#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.

[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.

[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

[shift-shaping]

let's go save wycome

clan lavellan receives a letter from lady volant regarding the danger she and solas have found themselves in.

rating: t

pairing: solavellan (discussed)

warnings: pregnancy

previous fics | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

My Blessed Lady,

    It has been my pleasure to meet Duke Antoine of Wycome and pay my respects on behalf of the Inquisition. The duke is a most friendly man. Indeed, I dare say he thinks the best of everyone, and has advisors from as far away as Tevinter! His city is a wonder, and he was quite keen to display some of the improvements he has made recently. Of particular note are the wells, which use a red crystal to purify the water from which all humans in the city drink. Duke Antoine has not yet made these improvements to the wells from which the elves in the alienage drink.

    The duke assures me that concerns about some sort of disease affecting his city are wholly overblown, and has quite convinced me that his plans to rid the city of "the rats causing the problem" should be underway quite soon.

    Any concerns I have raised, he says, can wait until then. The duke's Tevinter advisor has indicated an eagerness to make my acquaintance, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to resist such a tempting offer. This advisor has also expressed great interest in my serving man, though for what reason I cannot say. Perhaps they share some hobby or background that this advisor wishes to contend with him over.

    I continue to enjoy my visit to Wycome, and I confess that I hope I do not hear the noisy clatter of the Inquisition's armored troops ruining my quiet afternoons. The elves of Clan Lavellan, by contrast, are quiet, like their poor cousins here in Wycome's alienage, and it might be a welcome change to my daily regime to see them in the future.

    Yours in haste,

    Lady Guinevere Volant

Enaste sat against a tree in a clearing within her clan's camp, frowning at the letter. She had just finished an early dinner with Hallin and Harea, and had almost managed to convince herself the Inquisition was some sort of awful nightmare.

As her brother predicted, the meal was everything Enaste could have wanted: buttery, fleshy lobster tails rich with garlic and seasoning, accompanied by clams, corn, and a pile of fresh herbs and mushrooms. They didn't always have such extravagant meals, so this was something of a celebration. Enaste had eaten so much it was hard to walk, and she had to read the letter multiple times to understand it through her fog of fullness.

"I'm impressed she knows enough elven to know what your name means," Hallin offered after Enaste read the letter aloud. He sat beside Enaste with Harea's head in his lap. His hand rested on her pregnant belly.

"You've received word from your ambassador?" All three looked up to see their Keeper enter the clearing. She gestured to the letter in Enaste's hand. "May I see it?"

Enaste handed Deshanna the letter, and she was quiet for a while as she read it over. Then she looked past it, down at Enaste. "We must act quickly."

"Wait, why?" Hallin asked, frowning at her. "It sounds like everything is fine."

"The Tevinter advisor," Harea said, lying comfortably on her back, eyes closed in relaxation. "Anything Tevinter is bad news."

"I guess." Hallin looked down at his bonded, uncertain.

"I forgot --you weren't there last night," Harea said. "The evil magister trying to kill Noodle has a cult of Tevinters called the Venatori." She opened her eyes and nodded to Enaste. "They're good at weaseling their way into things. This advisor is probably one of them."

"I think that's a reasonable assumption, yes," Keeper Deshanna replied. "Your ambassador is specifically asking us to intervene, Enaste." She stared at the letter, her expression hard to read. "And this mention of the rats... the Duke intends to purge the alienage." She paused, then turned her gaze to Enaste. "Our hunters could kill the Duke and this advisor to keep the alienage safe."

Hallin balked. "Intervene in a shemlin dispute? Why would we do that? They'll just blame us and kill their flat-ears anyway."

"I think those flat-ears are the reason it's not just a shemlin dispute," Harea looked up at Deshanna from Hallin's lap. "We already know from Enaste's captives that the shems are blaming the elves in the alienage for this plague." At the mention of the plague Deshanna looked at the letter again. "If nothing is done, they will be slaughtered."

Hallin ran his hand over his thick black braid. "But if we intervene, they'll just turn their blades on us instead."

"Not if we're careful," Enaste said, shaking her head. She looked at her brother seriously. "Not if we're quick."

Harea reached up and flicked her lover's nose. "And that's what our hunters are best at, vhenan."

Hallin sighed and took her hand. "I don't think we should do anything to draw excess attention." He looked at Enaste, concern scrunching his features. "Maybe we can help the flat-ears evacuate instead of --whatever this ambassador wants us to do."

Enaste bit her lip. She'd studied maps of the city before her arrival and knew how trapped the alienage was. "We don't have enough boats. It would take days, at minimum, for me to get the vessels needed to extract everyone from the alienage."

