#that Archdemon fight was horrible

[agent-liv]

So I finished dragon age origins, there are memes

[purpledemonlilyposting]

You had us in the first half Lily but you snatched failure from the jaws of victory and came through with being astoundingly wrong.

[Lily's Post]

Lily is right in the first part. The Grey Wardens aren't uniters or bringers of peace. They fight Darkspawn and the Blight. That's it. Blights happen once every few centuries when an Archdemon dragon appears leading a horde of Darkspawn. Grey Wardens are literally the only people who can end a Blight as far as anyone knows.

The reason being is an Archdemon can just resurrect when killed by leaping into a nearby Darkspawn and reforming. Because the Darkspawn are mindless, souless manifestations of the Blight (and we found out exactly why in Veilguard. It was a lore reveal I didn't see coming but made perfect sense.)

But when a Grey Warden kills an Archdemon because they carry the Blight in them the old god soul in the Archdemon leaps into THEM and both the soul and the Warden are obliterated.

Did you actually finish Origins, Lily? You learn this fact in the final hours from Riordan. Alistair and the Hero of Ferelden have no clue why only Grey Wardens can stop the Blight up to that point because they're literally new recruits.

"There is no such thing as morality among the Wardens. Many of them are former criminals, and they'd use blood magic or something even worse to stop the Blight."

They literally did use blood magic, Lily. What do you think the Joining ritual is? They use lyirum and Archdemon blood to turn someone into a Warden. If you survive the Joining you have about 30 years until the Blight takes you completely.

So it's either that or Thedas is just exactly like it was during the First Blight, which lasted for 200 years.

"Their soldiers are conscripted"

Not always. You only paid attention to the City Elf Origin. A Dalish Elf is already Blighted from an eluvian in some ancient elven ruins, only the Joining can save their life. A Human Noble volunteers after their family is betrayed and killed. A Dwarf Commoner or Noble is basically out of options in their respective storylines and volunteers to seek asylum. Circle of Magi Origin is basically conscripted by Duncan to get them out of the trouble Jowan gets them into.

Either way Lily, duh, the main character has to become a Grey Warden somehow or there isn't a plot.

Wardens will take anyone, from anywhere, criminals, murderers and all because their primary motive is to fight the Blight. Plenty of people find purpose and meaning for the first time in their lives with the Wardens.

".A guy tries to leave the Joining, and Duncan straight up murders him."

Yeah Lily. ALMOST LIKE IT'S A DARK FANTASY SERIES. Thedas is a brutal place. You can ask Duncan about it later and he says it brought him no pleasure to kill Ser Jory, but the details of the Joining must be kept a secret.

If you're curious can see the mood of the scene where Duncan kills Ser Jory for yourself since I streamed all three games and don't skip or talk over cutscenes.

And lastly

"and kept on a leash with special tracking magic."

No Lily that's not Grey Wardens that's Circle Mages. Circle Mages have phylacteries. All Grey Wardens get is horrible dreams of the Archdemon shrieking in their minds as it controls the Darkspawn hordes like a hivemind. They can sense each other in close proximity like they can sense Darkspawn (cause they can detect the presence of the Blight in someone) but that's it.

You will see as the games go on that the Blight can do that. Anything infected with the Blight can be controlled. There's a reason the Archdemon can do this, we had it completely confirmed in Veilguard.

[ruushes]

Wound and skin for Ailill? 🙏🏽

wound: How does your OC handle being wounded? Are their wounds mostly physical? Mental? Emotional? What’s the worst wound your OC has ever experienced?

ailill ‘god won’t let me die’ mahariel:

just happened to run into the only grey warden w/in 100 miles while wandering the woods 2/3rds dead of the blight

mortally wounded at ostagar as in this great post but snatched from the embrace of death by literally fucking mythal

very nearly successfully assassinated but accidentally wound up marrying the assassin instead

had to be hauled kicking and screaming out of his sloth dream where he’d have been perfectly happy to wither away in illusory contentment forever

the whole “archdemon” thing

and that’s not even counting the significant number of times he nearly died of Bad At Fighting, but ofc the worst wound he ever experienced was losing tamlen and being exiled from his clan, which changed him fundamentally as a person and from which he never fully recovered 😊

skin: How comfortable is your OC in their skin? Do they grapple with anything that lives inside them—a beast, a curse, a failure, a monster? How do they face the smallest, weakest, most horrible version of themself? Are they able to acknowledge it at all?

oh he hates being him. even before dao he'd rather have been someone else and the game is just a recurring process of discovering ever smaller, weaker, and more horrible versions of himself lmao. i think (if he lives long enough) he'd eventually come around to accepting and forgiving his younger self tho (':

[justmaghookit]

tbh i was super disappointed with the fight against Ghilly like oh you're telling me she's just standing back there shooting bullets at me and NOT trying to stab and strangle me with her tentacles? Or sliding across the ground like a horrible octopus to slash me with her claws?

