protect. You tell him about yours, and the brothers who hurt you. The two of you talk about Orzammar, and you start to see it through his eyes. And it’s not a pretty picture.

You tell him you wanted to change things. To make it better. That you had big plans as Queen. Even now, you can tell he doesn’t really believe you.

But the two of you still get closer. You fight together. You kill together. You survive together. You learn to work as a team and you build trust. And the whole time, you’re both changing- he’s more open and supportive of you, and you’re learning to actually listen to him and maybe adjust your view a bit. Maybe there are parts of Orzammar you were blind to; maybe it was worse than you realized. You start to wonder if maybe this was all for the best after all; you’re good at being a Warden, and for the first time you’re really being yourself without worrying over the judgment of the entire Diamond Quarter. You feel guilty for even thinking it, but maybe it’s ok if you don’t go back.

But you have to.

So you go back, and everything feels different- people call you exile and kinslayer, all of the respect you once had is replaced by scorn. Harrowmont is the only who welcomes you back- he believes you over Bhelen, and he saved your life before, and you ally together against Bhelen. You know that now, you can set everything right.

But then Brosca comes back. He found his sister- and she’s with Bhelen. She’s the mother of his child (also Bhelen, your baby brother, has a child now and this is the first you’ve heard of it). So Brosca is turning against you.

You try to make him see reason. You promise to see that his sister is taken care of. None of it works. You’ve had fights before, but not like this. And for the rest of your time in Orzammar, you’re back to being bitter rivals, back to him hating you just as much- even more- than he used to.

You tell yourself you don’t care. You know you’re doing the right thing. But secretly…you’re not so sure. Harrowmont is a good man, but he’s not strong like your father was. He’s never been willing to change; he wants keep to Orzammar’s traditions. Once, that just sounded old fashioned to you. Now, you know that so many of your traditions are *wrong*, and you know deep down he won’t ever do anything to help the Casteless.

Meanwhile, Bhelen is threatening change. You don’t know if he’ll actually change anything, but the odds are better with him than Harrowmont.

You keep telling yourself it doesn’t matter. Bhelen is a murderer and a liar, and you can’t throw your lot in with him. If Brosca wants to make a mistake, that’s his choice. It’s too late for either of you to turn back, anyway; you’ve both publicly declared your support, and the city is in a stalemate.

You go to clear out a Carta operation, hoping to tip the scale in Harrowmont’a favor. Brosca is there, too- and when the battle goes down, there’s a very clear moment when he could kill you. He doesn’t. Instead, he has to kill his old friend from his Dust Town days…

And you can tell that something in him breaks.

And as much as you hate him right now, you *know* him. And you know that if you keep going on like this, it’s going to break him for good.

So you do the last thing you’ve ever wanted to do, and you meet with Bhelen. You don’t forgive him. You never will.

But you can make a deal with him.

So you team up once again with Brosca, and you go find Branka, and when you get back you give the crown to Bhelen. You put Rica, a previously Casteless woman, on the throne with him. You set your baby nephew up to carry on the Aeducan line, and you pray that he ends up with all of Bhelen’s smarts and all of Rica’s heart.

You sacrifice your own need for justice in the hope that it will lead to a better future for the city that let you down.

And you really, really hope you made the right choice.

[invinciblerodent]

These days I kind of can't stop thinking about how much I enjoyed the possibility of being from Orzammar in Origins, specifically because just being who you are put so much of the early game in a wholly different context.

Like, a dwarf from Orzammar has, by definition, lived literally under a rock their whole lives!! They've never left the underground, and yes, while that also makes their ignorance of surface squabbles (the mage issue, the Ferelden/Orlais conflict, everything with the city elves and the Dalish, etc.) make a lot of sense, it also comes with so many interesting new angles that I'm honestly so surprised still that I've never really seen it mentioned very often, if at all. (Even though we even get an explicit moment to reflect on it, when leaving with Oghren.)