"Enaste," Deshanna said, her voice soft but tight. "This letter mentions a red crystal."

"Fenhedis," Enaste hissed and took the letter back. She scanned it again, more awake now, and saw now what she'd failed to realize before. "The Duke is poisoning the nobles' wells with red lyrium."

"Red lyrium?" Hallin asked.

"A type of lyrium that's red instead of blue," Enaste said without looking at him.

"I gathered that much, thanks."

"It's a known tool of Corypheus.” She frowned at her brother. “Red lyrium drives people insane, but it also makes them much, much stronger. He's using it to make his templars into unstoppable monsters.”

"He wants to know if it will work on civilians," Deshanna said. She looked at Enaste. "He wants it enough to risk the safety of an entire city. The life of your ambassador is hardly an obstacle."

"And of Solas," Enaste added. "We have to do something. I, at least, have to do something." She remembered how Solas protected her in the future at Redcliffe, how his voice rasped and his skin gave off a sickly red glow. She remembered seeing his dead body lying limp on the cold stone floor. Whatever it took to prevent that future from coming to pass, she would take it. Her throat was suddenly tight with nerves. "I can't let them hurt him."

"Enaste," Harea said, her voice suddenly more serious, and Enaste turned to her. Harea tilted her head and narrowed her dark eyes. "Are you sleeping with him?"

"What?!" Enaste and Hallin said in unison. Deshanna sighed. "Why would you ask that?" Enaste blurted, and Harea rolled her eyes.

Hallin looked between them, shocked. "Sleeping with who?!"

Harea raised her eyebrows and pointed at Enaste. "Her arcane advisor. The one she sent to help the ambassador. She smiles at him like a little girl with a crush." Enaste struggled for the words to defend herself. She wished the ground would swallow her whole. Was it that obvious?

"Da'len, this is not the time," Deshanna chided gently, and Harea pursed her lips for a moment before exhaling and giving up.

"Fine--" she said, but Hallin didn't stop.

"You're sleeping with someone?" His wide green eyes made him look like a frightened halla. "A shemlin?"

"He's not a shem," Enaste said defensively. Then, realizing that was arguably the lesser accusation: "and I'm not sleeping with him!" Her face burned, and her stomach twisted into knots. "I don't know why you'd even think that," she huffed, glaring at Harea, who wore a wicked smirk at the chaos she'd caused.

"Enough," Deshanna said, and the three of them finally obeyed. "You can discuss this later, if you must."

"He's too old for you," Harea added quickly, then raised her hands in front of her before anyone could reply. "But whatever. Let's go save Wycome."

"You're not going anywhere," Hallin said. He looked at Enaste. "And I'm not either. I --I understand the importance of this, but I can't just--"

"No, I know." Enaste sighed and tried to take Deshanna's advice to worry about Harea's accusations later. "At least some of you have to stay here in case something goes wrong. I'll take Jester, and Blackwall, and a handful of our hunters." She closed her eyes and nodded slowly. "We will still need to arrive by sea, though."

"That can be arranged," Deshanna said. Her features were tight with thought. "You will have all the supplies you need."

"Thank you," Enaste breathed, looking up at her. "And we should leave soon. I don't think they have much time."

"Of course." Deshanna looked at her, head tilted. She was quiet for a moment, and Enaste wondered if they were missing something. "I agree with Harea, though." The Keeper's expression turned disapproving, but there was a glint of mischief in her eyes. "He's too old for you."

Harea laughed and Enaste groaned in frustration. Hallin was visibly disturbed by the conversation, almost as much as Enaste herself, and said nothing. "I'm leaving," Enaste announced as she started to stand.

"Wait." Harea grunted as she rolled over, first to her hands, then kneeling, with Hallin's support. Enaste paused, looking at her. "I know I kid but... Be careful, okay?"

"I will be, Rea."

"No, really." Harea's dark brows knit together. "Promise me you'll be careful. I can't..." Hallin put his hand on her back, but she kept her eyes on Enaste. "I can't lose you.” Her voice fell. It was unsettling to see her like this, soft and vulnerable instead of bright and strong. “You have no idea how terrifying it was when we heard what happened at the Conclave." Enaste heard the sounds of evening chores all around them, but their little clearing was quiet. Harea’s words were gentle, and so much quieter than she usually was. "We --I..." She trailed off, closing her eyes, and shook her head.

Enaste stepped closer to her, and knelt in the grass in front of her and Hallin.

"We thought you died, Noodle," Hallin said quietly. "We thought we'd never get to see you again."