I was expecting a lot more visceral fight from her that felt like a challenge, that made me feel desperate. Especially considering what happens after the fight. Like Elg gets some unique stuff when you fight him later so why didn't she!

Ghil just gets a rehashed wizard in a bubble you need to pop fight and its :c it could have been so cool and unique like her archdemon!

i dunno about the Solas fight because i got the good end and honestly can't be bothered going back to fight him

[ell-vellan]

Okay so I'm trying to piece together from memory all the lore about ancient Thedas and in the correct order of events, with all the details I can recall, because I feel like I'm missing things.

There's plenty of holes, but I'm attempting to follow the thread of logic that leads from one thing to the next, using Solas's memories as a guide - trying very hard to understand the relationships among the creation of the Veil, the Titans and the Blight, and the Evanuris and the Archdemons, and what that might mean about Andraste/the Maker and other implications.

Any input or help is welcome lol

-Spirits use Titan blood to craft bodies for themselves, not realizing that it's blood of living things. These are the first elves, and among them what will become the Evanuris. Mythal coaxes Solas to form a physical body and join her

-in the beginning, Titans roam the earth and shape Thedas to their will, using song that connects them all somehow. Humans and Qunari aren't in Thedas yet. Spirits roam freely in the Fade without the Veil (?) Dwarves may exist underground? exist as part of the Titans, their children.

-the Titans fight back against the use of their blood. Long horrible battle against the elves, where the Evanuris come to power as generals leading the fight. Solas comes up with the idea to sever the Titans from their dreams (whatever this means? Did they have a connection to the fade at some point?) which I guess puts them in endless slumber, becoming part of the earth and letting the earth be still and unchanging for the first time. The severed dreams become the Blight, full of the Titan's nightmares and anger and loss and confusion - though the elves don't yet realize this yet. (?) dwarves possibly arise now, as children of the fallen Titans/their spilled blood/dreams/something. But since the Titans can no longer dream, dwarves can't either, and have no connection to the Fade or magic (despite Titan blood basically powering magic.)

-the Evanuris become powerful tyrants that bind other elves to them as slaves. Solas disagrees with this, Mythal doesn't listen. At some point, Solas burns Mythal's vallaslin from his face, leaving a scar.

-the Blight is a source of great power and destruction. The Evanuris realize they can use it to become like gods, and do. They each bind themselves to a (blighted?) dragon, thus making themselves effectively unkillable so long as the dragons live. (But if this is the case, were non-evanuris ancient elves without dragons also immortal, or just long-lived? And how is Mythal's spirit still alive after Inquisition - didn't get dragon die fighting Corypheus's dragon?)

-Solas leads a centuries-long rebellion against the Evanuris, setting up a network of spies, soldiers, and hideouts all across the Fade and Thedas, to help ferry freed slaves to safety. The growing threat of the Dread Wolf pushes the Evanuris to tap into the Blight (either they started this in response to Solas' war with them, or they ramped up their use, not sure) to defeat him.

-Solas panics, begs Mythal to stop the Evanuris from using Blight. It seems at this point (according to the Solas memory) that Solas is already leading his rebellion as he asks Mythal to leave the Evanuris and join him. She doesn't, but she does approach the other Evanuris about their use of Blight, and they murder her.

-at some point, humans arrive on Thedas from somewhere. In a memory, Solas (as a spirit) said he had no desire to live as humans do, so they must have existed in ancient Thedas as well, somewhere.

-To seal away the Blight, the Evanuris, and the Forgotten Ones(?) (rival elven warlords to the Evanuris) he tricks them all into an ancient elven palace and creates the Veil, which is held in place by their now-immortal lifespans. The Evanuris are meant to sleep forever in this prison. Their dragons go...underground somewhere and Solas forgets about them, or something? And become known as Archdemons.