In Origins, the moment a dwarf first steps out through the gates of Orzammar and begins the game, is a profoundly life-altering experience. Dare I say, even more so than it is for an elf or a human. Because stepping out, for the first time, they are entering an entirely new world, and for the first time, in front of them is a vast expanse of nothing but air.

The end of the prologue, it's not just a fundamental personal change that awaits you, it's also a displacement so complete, that it's absolutely dizzying to even think about.

That first time a dwarf feels the sun on their skin, they are made sun-touched, a surfacer: stripped not only from caste and kin, of identity, but also faith and memory, any favor their ancestors may have still held for them, and any possibility of ever returning, as far as they know. (Aeducan may even have a bitter little chuckle over the irony of how they could very well have just one day before shrugged off the concerns of their surface brethren completely, only to be made one of them now.)

Their whole lives, they had always been able to see the opposite wall of the cave, or at least to know for sure that it's there, along with the miles and miles of unchanging, crystal-littered rock stretching protectively over their heads-- now all of that is gone. There's nothing between them, and the infinite and ever-changing blue, grey, orange, black of the open sky they've never seen, and in the distance, there's no wall-- just glorious, humongous mounds and spires of rock jutting up into the belly of the sky, the likes of which they've only ever seen from the inside.

Orzammar, despite no sunlight ever penetrating that far, is always lit bright, and it's heated by the lava streams and pools below. A dwarf has never known anything colder or warmer, brighter or darker, never seen seasons change... the biting winds and the frequent rains in Ferelden are completely new to them, not to mention the terrifying cracks of thunder that sound like the very Stone over them cracking in two, the bright flashes of lightning illuminating the night for but a moment, or waking in the middle of the night to what sounds like countless fingers pat-pat-patting the tarp of their tent, or the fact that animals -which are varied and plentiful and wholly alien- sometimes just randomly fall into the sky, like the rumors say! They might know academically that with birds, that just sort of tends to happen, but they've never seen one take off!!

Hell, all of surface flora and fauna are completely new to them-- it's likely they've only ever seen a tree or a dog in a picture book. Flowers, they've likely only ever seen as an expensive and frivolous luxury few can afford to have for a while, and even then, they are by necessity brought in removed from their roots, dead, wilting, taken from their natural place... while here, blooms just spring up underfoot willy-nilly, not entirely unlike mushrooms at the home which is not theirs anymore.

And... there must be something organic, something comfortingly animal to the scent of hundreds of warm bodies crammed into a sealed hole in the ground-- which is just gone now. The air is fresh, clean... empty, cold, lonely. No smell of spilled ale, piss, and vomit, no thick scent of the combined breaths and bodies of all their people... no scent of belonging, the air that moves their lungs now is no longer that which has moved those of all they've ever known, and every breath washes more, and more, and more of who they once were from inside their very body.

Being on the surface, it's like being thrust into an alien world, with which all just expects you to be intimately familiar. What do you mean the grass, the bugs, the birds, the leaves are strange? What do you mean you've never eaten leaves from this plant, fruit from this tree, the flesh of this creature you've only ever heard about? They laugh when you avert your eyes from the sky and try not to think about falling into it, or when you startle at the feeling of falling water suddenly hitting your skin, as if that was somehow funny, charming.

The night, which you've never before seen fall, is a comfort from all that endless, boundless seeing- but after the Joining, not even that is a relief.

Because if you're a dwarven Warden, all the dreams you've had in your life have been nightmares.

So you cope. You learn, and adapt, and endure.

Strong and immutable, like the Stone from which you were rent.

[biancadavri]

dwarf warden leading the crew through the frostback mountains to reach orzammar's gates

[victorborkowski]

honestly the worst thing abt this tho is that as much as i am attached to that worldstate i KNOW i cannot use it in da4 because ive just. wriggled my claws in so deep and for inqusition especially there is sooo much i've changed bc the writing in inquisition drives me BONKERS. so like. i just know whatever they say in da4 i am probably just inherently going to hate, so i NEED to work on a new worldstate (and i am actively attempting to) but ..... guh. effort.