"I'm sorry... I should have reached out sooner." Guilt settled in her then, weighed down with the realization that she could have done more, could have tried harder. Somehow, in all the turmoil of the Inquisition, she’d forgotten how much her absence would hurt the people who loved her most.

"Maybe, but... Just don't do it again, alright?" Harea said gently. "You can always come home."

Enaste tried to speak, but the words disappeared in her mouth. Harea reached out and squeezed Enaste's hand --the one that bore the anchor. Instead of saying anything, Enaste pulled her friend into a warm embrace, wrapping her arms around her back. Harea let go of Enaste's hand and hugged her tightly, leaning her forehead against Enaste's collarbone.

Something moved in-between them, a tiny kick from inside Harea's body. Harea snorted, the sound tickling Enaste's ear. "It knows," she drew the word out and Enaste laughed.

"Don't call your baby an 'it,'" she teased, and Harea shrugged.

"What should I call it instead? Harea the Second?"

"That's better than 'it,'" Enaste pulled back and looked down at Harea's belly. "But you're right." She met her friend's eyes again. "I'll be careful."

"Good. Because Harea the Second isn't coming until you can deliver it."

"Don't say that, vhenan," Hallin groaned. "Esa taught our healers everything they know. Bri or Virin would do just as well."

"No," Harea said firmly. She put one arm around Enaste's shoulder and pulled her close, frowning at her bonded. "The only person I trust to deliver Harea the Second is Noodle the First."

Hallin sighed. "Just focus on coming home safe, okay, Esa?"

Enaste nodded, leaning into Harea, and for a few heartbeats focused on the warmth of her friend's body against her, the softness of her robes, the rise and fall of her shoulders.

"You promise?" Harea asked, giving her a squeeze.

"I do. I promise."

<- prev fic | next fic ->

follow on ao3 here!

[teamdilf]

I've posted a bit of smutty Solavellan literature today. 👀

Solas eats Iris out while she sits on her throne. That’s it, that’s the fic.

“You have a throne.”

More than one, and inquisition staff change out the throne depending on who their most prominent guests are, and right now it’s Orlesian-themed, the spread wings at the top of it covered in gold leaf; symbolic of everything she hates about the richest of this world and she wishes she could drag it into the centre of the Great Hall and blow it to dust.

“A stupid one,” she mutters.

“One appropriate for you to be worshipped upon,” Solas says and she stares at him, because he loathes the idea that she’s the sort of demi-god that she’s been presented publicly as - and so does she. His grin turns mischievous. “A very specific form of worship, to be more precise.”

“Are you offering to fuck me on the throne in the Great Hall?” she asks; the idea making her ache, washing away the vestiges of frustration remaining in her hot-headed mind.

“No. I am offering to prostrate myself at your feet, slip under your skirt and volunteer my mouth and tongue to service you. For the sake of this inquisition, of course.”

[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.

WRITING PROMPTS/IDEAS ARE CURRENTLY BEING ACCEPTED.

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.

[demarogue]

Fandom New Years Resolutions for 2023

I don’t want to do any of the Year In Review things because...well, it was a really intense, difficult year and I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked. However! I thought it might be fun to lay out my plans for 2023, keep them reasonable (keep them safe) and try to hype myself up to finish. 

Without further ado, my list that is likely to shift and change:

DRAGON AGE

Fics

Finish Letters to the Dead

Continue You’re Bad but You’re Mine (maybe even finish!? Who knows!)

Finish and post Something Unholy, a Morgon one-shot that was supposed to be for Satinalia but will now be for a random Andrastian holiday because I vastly overestimated the length of December

Solavellan stuff (DA4 has me in a deathgrip)

Some one-shots: Blackwall + Josephine, Comedy of Errors stuff, 

Art

Banners/cover pages for all my fics

Catch up on all commissions/gifts

Finally color my lovely Niva linearts from @dreadfutures

Morgon Tarot card (three guesses which one lol)

Morgon, Niva and Alethea portraits for pfps

ACOTAR

Fics

Finish All of Me Belongs to You (ASAP/early Jan)

Finish A Lily on Thy Brow

Nyx craziness

Past Loves, Lives collection (Young Bats, Amren being Made, Mor’s first time falling for a woman, I’m working on more ideas and for sure would take prompts, hit up my asks!)