-Arlathan falls, all ancient elven knowledge and power lost due to the creation of the Veil, elves flee and scatter and lose all culture. It's possible Solas didn't intend for the Veil to surround the entire world, not just the Evanuris prison, or to destroy the elves, but something does go wrong at the end, and Solas is knocked unconscious for several millennia as a result, waking up nearly powerless a year before the Inquisition.

-humans of fledgling Tevinter scavenge what's left from Arlathan to become a great empire ruled by mages. Some mages can freely enter the Fade at will: dreamers, or somniari.

-the sleeping Evanuris can apparently still whisper to human mages in dreams (not sure why some humans can access the Fade and some can't) via the fact that their dragons exist physically in Thedas (?) and influence the minds of somniari. It's through this method they learn blood magic, and the whispers of the Evanuris via the dragons become what the Tevinters call the Old Gods. The Old Gods are given names and worshipped by ancient Tevinter. The Evanuris cajole the magisters to tear open the Veil in order to set them free, and they do so - instead unleashing the Blight. The first magisters, Corypheus among them, are infected by the Blight and become darkspawn. The "Golden City" (the Evanuris prison) is now called the Black City, as it is Blighted.

-Darkspawn are mindless killing machines (a few have some higher intelligence) connected to Archdemons by the song of the Blight, and are driven to dig underground unceasingly to find and free them. Cycles of Blights are unleashed on the world, with Archdemons leading darkspawn in mass world destruction. Grey Wardens are created in response to this threat, possibly influenced by the host spirit of Mythal's wisdom and knowledge of how to kill the Archdemon.

-at some point, a human (possible mage) woman named Andraste is said to be born in the Almarri tribe near present day Denerim, who becomes enslaved, and will lead a revolt against Tevinter. Her story gives rise to Andrastianism. It's hinted that she was a carrier of Mythal's spirit. She was said to have troubling dreams from childhood of a being she called the Maker, a supreme being who she believed abandoned the world when humans began worshipping the Old Gods. According to legend, her singing called to the Maker, and he invited her to his side, and she would encourage him to rejoin humanity and forgive them. Ashes reportedly belonging to Andraste were protected by at least one guardian spirit and had curative properties. The Chantry becomes the dominant religion of humans in Thedas.

-At some point, Qunari come to northern Thedas, chased from their home by something called "The Devouring Storm," and begin a long-standing war with Tevinter. A select few are born with the dragonlike ability to breathe fire, and dragons are held as sacred as anything is held in their culture.

-During the events of the Inquisition, Solas becomes very upset at the very idea of Grey Wardens, calling them fools who are bad at battling the Blight. He asks Blackwall what the Wardens intend to do when the last Archdemon is slain. He says, "Without the Archdemons, there can be no Blight. Is that the reasoning?" Blackwall confirms it is and asks where he's going with this. Solas says mildly, "Nowhere. I hope they are correct."

-Morrigan is able to use a ritual that captures the soul of a slain archdemon, untainted by Blight, into an embryo of a child fathered by a Grey Warden. (Is this the fragment of the Evanuris that was put into the Archdemon? And where did it go when it was taken by Mythal - and then, both presumably taken by Solas? Did he simply gain their power and wisdom?)

-With each Archdemon slain over the course of Theodosian history, the Evanuris assumably become mortal and die - thus the Veil must have grown weaker around the Evanuris prison, allowing more Blight to escape. Likely this is what so worries Solas?

From all this it seems it goes something like: Titan blood leads to Evanuris. Evanuris taking Titan blood leads to war. War leads to creation of Blight and destruction of Titans. Evanuris using Blight leads to Archdemons and then the Veil. Archdemons lead to Old Gods, Tevinter, the Black City, and darkspawn. Darkspawn unleash Archdemons, leading to Blights. Killing Archdemons leads to Veil weakening, freeing Evanuris and more Blight. End goal of Evanuris = ??? Blighted world??

Regardless, everything is Solas's fault.

Question I still have:

-What were the Archdemons attempting during each Blight - were they being directed by the Evanuris, or simply mindlessly, furiously destroying the world out of pure Titan anger and rage and revenge? If directed by the dreaming Evanuris, what was their end goal? Revenge on the world?

-If Solas never bound a dragon to his life force, why is he still immortal? Were all elves immortal because they were connected innately to the Fade? We know Felassan also survived into the modern era.

-Why is all this revolved around dragons, why are they special like this?

-If anything about Andraste was true, who was she getting visions of in her sleep? If she was a carrier of Mythal's spirit, was she getting some of Mythal's memories about Solas?