[valentineveils]

im having fun playing my aeducan cus she acts all nice n shit like that bit at the smallest chance of murder SHE WILL TAKE MURDERING ! i think she'll kill trian , originally she Didn't but honestly replaying this part , and with her severe disliking of him , she'll fuckin do it and won't regret it lmao

[emerald-dragonflame]

Irisa Aeducan

While I don't think I'll ever be able to play Dragon Age: Origins (mostly due to the fact the PC version is completely busted without mods, and even then) I still wanted to make my Warden if I ever got the chance to play. So Here's Irisa, the dwarven noble removed from her place as queen after her brother betrayed her. She's a cunning rouge who uses her attractiveness to get what she wants, and is an amazing player of "The Game". She may seem shewed and crass, and even evil at times, but she does fall in love with the Alistair later down the line specifically because of how kind (and snarky) he is. Becoming a far better person in the process.

[tobiasdrake]

Going underground now for the dwarven origins, beginning with Dwarf Noble. Let's hit up Orzammar, one of the last two surviving dwarven thaigs in Thedas.

So, right from the get-go, we have the Dwarven Faith codex entry. Dwarves consider themselves "Children of the Stone", which we now know to be literally true. They were born of the Titans.

Dwarves believe that they return to "the Stone" upon death. They practice ancestor worship, believing that their ancestors guide them through the unfolding of events.

Orzammar's best known for its Caste system, by which people are grouped into particular professions by blood inheritance. Wanted to be a soldier? Can't. You were born into Merchant Caste. Learn commerce.

There's something truly ironic about dwarven culture, in that regard. The Divine Right is so thoroughly baked into every orifice of their society. Merit defined solely by blood inheritance governs all walks of life.

Except the monarchy. (XD)

The King of Orzammar is an elected position accountable to the Assembly. Orzammar isn't a true democracy; The deshyrs who sit in the Assembly are all representatives specifically for noble families who do pass down power by blood inheritance. But it's still kind of amazing, in this culture, that being the child of the king doesn't entitle you to jack fucking shit.

Orzammar is a self-defeating paradox of a place. This is no less true of the ruling House Aeducan than of anyone else.

The Dwarf Noble draws their lineage from House Aeducan. Their governance dates back to the First Blight in 7205.

The irony of the Aeducan clan is that, despite Orzammar leadership thinking the Caste system is neato, their millennium-long monarchy didn't come from a Noble Caste family at all. One of the many contradictions that Orzammar politely ignores.

Originally, the other surviving thaig Kal-Sharok was the capitol of Dwarven civilization. Orzammar belonged to the Miner and Smith Castes. This would have been the state of affairs for between 3,000-6,000 years. Could even be longer.

The Veilguard timeline is a little fuzzy on when, exactly, the Evanuris tranquilized the Titans and inadvertently created both Blight and Dwarf. But Kal-Sharok was the capitol of the burgeoning Dwarven civilization until the developed trade relationships with the Tevinter Imperium, which would only be established in 6405 and would reign unchecked for about 800 years before the First Blight.

Somewhere in that 800 year period, Orzammar became the capitol in place of Kal-Sharok. This was done by Paragon Garal to give the Assembly more oversight over their trade relations.

For context, Tevinter had a trade highway that ran from their capitol Minrathous through the Frostback Mountains and down to southern Ostagar. We'll see more of that later. Since Orzammar is right up on the edge of the surface and even has a passage that opens out into the Frostback Mountains, it's perfectly positioned for trade with Tevinter.

This was kind of a big deal. So, centuries before the Blight, Paragon Garal moved the capitol away from the thaig that had been their capitol for millennia. Trade became a cornerstone of dwarven society.

Too bad about those dwarven traders though.

The paradox of Dwarven politics at work has decreed that dwarves automatically become Casteless if they ever go up to the surface. This is despite Orzammar being a centuries-long trading hub that's even more dependent on trade now that the Darkspawn have eaten the rest of dwarven civilization.