A one-shot per month. Probably mostly Elriel but I’m planning to branch out, too

Art

Finish Elriel AU piece for @azrielslight (ASAP/early Jan)

Finish Elriel in the garden piece

Banners/cover pages for all my fics

Feyre slaying the worm

Feyre and her monsters

Buzzcuts in the Illyrian camp/battlefield hairstyle incidents

Some smutty Elriel stuff

18th/19th-century style Portraits of the sisters

RINGS OF POWER/LOTR

Art (Only art because I am not enough of a Tolkein scholar to dare to write stuff)

ALL THE WOMEN. Binders full of em!

also Aragorn and Halbrand. Maybe even together ;)

Lastly, I just want to read more fic. My TBR is so long – if you’re a longfic writer and I started reading and then disappeared into the hills, please know I didn’t lose interest!! I just had A Year, is all. I am excited to return to reading regularly and letting you all know how much I adore you and how unspeakably talented I think you are.

And just for funsies, with NO pressure to join in, I’d love to hear anyone’s fandom resolutions! I’m not going to tag specific folks because I don’t want to be pushy OR leave anyone out so suffice to say, if you can see this I am tagging you in spirit.

[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

[felassan]

Mark Darrah on Dragon Age 4, from his recent Old Game Dev Advice Q&A video

[source and watchlink] Q. [this question wasn't DA4-specific but ties to the next one] "How would you describe the ideal villain in a story, video games or otherwise?"

A. "What I think you want in a villain, you either want something that is essentially environmental, so that is essentially just a hurricane that you're fighting, or you want something whose motivations you can understand but disagree with. In a video game in particular, you don't want someone whose side you're on because you're still gonna have to defeat them. That might work in a movie where you can have a villain where you understand them and kinda root for them, but you don't really wanna be rooting for the antagonist in a video game where you're going to have to actually stop them."

Q. [follow-up to the prior question] "How is that going to work for Solas then? Some players are very much on his side."

A. "I guess stay tuned, it's not my problem anymore."

Q. "What does a game need to thrive? You said in December that Dragon Age 4 would thrive without you, but most of us have some concerns."

A. "I think it's about, I mean a game is not built by a single person, it's built by a team, and it's about the whole, it's not about any one individual. So I think if you have people in place that know what is in the DNA of the game, then it's in good hands. I think it's worth remembering that I am the person who came on to ship Dragon Age: Origins, I am not the person who was on for most of its development from a leadership perspective, so this has happened before, and it can be fine."

Q. "Can you share anything Solavellan-related with us?"

A. "I put this in here just so I could say no, because I'm not going to either steal a card out of BioWare's deck or potentially spoil something or otherwise change/reveal what they're planning to do. Honestly, anything that was planned could still happen, anything that was planned when I left might have already changed out from underneath me, so my answer is no, I don't have anything to share there."

Q. "I think what most people forget to ask is 'How long would a Dragon Age remake take?' because if they remake Dragon Age: Origins they might have to knock Dragon Age 5 back to 2030."

A. "So, honestly, one of the reasons, at one point, in Joplin days, there was a plan to make a toolset again. There wasn't really any interest within the greater Frostbite organization for that, so it died very early, but one of my motivations for that was to get a toolset that would be sufficient enough that we could find almost-professional modders, basically promote them into professional modders, and work with them to remake Dragon Age: Origins. There you go, spoilers. Well I guess not spoilers, cause it's not gonna happen."

Q. "BioWare seems pretty uninterested in modders these days."

A. "Unfortunately, I mean we love modders but yeah, I get that. Frostbite is a barrier for that for sure because it prevents us from releasing some of the background that would be required. There had been a moment, or there was a movement that had started just before I left that might change that, EA is becoming much more interested in the modding community and user-created content, so stay tuned maybe?"

Q. "I recall reading that having staff going on nature trips was part of the process for Dragon Age: Inquisition, is there any truth to this [and how is it budgeted/expensed for]?"

A. "Yes, we did do that. I would say that Dragon Age is very pragmatic in its spending, most of those things were done locally. We also went to Drumheller [pop “Drumheller” into Google images] for reference stuff for Dragon Age 4. Anthem went to Hawaiʻi to do capture. It's greenlit as an expense by me, we have a budget for reference materials and things like that, so the person in charge of the project's gonna greenlight it. If it gets too big you might have to go up the chain to do it. If you're gonna go and spend a month in Gibraltar to capture a specific castle and it's gonna cost $500,000 then yeah that's bigger than that. But if it's tens of thousands of dollars it's way within my ability to approve. It's very worth doing because you get reference materials, these days you get photogrammetry materials, but also it's good for the artists and designers as well to see things out in the wild."