-There were hints that griffons were already in existence before Ghilan'nain made her creatures, and that they had a special hatred of darkspawn and the Blight. Why?

-if the Inquisitor goes with Solas into the Fade, is she going to now be immortal?

-Solas was able to cure the Blight from his red lyrium dagger. How? And how does he plan to call the Blight in the Fade? I assume it has something to do with atoning for his part in its creation, but...how? We know a select few cases where the Blight was cured from objects and people, but not HOW.

-the red lyrium idol. First, what WAS it? Did it depict Solas and Mythal? Why was it blighted and underground? Tbh, I'm sure a lot of this is just something they had to hand wave away for game mechanics and story purposes but I want to UNDERSTAND.

[housederiva]

Ok since you've finished the game now I have a question bc I feel like I have a kinda stupid complaint. Do you think there are too many dragons in this game? This might just be because I did mythal, the formless one, and the secret third blighted dragon in the crossroads all one after another but I was honestly kinda sick of dragons near the end. I think it mightve been better if the blighted dragons that attack the cities weren't dragons but something else? Like the only horrible ghilan'nain creation we see is when her archdemon goes weird so idk I think it would have been cool if the blighted dragons were unique horrible creations. And that would have made the one in the crossroads more unique too. Again, maybe a stupid complaint for a game called dragon age but I was wondering what you think

You know what dear listener? I do think there are too many dragons to the point where it wasn't like 'awesome cool we're fighting a dragon this is going to be so scary' it was 'great time to button mash until it's dead and move on to the next'

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 4/5

Book Blurb:

I locked away my magic and ran from home for a good reason. So why am I ready to undo everything when my demon ex finally tracks me down? 

You can’t outrun your demons—McKenna Ellerbeck knows this all too well. She’s been running from literal demons for a decade, one that will stop at nothing to take McKenna’s magic for their own and one that shattered her heart by grasping for dark power. After a horrible run-in with hellhounds on the streets of Paris, McKenna is ready to hide again when she’s confronted by her ex, the Archdemon of Desire Remiel Blake. Remi, the sexiest of gender-shifting demons, calls in an old debt that McKenna owes her, though unlike other deals the terms of fulfillment are simple: all she needs to do is return to her hometown of Arcadia Commons, Massachusetts, for seven days. Disgruntled and disguised at her own insistence, McKenna returns home to the magical community, intent on simply staying in her hotel room watching pay-per-view. But with her high school reunion conveniently happening in the same hotel she’s staying at—the one owned by her ex-boyfriend Bastien Lemaire—and her brother mysteriously picking fights with the town’s most prominent witch family, she finds she can’t stay away for long and decides it’s finally time to face her past and the witches, werewolves, demons, and friends she left behind.

If you miss Supernatural, True Blood, or Buffy, you'll love this sexy and magical contemporary fantasy from a marvelous new voice in fiction, Katie Hallahan!

Review:

When your ex is the demon of lust drags you back to your high school reunion to face everyone you left behind after an incident that ended in the death of your best friend... you do not expect to face off against another demon or to possibly get back together with your hot demon ex. The first book in a series, the story follows McKenna Ellerback, a woman running from her past, from her hot demon ex, and from her own magic. McKenna made a mistake... something that ended in the death of her best friend and now she's been on the run ever since, yet when she has a horrible run in with hellhounds she is saved by the very ex she's been running away from for the past decade, the Archdemon of Desire, Remiel "Remi" blake. Remi is as tempting as she is cunning... and McKenna owes her and she is here to collect..., in the form of McKenna returning back to her hometown of Arcadia Commons for seven days to attend their high school reunion. McKenna doesn't want any part of that, she doesn't want to face her other ex or any of the friends she's abandoned.... yet strane things are happening that has her drawn back into facing her past and her friends.... and maybe her own feelings for Remi. This was definitely a fun paranormal read filled with drama, friendship troubles, relationship healing, demons, and more! It's a fun first book in the series and I am so curious where the second book goes and how McKenna and Remi's relationship will be in the second book! McKenna and Remi are definitely interesting characters and their relationship was really fun to read, from high school lovers to exes... and to something more. Remi is a really fun love interest and I was so rooting for her the entire time. I definitely think you should pick up this book if you are looking for a fun sapphic paranormal romance with drama and mystery!