This is a point of contention within Orzammar, as Lord Dace here is attempting to change dwarven law so that

House Aeducan rose to power following Paragon Aeducan, though Aeducan was no Noble Caste dwarf. The way Paragons work is basically Dwarven Sainthood. The dwarves recognize you as a shining example for all dwarves to follow.

With the knock-on effect that Paragon-hood uplifts your family into Noble Caste.

So we should all obey the Nobles because their blood-inheritance says they know better than us. But also, anyone who knows better than the Nobles is made nobility so that we can continue to believe that the Nobles know better than everyone else. Make sense?

Aeducan was a Warrior Caste soldier on that fateful day. You know the day.

The day the Evanuris tricked the Magisters Sidereal into breaching the Black City and unleashing the Blight.

The dwarves and the surfacers disagree on how that happened.

The human Chantry believes that the Darkspawn came from the Black City in the Fade. They were a plague unleashed upon humankind as punishment for the Magisters Sidereal's hubris.

The dwarves disagree. They believe that the Darkspawn came from the depths of the earth. This is a practical belief rooted in the demonstrable fact that they emerged from the Deep Roads and overran dwarven civilization long before the surface had even heard of them.

They're both right. It was the Magisters Sidereal who breached the Blight's containment and released it into the world. It then poured upwards from the depths, possibly from the Titans themselves. Under the guidance of Dirthamen and his Archdemon Dumat - colliding with the Titans' children in the population centers they had built.

In fact, Paragon Aeducan even laid eyes upon Dumat once, describing her (high dragons are female, the mythology of the Old Gods is wrong) in the codex entry "The Blights" as a Paragon of darkspawn.

Can you imagine? The dwarves had never in history laid eyes on a dragon before Dumat. Aeducan had no idea what he was looking at. Only that it was terrifying.

No one had ever heard of the Blight until the day it crashed into the dwarven thaigs on its way to the surface, under the command of whatever this fucking thing is. A crisis the likes of which dwarven culture was not equipped to handle.

The loss of thaig after thaig after thaig was a failure of leadership. The dwarves were powerless to defend themselves because their leaders were too busy bickering in the Assembly over who to defend. Every noble house demanded the army protect their holdings above all others, leaving their military divided, aimless, and unable to stop as the Blight swept through them all.

The selfishness of nobility destroyed dwarven civilization.

Orzammar survived only because Aeducan sidestepped the politics and took charge of the army. He rallied the various Castes to provide support to the Warrior Caste, betrayed the dwarves' sacred hierarchy by disregarding the noble Assembly, and saved Orzammar. The last of the thaigs. (Except the other one.)

A vote was held in the wake of Orzammar's survival to determine if Aeducan should be made a Paragon. History recalls it passing with no dissenting votes, only one absentia. History does not recall, though the historian mentions in conversation, how the "absentia" vote came about: It was a vote of dissension, but the other deshyrs beating the dissenting deshyr to death on the Assembly floor for dissenting.

Politics!

This is how it goes. On paper, Paragons are a patch built into the system to ensure that the best and brightest may lead the dwarven people. In practice, Paragons introduce a whole mess of complications, which meet you the instant you step out of the Dwarven Palace and into the Diamond Quarter.

This is Bruntin Vollney and Scholar Gertek. Right outside the palace, they're having a public argument because Bruntin wants public records of Paragon Vollney being kind of a shitweasel stricken from history.

Vollney became Paragon by the slimmest possible margin and their ascension was mired in scandals, with rumors abounding of bribes, corruption, and blackmail. All of which is recorded accurately by history, much to Bruntin's dismay. He wants the truth wiped from the slate.

Because that's how nobility under the Paragon system works. When the ruling class derives power solely by historical remembrance of past merits, it creates a perverse incentive to only remember history in ways that are convenient to the ruling class.

In practice, the system uses Paragonhood as a built-in defense against having to reflect on the failures of their politics. Aeducan betrayed what the dwarves stand for and saved Orzammar where dwarven politics left nearly all other thaigs annihilated. For his radical actions and insubordinate heroics, they elected him King. They raised him up to Paragon status. And they learned absolutely nothing.