Q. "Any expectations from The Game Awards announcements?"

A. "I don't know if Dragon Age or Mass Effect or anything from BioWare is going to be there. Yeah, I don't know."

Q. "What is your opinion of Jason Schreier's articles about BioWare?"

A. "I'll say kind of no comment. I would say that the video game press has been struggling to figure out if it wants to have real journalists or not. And by real journalists I mean people who are gonna dig around and figure things out and break stories. And journalists like that, they're not going to be liked by the industry, but they might be necessary to improve the industry as well. So yeah, that's what I'd say about that."

Q. "Any chance we would get Hawke's marriage scene in Dragon Age 4?"

A. “Well I don't know. Possibly. I doubt it. But, possibly. That's really a question for BioWare, not for me.”

Q. [on how BioWare has been interacted with/portrayed by fans/press/social media etc]

A. "I've talked about social media and how extreme it's become, that is certainly true. I don't think that BioWare has been singled out or anything. I would say this, that people love a 'fall from grace' story. The only thing they love more than a 'fall from grace' story is a redemption story, so maybe BioWare's on its redemption arc now. I think people will get on board that, as much as they got on board with the 'fall from grace' story that happened, how's that."

Q. [chat comment] "Hawke is 33% dead in Dragon Age 4."

A. "Yes, that's right, Hawke is 33% dead in Dragon Age 4."

Q. "Do you happen to know if the stealth and/or pickpocket skills will ever come back in Dragon Age?"

A. "I don't happen to know that. It's possible."

Q. [Will future Dragon Ages ever return to dark fantasy as a specific genre?]

A. "So, first answer to that is Inquisition is the most-acclaimed of the Dragon Ages. Will it ever return to dark fantasy? I don't know. For me I feel like dark fantasy can be hard to work on, it can be really draining, it can be really exhausting. I think there are other players [studios/companies] in the space that are doing dark fantasy just fine, so I don't know that BioWare is necessarily interested in competing head-to-head against those studios, so... maybe, I doubt it."

Q. "What do you think of Christian Dailey?"

A. "I'm a big fan of Christian Dailey, we worked together on Anthem. I don't know how things are going on Dragon Age right now but I have high confidence in him."

Q. "What are your greatest hopes with Dragon Age?"

A. "So for me, a lot of it is about moving the conversation forward in terms of more diverse people in the games, more broader perspectives around a lot of things. I hope that continues. I think it has a ways to go. That's my hope, that they keep pushing on that."

Q. [on Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening plot points]

A. "The Architect is out there still, so will that thread ever come back up again? Possibly, but I don't think it's in the foreground right now. Awakening is obviously the least played of all the Dragon Ages, even though it did have a very good attach rate. So [will they come up again?], maybe."

Q. [on Dragon Age 4's development time]

A. "The much longer Dragon Age cycle more than anything has been caused by externalities to Dragon Age. So Joplin started in 2015, late 2015, but then that got derailed by Mass Effect: Andromeda. Then it got back up and running and then it got derailed again by Anthem. So if you only count from Anthem shipping, it hasn't been that long." Q. "How did you manage to capture faces in mo-cap during the pandemic? Has it been a problem when you were at BioWare in 2020?"

A. "There wasn’t a lot going on in 2020 but actually they were sending entire hardware packages to voice actors to set up and do it, so microphones, cameras, the whole works. We were, in my final days we were looking to try to start doing mo-cap again, and actually we did do some mo-cap in Vancouver, but it was kind of ridiculous because they were only letting one person on the stage, so they did actually capture a scene with one actor playing all parts, which was an amazingly impressive technological feat, but I’m not entirely sure was worth the trouble."

Q. ​ "You mentioned one of the reasons you left BioWare is because of Dragon Age getting derailed. Doesn't that mean if it didn't get derailed you would still be at BioWare? Or would you have still left?"

A. "There are lots of reasons. I had decided to leave a lot sooner than my actual resignation so, probably I would have still left, it’s hard to say."

Q. "What do you mean by Dragon Age getting derailed?"

A. "I just mean getting reset with people being pulled off it to work on other things, to work on Andromeda, to work on Anthem."

Q. [on choices and associated resulting ongoing complexity]

A. "Dragon Age actually has occasionally canonized some choices, it hasn’t always been obvious, but yes, Dragon Age gets around this by - this is one of the major reasons why it’s a new protagonist, because it lets us move past romance choices and characters that may be living or dead. The biggest quantum consequence comes from Dragon Age: Origins which was basically built kind of with the assumption that there was never going to be another one, I think, so there is just a lot of quantum coming from Origins. Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age: Inquisition have done a fairly good job of collapsing that by moving past those things or moving to different regions. I think in the comics and novels there’s been a bit more canon collapsing, but I believe you should try to respect peoples’ choices as much as you can possibly do so."