Release Date: November 12, 2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Orbit Books | Orbit for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[astarionass]

ive been meaning to talk about my warden, iveani ashavise mahariel.

my darling, my love, the light of my life, the start of my love for the da universe. specifically, i wanna talk about how her fight with the archdemon went down. lots of canon divergence and bending canon under the cut!

so, as far as the actual game dynamic went? my game glitched. Hard. it freaked out and cut all three of my party members from me so i had to fight the archdemon alone, and it became my canon because i was not throwing away my two and a half grueling hours fighting that stupid dragon for nothing. alistair did the ritual with morrigan, so iveani got to live. its fine. its all FINE (narrator voice: it was not, in fact, fine!)

..

now, for how it actually happened? iveani is 27 when the dragon fight happens. she’s engaged to zevran, she thinks she has a good ass life ahead of her, the old god baby ritual is done well in advance of the final fight, but alistair and morrigan both accidentally forgot to inform iveani that it was done and successful. iveani doesnt know, right?

her and alistair had a huge fight about it. iveani reasoned that if no one had to die and everyone got to live and go home happy and alistair didnt even have to interact with the kid what was the fucking harm right? (iveani absolutely feels guilty after the fight, but at the time she was more concerned about making sure everyone got to go home). but because tensions were high, no one was communicating with each other

a few days before the final fight, iveani was sitting watch one night, near delirious from insane amounts of stress and lack of sleep, watching the camp. it was a rare moment where everyone else was finally sleeping peacefully for once, and she heard it.

the calling.

she panicked, silently of course, because surely she was not about to die right before she had a chance to live. right? she had at least 30 years, theres a lot you can do in 30 years! she wants to marry zevran! she was set to be bonded to tamlen, and that turned out horribly, and now shes gunna be taken from zevran too?

she kinda turned it over in her head for a few hours deciding what to do with this information. she eventually decided, you know what? fuck it. if im going down im going down swinging. she gathered up her gear, and left camp. she left her dog to watch over her companions, left no note, and bailed. she was letting the calling lead her to where she needed it to, and decided that alistair would likely be not far behind her and he was more likely to explain what was going on. she left no note, no explanation, she gazed one last time at zevrans peaceful face as he slept, mentally said her apologies, and walked into the night expecting to be dead in a few days time.

she could not of been more wrong.

see, iveani was not actually experiencing the calling. her extreme levels of stress and sleep deprivation paired with the trauma she’s suffered as the leader of this whole shebang manifested as hallucinations. as a sufferer of ptsd induced hallucinations, it sucks! iveani is not thinking clearly though, how can she? she thinks she’s dying.

eventually, as luck would have it, her instincts lead her to the archdemon’s lair. at this point, the final battle area of the game is being absolutely swarmed with darkspawn. whatever amount there is in the game, double that. its bad. its nasty. everyone is fighting to stay alive, and theyre all swarmed so no one has time to go look for iveani. they just have to hope and pray she’s okay and isn’t dead somewhere

(shes going to wish she was dead by the end of this)

iveani spends several grueling hours whittling down that archdemon. just herself, her blades, some poisons, and pure adrenaline fueled savagery. as soon as she strikes the final blow, she expects to feel the sensation of death wash over her. it doesnt

(meanwhile, darkspawn start breaking off at the battle site, and it clicks to everyone there that the archdemon has to be dead, and somehow, miraculously, somewhere iveani is alive. that reinvigorated the team and they all doubled down on clearing out darkspawn as fast as they could so zevran could start to go searching for her)

iveani is kinda flabbergasted. she’s made her peace with death, and shes still here? in her delirium, she briefly makes the connection that alistair and morrigan mustve completed the ritual. thats the only explanation she has.

she sits in shock for several more hours after the fact. she doesnt know how long she’s been down here (days). shes confused, tired, and exhausted. she passes out, severely injured, and eventually wakes up an unknown amount of time later to make her way home

halfway through the deep roads on her journey back to the surface, she encounters her party. zevran is at the lead, manic with stress and pure desire to just find her (alive, he tells himself, potentially foolishly), and he has alistair, morrigan, wynne, and leliana with him. alistair, to leas the way, and morrigan and leliana and theyre her best friends, and wynne because no one knows what state she’ll be in when they find her and having a healer readily available is the best bet. iveani thinks she’s hallucinating again, until the full weight of zevran slams into her as he’s babbling near incoherent in antivan as hes constricting her to his chest. hes elated, iveani is confused, and the other four are staring horrified at the state of her

she looks like shes been chewed up and spat out and then stomped on. she looks awful. alistair has to pry zevran off of iveani so wynne can tend to her. the minute wynne starts doing her thing, iveani collapses unconscious. zevran freaks, wynne assures him that honestly its best if iveani is asleep for this. zevran stubbornly carries iveani back to the surface even though alistair has more of the bulk suited for this. its slow going because of this

iveani sleeps for several days, monitored by wynne and morrigan both, and its during this time that they all learn iveani is pregnant. is her pregnancy surviving any of that viable? no! absolutely not! but this is my story and plot armor and all that. that baby eventually grows up to become gilraen, who is rook, leader of the veilguard.