Oh, and they killed an Assembly member for disagreeing. Dwarven nobles are cutthroat. Just. As a natural order of business. Everyone expects treachery and murder in the noble class. Remember Vollney? If you side with the scholar against him, Gorim asks you this as a matter of course.

"Yeah, fuck that guy. Want me to have him killed in broad... whatever passes for daylight in our society?"

Sure, Gorim. I want him slit from crotch to throat and hung from a light fixture as a warning to others 'cause that's how dwarf politics work. You're the best, sugar 'stache.

Up to this point, they remain on the throne. King Endrin Aeducan is the governing monarch as of the start of Origins. With three heirs to succeed him: The eldest Trian Aeducan, the Dwarf Noble, and the radical youngest Bhelen Aeducan who fraternizes with Casteless.

Hi, Rica! She's just called "Mistress" in the Dwarf Noble origin but she's a part of the Dwarf Commoner origin. Bhelen is quite taken with her, despite their relationship being considered pearl-clutchingly scandalous by Orzammar standards.

Trian, by contrast, is a proper upstanding dwarven noble.

By which I mean he's a classist piece of shit. Trian is first in line for the throne (pending Assembly vote), which he knows quite well. And at any sign of disobedience from his sibling, he'll make sure the Dwarf Noble knows it too.

Trian also has opinions about Bhelen's dalliances with Rica. In his journal, he's noticed Rica milling about outside of Bhelen's room. So he accuses her of theft because her boobs are too big to be a "decent" woman's bust. And I quote.

"Must have been trying to steal something, or already had. Bosom seemed fuller than most decent ladies. Some jewels hidden in the bodice?"

What the actual fuck, Trian? He also suggests Bhelen should keep her confined to his room, like a pet.

Trian is a cruel, elitist, self-important piece of shit who would most certainly drive Orzammar to ruin if he became king.

The part where Bhelen frames the Dwarf Noble for committing the murder is a bit rude, however. Credit where it's due, though; Bhelen plans this assassination well.

He first tries to conspire with the Dwarf Noble by convincing them that Trian is plotting against them, and they need to get him first. Then he plants two of his men in the Deep Roads to accompany the Noble on their mission.

If you didn't buy into the idea that Trian was coming for you, Bhelen has Trian killed ahead of time and lets you find his body, just in time for you to be found with the body.

If you did, he plays you and Trian against each other, informing Trian that you were plotting to kill him and letting accusations and unreasonable tempers fly where they may.

If you still manage to be reasonable during that, one of his men has orders to open fire on Trian and his men, provoking a fight anyway. Bhelen's accounted for all possible scenarios here. It's very clever. Ruthless, pragmatic, and treacherous. But clever.

No matter which way you slice it, Bhelen cuts down both of his siblings and leaves himself and his radical politics as the (seeming) only potential heir to the throne of Orzammar. He planned his coup exceedingly well.

Though not so well that it escaped Lord Harrowmont's notice, but that is the plot for the Orzammar section of the main game proper.

[angrykittybarbarian]

I started playing Dragon Age: Origins again and when I recruited Sten in Lothering it struck me:

Sten's situation is perfectly cut out for him to become a Grey Warden.

Oftentimes people become Grey Wardens when they are found in some sort of desperate unsolvable situation.

For instance: your Warden Character gets recruited by Duncan because in most of the origin stories you are accused of committing some horrible crime and the only path you would normally take next is to the scaffold.

To name a few examples: Surana/Amell is caught helping a blood mage escape the Circle of Magi, Aeducan is framed for murdering their older brother by Behlen, Tabris gets thrown into jail after trying to free a kidnapped elven bride from their alienage from a human noble, Brosca is sentenced to death for taking part in the tourney as a casteless and under false name, one of your fellow recruits at Ostagar was also saved from his execution.

Sten's situation perfectly fits this formula.

He lost his sword which is a very important part of himself. This fact alone is enough to be executed by his people upon return. The loss of his sword drives him so mad that he murders an entire family. An unforgivable crime no matter how you look at it.