Q. "Are the stats from previous games, e.g. how many people romanced or killed a character etc, taken into account when developing future content, or do the writers try and ignore it?"

A. "Yeah, we definitely do pay attention to that. You can go too far, for sure, but you need to know that, you know, nobody plays a dwarf or everyone hates this romance character."

Q. "Do you think that Dragon Age 4 is going to hit the 100 GB-mark?"

A. "There are still hardware limitations there in terms of, publishers don’t want you to go to multiple discs if you can possibly avoid it, it makes things really a lot more expensive because you need different packaging, and an extra disc. As long as we have physical copies being a significant part of the development process I suspect the answer is no, but we’ll see."

Bonus - On Dragon Age: The Last Court:

"The reason why Dragon Age: The Last Court, I know for a fact the reason why it got removed for Dragon Age was because of a legal reason, it needed to be updated to some sort of new privacy laws, and it was decided that it wasn’t worth doing so." 

[source and watchlink]

[sinsbymanka]

I'd really love your opinion of Solas, actually. (Ignore this if you have a visceral dislike of him ;))

I’m back on my “Break a Character Down” bullshit! Sorry for the wait friend <3 and thank you for the ask!

How I feel about this character

SOLAS. 

I’m actually going to talk about the first time I played the game as a little Cadash and how much she fucking loved her friendly Pajama elf. Solas went EVERYWHERE with me. He explained stuff to my Cadash and I fucking never saw it coming. 

Oh I SHOULD have. All that fade bullshit. He had me fooled but I am onto his tricks now. 

I love the version of Solas that exists within the game and in my fanfiction. I think he can be interpreted a lot of different ways - some of which I do not vibe with at all - and he’s a popular character so of course he’s interpreted over and over again. 

I think Solas is a sad, lonely man burdened with great regret and desperate to connect with people even though he knows he shouldn’t. I think he is a mournful villain who wishes he wasn’t a villain. I think he feels completely alone in the universe and I want to hug him. 

And then shake him because he keeps making the same stupid mistakes over and over again. 

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Mostly thanks to fucking @blarfkey there’s not many people I don’t ship with Solas. Here are some of my favorites: 

Solas/Cadash: Okay so if I have a Solas OTP this is it. I LOVE Solas and a dwarf. The Dwarven empire existed at the same time as the Elven Empire - although I’m sure it looked much different. But Solas knows dwarves and seems to mourn the things they have lost as much as he mourns the things elves have lost. I like the complicated relationship he has of watching a dwarven LI who COULD have been prospering in a society he remembers reduced to being a criminal. I want him to feel that regret for a culture not his own. Also. Size kink. I REST MY CASE. 

Solas/Varric Tethras: Solas has dialogue with all companions about change and power - and if you listen to the full streams he “Wins” the conversation with almost every companion. But Varric catches him off guard and talks about the importance of surviving and appreciating with you have and letting go of regrets and I DON’T KNOW I think Varric could save this bald elf bastard I REALLY Do. 

Solas/Cadash/Varric: This is my fandom pool noodle and I will beat people with it. It’s the best of both ships above and Solas deserves a dwarf sandwhich. 

Solas/Dorian: God they’re both nerds and the way they talk to each other is SO good. There’s so much underlying respect and sympathy and admiration and then the cattiness. I love Solas inspiring Dorian to become a rebel leader in Tevinter and Dorian trying to talk Solas down. 

Solas/Josephine: God she’s so soft and fierce and I think he admires her a lot. Also there’s a bunch of cute dialogue about him going to dinners with her. @blarfkey wrote a great shippy fic for this PLEASE READ IT. 

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Solas & Lavellan: I SAID IT. I don’t vibe with the specific Solavellan romance, but I love the idea of them being friends. Platonic Solavellan can DEFINITELY be my jam. 

Solas & Cole: I like Solas and Cole a lot - I feel like nobody understands them as well as they understand each other and it’s really cute and I love how protective Solas is of him. 

My unpopular opinion about this character

God he is so smart and so stupid. I think he’s honestly on a path of self-destruction to punish himself for all his mistakes and desperately needs someone to stop him before he fucks everything up. 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

The fact that his romance was both Gender and Race locked is a crime. 

I understand the concerns about “duplicitous bisexual” stereotypes, but I think that Solas is the kind of sympathetic villain rep any sexuality would be glad to have (and don’t @ me I am bisexual and I’m not taking comments) 

I also am well aware that the race-locking could have been due to crunch - which is a widespread problem in the gaming industry. But I think it’s very important to note one of the most compelling and narratively satisfying love interests in the entire dragon age series is only available to the player origin characters with the skinniest game model. IMO that’s clear evidence for a bias against other body types within development, even if that was not the intention, that should be addressed in future games. 