when iveani does come to, its to zevran tenderly rewrapping one of the more severe wounds, and he rips into iveani for what she did, but hes blubbering the whole time and switching back and forth between trade and antivan so iveani is confused (and making a mental note to learn antivan)

iveani is then given the rundown of her injuries, healing process, update on battle and loss count, etc, and then is dropped the bomb that she is pregnant. iveani is horrified. she would not of been as stupidly risky as she was if she had known (or so she likes to think).

iveani is tired. shes beaten and battered down mentally, and couldnt believe she was fighting a war for shemlen that she didnt have a choice in fighting, let alone LEADING. with leliana’s help, she’s able to go incognito. to the public, its made aware that the hero of fereldan died in a freak accident, and zevran also goes dark after his talon murdering spree in awakenings. both of them settle down in orlais (which goes over Real well during the ventori take over of wardens in orlais)

iveani gets to live happily with her family, but history will remember the hero of fereldan as being a dead elf. she prefers it this way

and thats the story of how one dalish elf singlehandedly ended the fifth blight. history books will never get the story right, but shes okay with that. she gets to be a normal person in thedas again, what the shemlen paint her as is now none of her concern

[dancing--lights]

Trying to talk sense into the First Warden instead of punching him during the siege of Weisshaupt, when playing as a warden, goes so hard, actually.

Going from Rook looking at that toy griffin at the beginning of the game and admitting "yeah, I was impulsive. It worked out this time, but it could have gone horribly wrong. I need to get better at seeing the bigger picture," to constantly being reminded of your less than stellar reputation among the other wardens, to effectively being pushed out of them entirely by the First Warden and blamed for the current state of the blight. To then choose to look past all that, to try to reason with him, warden to warden, because you share the same fight. You took the same oath. Its in your blood. To recognize that, underneath it all, he's acting out of fear and desperation, because he's a warden to his bones, and this blight is new and different than what he's been standing vigilance against for years, not what its supposed to be. And on top of that, he's hearing the Calling. He needs someone to help him see past that. So Rook tries. And then to hear him say "you were right. I wasn't," and later, when he's preparing to fulfill his oath and slay an archdemon, "you're the real warden." Feels good. Feels real good.

[fangsandfeels]

Oct 11 - Favorite Awakenings scene/dialogue

All dialogues with Justice and Sigrun are my favorite as they reveal entirely new worlds and philosophies.

Justice shows the part of the Fade that few non-magi actually know: that it's not just a place of demons and horrors. It's also a place of spirits, who are genuinely sympathetic and curious, and kind. They reach out to mortals in their most horrible moments (Cole, Wynn), when these mortals are completely and utterly alone - and they stay with them. Or they will fight for the doomed and trapped souls because they can't stand seeing their pain and let them be hurt any longer. It's incredible, how powerful and yet, how innocent they are.

(this is also why I have always hated that "Justice becoming Vengeance = bad" in Dragon Age II. It's not that I'm opposed to the idea of spirits becoming more aggressive and getting corrupted by the influence of the mortal world, but making vengeance the scapegoat yet again and demonizing it. I feel like Justice becoming Judgement would be more fitting.)

Sigrun's story and interactions with the world show the perspective of a Legion of the Dead fighter. And, I sympathize with Legion of the Dead immensely. They're basically Grey Wardens, minus the darkspawn blood transformation and heroic aura around the name, but equally doomed - and they know it. What makes things even more tragic is that their work is necessary -- they are the ones standing between darkspawn, but also Orzammar and the rest of the world that couldn't give a shit unless a new Archdemon is awoken. However, at the same time, people like Sigrun end up being Legionnaires because their own homeplace wants nothing to do with them. It doesn't give them a chance because they were born castless, it punished them for getting forcefully drugged into crime or resorting to crime to feed themselves, and then it offered them ways to die - either by execution or joining the Legion of the Dead. Given that the Darkspawn are the main threat for Orzammar, Orzammar is shooting itself in the knee with that approach.