Sten faced death either way without the Warden. When you take him you basically excercise the right of conscription. If the Warden and Alistair knew the joining ritual at the time the next logical step would have been for Sten to become a Grey Warden. Even the reason why he is in Ferelden in the first place ties perfectly into this. He has been specifically sent to investigate the Blight.

So in conclusion Sten had all the pointers to become the first known qunari Grey Warden.

[dalishious]

I've recently stumbled across your novelisations of the different Origins, they're amazing! Were you thinking of doing the other ones as well? I specifically liked your Cousland one, and had a question about it, albeit a silly one. You state that the Warden is of Scottish and Irish descent, so would the name be pronounced coos-land, or cuss-land? I can't find a clear source on how it would be pronounced in Scottish, but want to do it correctly, if that makes sense?

Oh wow, I'm so glad you like them!

I actually have an Aeducan one that's been sitting half-done forever. Maybe I should finish it and continue the series, if someone would actually be interested in that...

I'm not an authority on accents though, so I can't give you a solid answer as to what is the "right" way of saying Cousland.

[kiivg]

wow. you hated playing as a city elf and wanted to be a cool nobleman instead? tell me you're classist without telling me you're classist

.My brother in Christ, this is a video game.

.A video game where like, your origin doesn’t matter because at the core of it the elves and dwarves and humans all go to Orzammar to fix that, and to Redcliffe to fix that etc etc. Sure it changes, you can kill your brother if you’re an Aeducan and meet up with Gorim in Denerim and he’ll know you, or have that encounter with Cullen if you’re a mage. But at the core it’s the same story.

.And you’re kind of glossing over the fact my initial playthrough was a city elf, I straight up thought being Dalish would be the coolest but I didn’t know anything about them so I went with the next best thing. I played an RPG where I specifically didn’t make a wizard (because I am always a wizard), so I could be a cool elf.

[thedragonagebigbang]

Bang Creator Interview: Tumblr: @veilkeeper  |  AO3: cordycathartidae

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 Cordy

What is your favorite specific moment in the DA series?

The entirety of In Your Heart Shall Burn, but specifically the moment where the Inquisitor is facing Corypheus alone. It really turns the entire game up to that point on its head—you've been having fun being the chosen one (or you've been desperate trying to get people to stop calling you a chosen one, as the case may be) and building the Inquisition, and then all of a sudden this giant, unfathomably old, impossibly powerful magister is throwing you around and telling you how insignificant you are to him and his plans. Very, very few games have made me feel quite as small and desperate as that moment has.

What is your favorite origin?

While all of the origins bring a lot to the table, my favourite is probably Aeducan. Can you tell that I like when a protagonist is brought to their lowest point? I think it's just so incredibly well crafted. On a first playthrough, it's so easy to fall for Bhelen's act and get completely blindsided. On a repeat, it's a complete horror show where no matter how suspicious you are, no matter how careful you try to be, you have no way out. All of the origins have this tragic element where the ending is this inescapable thing, but there's something about the betrayal of a brother that really ratchets everything up to eleven. Especially since later, you inevitably have to confront him and can help put him on the throne (or get your comeuppance).

Do you have any writing tips?

There are two types of writing tips: the sort that helps you write more, and the sort that helps you write better. The best way to write more? Write what you like. Writing became so much easier for me when I just let myself lean into the genres and tropes that I actually liked, instead of worrying about if other people would think it was trashy. The best way to write better is to read critically. Whether it's fanfiction or published works, think about what you're reading while you read it. If you like something, why do you like it? If you hate it, why do you hate it? What is it about the wording and pacing that makes this section exciting, but that section boring? You can only learn from it if you can figure that out.

[eastern-lights]

So we all know how the main theme of Veilguard is gonna be Regret, right? Why stop there? Why not assign theme-demons to the other games as well?

Origins: Despair/desperation

Aside from generally being what you feel when there's a Darkspawn horde ravaging your country, despair is what sets the whole plot in motion and keeps appearing in the individual origins and minor plot points throughout the story.