Anyway I’m doing these breakdowns again, if you want to send them. I’ve done so far:

Velanna

Bianca Davri

Maria Cadash

Varric Tethras

Solas

Sitting in my inbox:

Branka 

[black-emporium-exchange]

How to sign up for Black Emporium!

Yes sweet nuglets, it's that time of year again: Time to sign up for Black Emporium!

CLICK HERE TO SIGN-UP!

Helpful Links:

How to Guide || Requests on Ao3 || Tagset || Nominations Spreadsheet || Request Database || Parent Collection (All Past Years)

Main hubs:

@black-emporium-exchange || black_emporium @ Dreamwidth || blackemporiumex on Twitter || AO3 Subcollection || Discord

Signups end: July 17, 2021 @ 8:00PM EDT || Countdown

CHANGES THIS YEAR

- We now have a brand new Request Database this year! Unlike previous years where mods had to hand copy requests into a separate Google Doc, the Database will automatically populate who and what people are requesting. (Should come in handy when writing treats or looking for inspiration.)

A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO SIGN-UPS BELOW THE CUT:

1. Sign in to Ao3

If you don’t have an Ao3 account, contact the mods for help!

2. Go to the Black Emporium signup field (link)

3. Scroll to the “Requests” field

There are several different components of this field:

Relationship:

Enter one, two, or three approved relationships that you would like to see in a fanwork created for you. This field will autosuggest approved pairings. If your pairing does not show up, it may be that you have fallen victim to a known bug of Ao3's that we cannot fix, wherein pairings in a tagset do not autofill. If this happens, simply type it in as it appears in the tagset.

Additional Tags: You can request fanfic, fanart, or both. Selecting "any" is treated the same as selecting both.

Letter: If you have written a letter on an external website (such as Tumblr/Wordpress/Dreamwidth/Google Docs), you may link it here.

Description: Here is where you can provide additional detail about what you would like to see in a fanwork, both in general and for specific pairings. Good things to include (in this box, a letter, or both) are general likes and dislikes, preferred content rating, and Do Not Wants. Please remember to put your DNW's (do not wants) in the Ao3 sign up form - we can only take action if you put your DNW in your Ao3 sign-up form because it is the only thing we can absolutely guarantee that your creator will be able to access.

Remember that anyone who creates fanwork for you must respect your Do Not Wants. If you do not enter anything into this box, and you do not have a link to a letter, we will assume that means you are okay with anything for the specified pairing(s). If you have any preferences or things you do not want, we would encourage you to add them. It makes the process smoother for all involved.

Here are some things commonly put in the description box:

Likes/Wants:

- Frequently it can be considered helpful to your author or artist if they have some idea of what you like to see, and what you don't. For example:

I love F!Adaar/Sera because I think the idea of them merrily pranking their way around Skyhold is so much fun. Please don't write me something sad about them.

Do Not Wants:

- Stuff that makes you uncomfortable, or just plain stuff that is Not Your Thing. While the Black Emporium does not believe in kink shaming or otherwise insulting people for their own personal taste, we do want people to let their artists or authors know what their limits are. You don't have to give any reasons for this; "no x/y/z" gives your creator plenty of info to discern where your limits are.

We can only take action if someone writes you something against your DNWs if it is in your sign-up.

Prompts:

Prompts can be just about anything, but they're meant to be ideas that you'd like to see that can help give your artist or author something to work off of. Sometimes this can be a prompt or a question you'd like explored (for example: What if Solas found himself falling for M!Trevelyan? How would he feel about potentially falling for a human?) or an idea you'd love to see (Josie and M!Cadash snuggled up in front of a fire, please!) or just a few words of inspiration (Leliana/Josephine - secrets, lies, ravens).

Details about your character(s):

It is fairly common for people to give basic descriptions of their characters if it is a character where their appearance or personality may vary (ex: Wardens/Hawkes/Inquisitors), particularly if fanart is requested. These descriptions can be very basic indeed (ex: purple hawke), or extremely detailed (ex: This is Celeste Trevelyan, she loves her squad more than life itself, pink hair, dusky-rose skin, built like she could bench press you six ways from sunday).

Bucket Requests:

You may also use the description field to note additional pairings that you would be willing to receive. You may find this option helpful if you are willing to consider different Warden or Inquisitor backgrounds for your specified pairing that have been nominated. You are limited to an additional ten pairings specified in this manner. Please fill out the form entirely before filling in pairings manually in the description; those that you fill in in the relationship field (the first 30) will take priority.