And, yes, Bernadette absolutely kept coming up with very important tasks for Sigrun, delaying her long walks over and over. And Sigrun amasses an ample collection of surface world trinkets, from books to plants to toy figurines - sometimes she jokes about Bernadette inheriting her collection once she is gone. Bernadette doesn't think it's funny, but plays along.

(Also Bernadette would have never told Anders to give up Sir Pounce-a-Lot. Are you fucking kidding me? Having a pet doesn't make you too soft, it keeps you sane - Bernadette would know she gave him the cat in the first place and in this essay I-)

[uchidachi]

Going to try to do @thievinghippo ‘s very cool list of Dragon Age questions for October (lets see how far i get before i forget eep)

Oct 01 - Introduce your Hero of Ferelden

My Warden is Solona Amell! She’s a spirit healer and world’s biggest hypocrite and I love her very much. She makes bad life choices 🩷

She’s bi and polyamorous, she romanced Alistair during DAO but he died fighting the Archdemon. Now she’s in a sprawling polycule. Like the katamari of polycules. 😂

Also I headcanon that the other potential Wardens escaped their horrible horrible fates even though Duncan didn’t recruit them (Surana, Mahariel, and Cousland are all in the polycule, too 🤣)

[spainkitty]

Okay. I think it's time now to talk about how increasing uneasy and disgusted I am by how Bioware just dropped the ball on the Rebel mages being in Corypheus'/the Venatori's thrall rather than the red templars. I already hinted at why. Look again at that sentence.

The mages and the red templars.

The mages are not red. They are not stuffed full of poisonous lyrium that destroys the mind and will of the addicted users. They are not even being controlled by a singular blood mage like Erimond and the Warden mages.

And it's fucking INFURIATING.

The other night I had to murder Fiona in the game in cold friggin blood and I want to know why. I WANT TO KNOW WHY, BIOWARE. WHAT THE F--

Okay. Okay. Calm down. Lemme explain.

The red templars are fucking morons. It is totally their own damn fault for blindly following their commanders and chugging down red lyrium. I made a post about that already. The templars were stupid and let themselves be bamboozled for a myriad of reasons that don't excuse their actions. BUT, but they are in some ways just as much victims, or at least portrayed that way to an extent. They are taught to trust their officers, they did what they were told like they've done for most of their lives. Most of them had no idea about Corypheus or just what this red lyrium would do to them (though they DID know it was bad, they didn't know specifically HOW). They became mindless violent monsters, almost completely unrecognizable, and horribly, irrevocably addicted to this poison they were tricked into taking by commanders they've been taught to trust. It's shitty. It's horrible. And they have no way out if you don't do Champions of the Just. They are unsaveable. Even if you can get them out, even if they realize it's wrong later and try to leave, they'll just die slowly and agonizingly.

But the mages don't have that reason for staying with the Venatori!!! They are not being compelled or corrupted or forcibly addicted to the only thing keeping them alive even while it's killing them! Their minds are not being bent and rent and torn inside-out by this super-heroin-opium allegory. One person (Fiona) made a deal with one dude (Alexius). And a shit ton of people didn't like it!! They only agreed to go along with it because they thought they had no other recourse, that the templars were about to break down the doors and murder them all, and the Tevinter Imperium, for all its flaws, would accept them in a way most of Thedas would not.

But the moment, the FIRST MOMENT, they saw the Elder One-- Hell, the first moment Fiona realized the Venatori were a world-ending cult worshipping a FUCKING DARKSPAWN MAGISTER, she should've been outtie! There is nothing, absolutely NOTHING, holding her to the contract! THEY HAVEN'T EVEN LEFT FERELDEN!! They outnumbered the Venatori when they were still in Redcliffe! Fiona was a Grey Warden! A Grand Enchanter! Why didn't she refuse to go? Why didn't she refuse to fight for them? Why did all those mages, so many of which didn't even like the contract and were not legally bound to it anyway since Fiona accepted it on their behalf without their approval, just not go?

'Oh, Corypheus had a fake archdemon.' Okay, but did he fly it to Redcliffe? Did he use it like a border collie herding the little sheepies? I think a whole lot of people would've noticed that!!! So no.

'Oh, there were so many Venatori!' Yes, and there were hundreds of mages in the Rebellion.