Everything Loghain does he does out of desperation. He is desperate to preserve the Ferelden he knows because he genuinely believes he is the only one who can. He turns to heinous acts because he is desperate to win and he sees no other way out.

Grey Wardens in general can be summed up by "desperate times, desperate measures". The Warden, too, can commit horrible crimes to get the power to oppose the Blight, because times are desperate.

Despair is what makes most of the origin characters join the Wardens. Cousland just lost their family. Tabris/Brosca are about to be executed. Amell/Surana are about to be shipped to Aeonar. Aeducan is dying in the Deep Roads. Mahariel is dying of the Blight.

As early as Lothering, you fight and kill people whose only reason for attacking you is desperation.

Also, what colour is the Warden associated with? Blue. What colour are despair demons? Also blue.

(me rn:)

Dragon Age II: [helpless] Rage

Where in Origins, times were desperate, but ultimately you had the power to win, few games manage to convey the utter feeling of powerlesness in the face of fate and societal change as DAII.

Despair may drive the Warden to questionable measures to achieve victory, but nothing Hawke does can ever lead to even just losing less, nevermind actually winning.

Almost every single character is a powerless victim of circumstance and their own nature. All they can do is rage impotently against the heavens.

Rage at being powerless to reclaim the Tome of Koslun drives the Arishok to his conquest of Kirkwall.

Rage is what threatens to consume Fenris throughout his arc.

And it is rage at the plight of mages that corrupts Justice into Vengeance.

Also, Hawke's colour is red. Just like that of Rage demons.

Inquisition: Fear

Or, more specifically, fear of there being no higher power, but also of it actually existing.

Pride is a very strong contender here, but please, indulge my mental gymnastics so we can fit into my demon colour scheme theory for a moment.

While pride is definitely the cardinal sin that lead Corypheus to try and usurp the throne of the gods the first time, I would argue that in Inquisition, it is fear that drives him more. He claims there is no higher power, that the Golden City was empty. And that terrifies him. He wants to become a god so there is one. In the end, he desperately wants divinity to exists in the world - when the Inquisitor defeats him and all seems lost, he calls out to Dumat, hoping he was wrong and there actually are gods.

Fear is definitely what drives the entire plot of Here Lies the Abyss.

Sera is absolutely terrified of magic and the Fade, but also the Elven gods. But she seems fine with the Maker. That is because the Maker is an absent god. She is free of His influence. But spirits and the Creators are hands-on and, if real, influence events. There is desire in her for there to be something divine, but also fear of that divinity actually reaching out.

Solas potentially leaves the love of his life because he is afraid that loving her, acknowledging there is something in this world worthy of love, would prevent him from doing what he sees as his duty.

Also, Inquisitor green, Fear demon also green or smth.

Now, Veilguard is really gonna mess with my colour scheme, isn't it...

[thievinghippo]

31 Days of DA - Favorite Origins Quest

Let me see. Is there a quest in Origins that deals with dwarves? Specifically about politics and tradition and learning lots about my favorite area, Orzammar?

Oh look! There is! Without a doubt, my favorite quest in Origins is 'A Paragon of Her Kind,' one of the main questlines. The drama! The intrigue! The history!

The Broodmother...

politics as usual... from the dragon age wiki

I love how personal it is if you play a Brosca or an Aeducan. There's so many different ways the quest can play out and you learn so much dwarven lore (not nearly enough lore, is there ever enough dwarven lore?).

This is by far my favorite quest in the game!

(want to join in on the fun? here's the prompt list!)

[lelianasbong]

dwarves stay winning with alistair solely bc of the following romance-exclusive exchange:

warden: my being a dwarf doesn't change anything?

alistair: of course not! don't be ridiculous. if anything i was wondering if i was too tall.