Things you should not put in the description field:

“I would like anything but nasty [kink]. I think people who write that are gross and nasty.”

Please do not insult people who like something you dislike. It’s Not For You, and That’s Okay. “No [kink]” expresses this much better than a long explanation of why you don’t like [kink].

“I’m only choosing this to get to three nominations. Please don’t write it.”

While we know someone who signs up for a, b and z may want a and/or b more than z, but please don’t scream to your author or artist that what you may well match on is something you don’t want as much as other pairings. Writing something like this also reduces your chance at treats as well.

“Even though I said I wanted M!Solavellan, I’m fine with F!Solavellan too if you like that better.”

Please don’t tell people that you’d be alright with non-nominated pairings, as fics with only non-nominated pairings cannot be added to the collection.

Minimums and Maximums in Requests:

You are required to fill out a minimum of three request fields (Required: Relationship, Additional Tags; Optional: Letter, Description). Remember that you may put in one OR two relationships per request field, so the maximum number of pairings that you can list in this manner is thirty. Remember also that you must fill out at least 3 request fields, so if you fill 2 out with 3 requests in each "request box", Ao3 will still want you to add one more -- it's a good rule of thumb to fill at least three out with one request, then double up as you wish.

4. Continue to the “Offers” field

There are several different components of this field:

Relationship:

Enter one, two, or three approved relationships that you would like to see in a fanwork created for you. This field will autosuggest approved pairings. If your pairing does not show up, it may be that you have fallen victim to a known bug of Ao3's that we cannot fix, wherein pairings in a tagset do not autofill. If this happens, simply type it in as it appears in the tagset. If it continues to give an error, please drop us a comment with the pairing so we can figure out what's going on. You also have the option to select any relationship.

By selecting “Any Relationship,” that means that you are willing to write or draw fanwork for, literally, ANY of the approved pairings.

The only limitation we will accept will be be a limitation of what category of relationship you want to create for: eg, Any F/F, Any M/M, Any F/M, Any Multi, Any Other, or Any Nonbinary. Anything else WILL BE REJECTED. You may NOT use this option to say, for example, “Any Cullen pairing”. This option is for any and all of the approved pairings in your designated category/categories. Do not use this option unless you are sure that any is truly what you want.

Additional Tags:

You can offer to create fanfic, fanart, or both. Selecting "any" is treated the same as selecting both.

Comments for mods:

Here is where you can provide additional detail about what you will and won’t create. As with your requests, you can provide general likes and dislikes as well as things that you absolutely will not do. If there is someone signed up you absolutely cannot stand, please write "don't match me to x" here; we won't ask details, we just won't match and this will be a fully confidential field. If you hate nugs, put it here, and we'll make sure you get at least one nug-free prompt and, ideally, a nug-free sign-up. We want you to have an assignment you'll be happy about, so if you've got something that would be triggering for you to create for, let us know. We can only take action based on our own knowledge, so the more information we have the better we can try to match you with what you really want. If you do not enter anything into this box, we will assume that means you are okay with anything for the specified pairing(s) selected. If you have any preferences or do not wants, we would encourage you to add them. It makes the process smoother for all involved. None of the mods will blab over whatever you write; we just want you to have the best time possible with your assignment.

Minimums and Maximums in Offers:

You are required to fill out a minimum of three offer fields (Required: Fandom, Relationship, Additional Tags; Optional: Comments to mods). Remember that you may put in one or two relationships per request field, so the maximum number of pairings that you can list in this manner is twenty. Remember also that you must fill out at least 3 offer fields, so if you fill 2 offer fields out with 2 offers in each "box", Ao3 will still want you to add one more offer field even though you have one over the minimum required amount of offers -- it's a good rule of thumb to fill at least three offer fields, each with one offer, then go back and double up or not, as you wish.

Bucket Offers:

You may also use the comments to mod field to note additional pairings that you would be willing to write if you have already filled thirty slots. You may find this option helpful if you are willing to consider different Warden or Inquisitor backgrounds for your specified pairing. You are limited to an additional ten pairings specified in this manner. Once again, those filled in the actual relationship: tags will take priority over those written in, so choose which pairing goes where carefully!

A Note on Matching

Black Emporium runs on OR matching, which means that you will match on one relationship out of the ones that you offer and request. You are guaranteed to match on ONE relationship; you may match on more, you may not. For your assignment, you can write what you matched on OR you can write any other couple on their sign-up form. You will only have to write or draw for ONE request, not all of them. The minimums will be one piece of artwork or one 1,000 word fic.