[vigilskeep]

out curiosity are their any pc backgrounds/hawke personalities/love interest match ups that just don't work for you? i tried to romance leliana as surana and it just...didn't click because my elf had been hurt by andrastianism far too much and that's a huge part of leliana's character. i tried purple hawke/merrill and there's a cultural divide linguistically which results in her not getting a lot of his jokes while hawke's purple responses seem more condescending to her than blue and red are

i think there’s something cool you can do with every single dao origin and romance pairing and i did a whole ask game on that basis! but there are a few i wouldn’t personally play, like i think everything that can possibly be said abt ali/cousland has been said and i’ve never come up with a tabris to suit ali, tabris or surana with leliana doesn’t do much for me, i’ve never really felt like doing an aeducan or mahariel with zev, i’ve never had a mahariel concept i feel like would work with morrigan, etc. etc. and those are all GOOD pairings and i see good content of them and i can totally see their potential, and some other people’s ocs who are in those pairings are beloved favourites of mine, it’s just not smth i’m personally drawn to doing myself

in da2... again i don’t think there are any “bad” ones it’s all a matter of taste. because the options are so limited its easier for me to come up with the one specific hawke variant i like for each romance than cross off everything i don’t. personally i prefer mage hawke for isabela and merrill and non-mage hawke for anders and fenris... as for the hawke personalities i think it depends how u play it. generally i prefer purple dialogue in the isabela and fenris romances because they respond well to that lightness and blue/red dialogue in the anders and merrill romances because they’re so rarely taken so seriously. but that doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t be purple in general, and i really do think there’s something fun in all hawke variants with each romance. i keep trying to think of one i absolutely wouldn’t do and then i’m like... wait... there’s something in this...

i do think there’s something kind of charming abt purple hawke/merrill specifically because purple hawke can’t rely on their usual joking front to win her over like everyone else. also in a relationship, purple hawke painstakingly explaining every joke to her to everyone else’s irritation and her a) laughing when she finally gets it or b) going “OH! but isn’t it supposed to be funny?”

[this-should-do]

dude, i know that people have talked about this before but the dynamics of having all the origins in dao be in the same party would go crazyyyyyy like

number one dynamic to me tho is aeducan vs brosca, like we were nearly sibling inlaws, i hate and resent you for having everything i never could have and keeping people like me in the dirt, i may not even hate you but i do instinctively regard you as less of a person becuz you are from a lower caste than me, we are now in the same boat of facing discrimination from the new world we find ourselves in but one of us is far more used to the feeling, were the only ones who understand the anxiety and nausea of being above ground, were both dead people walking twice over to our homeland and the new one we find ourselves in

another good one is tabris vs cousland, like cousland looks like the people who abuse and terrorize the community tabris grew up in wether or not they act like other nobles, cousland is forced to see the unfairness of the country they live in even if they dont want to, they both want to kill the same man who is responsible for hurting and killing their respective families one way or another,

and then we have tabris and mahariel, two completely differing experiences as an elf in fereldan, one may not have even believed people like the other existed, maybe they fantasized the otjer existed maybe they shunned the idea becuz they thought it unfair the idealized reality of freedom the other had, and the other feels nothing but sympathy, regardless they both stick together becuz its them against everyone else in a world so hostile to them, not to mention bow mahariel would have just lost their best friend amd entire community the only people theyve ever known that arent hostile to them, theyd aant to cling to whoever is like them, keep a sense of commu ity with people they may co sider to be their people

and then you throw surana into that mix, whos been alienated from elf as an identity becuz circle mage over shadowed any new identity from them, neither city nor dalish, do they long to connect with tabris and mahariel? have they heard about the dalish having mages? theyd prob have read more about the dalish than city elves, but maybe they have memories of living in the city? maybe they dont identify with elf at all and purely think of themself as amage and would rather stick with amell, theyre the only other person who would understand the fear of the outside world, the unfamiliarity the new, the search for familiar even if it brings nothing but memories, at least they could share them together, or maybe they were from seperate mindsets about the circles? do they hate eachother, would that be enough to keep them away from eachother?

theres so many more cross relationships and how theyd interact and ive got my own specific dynamics i have as canon in my own universe since chose to believe all the origins get to survive cuz i think its fun :)