'Oh, the Rebels didn't want to fight!' No, they didn't want to fight the TEMPLARS. They didn't want to tear up the countryside and get innocent people killed. But how is that the same as not wanting to fight a cult of Tevinter supremists wanting to sacrifice them to their Elder God's war effort!? THAT'S A VERY DIFFERENT BALLGAME. They were at Redcliffe because they didn't want to fight in a war, so I'm pretty sure they would not want to fight Corypheus' war, either.

Okay, finally, let's say they managed to get tricked all the way to wherever Alexius shuffled them. Let's say they made it all the Corypheus and realized "oh shit, this is NOT what we signed up for", but it's too late because NOW they're outnumbered, NOW they're outgunned, NOW there's a fake archdemon. Sure. Okay. But then. The attack on Haven. THEY WERE UNDER NO COMPULSION TO KEEP FIGHTING. They could have easily given themselves up and surrendered to the Inquisition. They could've turned on their Venatori enslavers and betrayers because NOTHING WAS FORCING THEM TO FIGHT. There is no reason why Fiona, FIONA, MAKER-FORSAKEN FIONA, would fight to the death against the Inquisition/for Coprypheus!! She has no loyalty to the Venatori. She thought she was getting her people to TEVINTER, a legitimate if problematic empire to the north, using a legally binding contract with a magister, but the moment the jig was up, there's nothing legally binding her. It was all a sham. SO WHY THE FUCK DID I HAVE TO KILL HER? Hey, couldn't I at least STOP HER? TRY to reason with her??

I hate it. I hate it. I HATE IT. Bioware you're so fucking stupid. This doesn't make any sense, and I'm even madder about it because the Envy demon shit SLAPPED and the mission with Leliana (and Dagna) fucking rocks. HOW DARE YOU, BIOWARE.

[knightoflodis]

You know. It has been so refreshing reading stories where they set up the main protagonists as the “baddies” and then actually have them do horrible things and not pull their punches, instead of the protagonists just being misunderstood and being flat out nice guys that kill almost no one to no one. And I say that because I just watched an episode of “An Archdemon’s Dilemma” which sets up the main character as a “bad guy” but he only ever really does good guy things and his actions are just misunderstood and the “church” are the real villains. While before this I have been reading “The Demon’s Darling Daughter” where the main protagonists are “devils” and they fight against the “neraphim” which are basically an angel race. And while the neraphim are actually evil, the devils are not the good guys. They aren’t just “misunderstood”. Like. Yeah. They do a lot of good things for people. But they only do it for selfish reasons, they flat out purposefully manipulate people, and they 100% torture and kill their enemies. Even the child protagonist gets in on some of this revenge taking and manipulation. She isn’t that innocent either. And. It. Is. SO NICE! None of this “the demons are secretly all good guys and super nice and have the best morals”. It’s all “their morals are twisted and they aren’t squeaky clean, but they don’t need to be”. THAT is how you do demons as “good guys”.

Also. I have been also reading “The Male Lead’s Little Lion Daughter” where they also torture people and the daughter asks for it to be done. I have also been reading “A Livid Lady’s Guide to Getting Even” and even though she does do some good guy things, she is 100% a villainess that has innocent blood on her hands as well as bad guy blood on her hands.

I am so glad that I have finally found stories that don’t have their protagonists be sheep in wolves clothing. (There have been SO MANY of those stories where one of the leads is some sort of “demon lord” and they don’t do any demon lord things)

[druckkugelschreiber]

I got tagged my @mxkelsifer for WIP Wednesday and I know it's not wednesday but the sudden surge of Loghain love inspired me to post a rather old scene of Nydhena and Loghain bonding shortly after she recruits him into the wardens.

I mean it's technically not a WIP anymore, because who knows when and if I'll ever get back to it, but it's Loghain Love Friday, because I said so and Nydhena and Loghain are insufferably cute and always make me happy.

I stood on a rock, guarding over the others bathing in the river below. There weren’t any darkspawn in the immediate area, but they were close enough to whisper at the edges of my consciousness. Close enough for me not to risk all of us being unarmed at once. 

Armour clanked behind me. That could only be Loghain. Most men looked ridiculous in such huge and bulky armour. Cailan had looked ridiculous. Like a boy playing at war, but Loghain didn’t.

“Can you sense them?” he stopped next to me, arms crossed, looking even more like Shale’s little brother. 

“Yes, but they are not close… yet. I assume if I can sense them, they can sense me but with the archdemon I’m not sure if they’ll come for us”, I turned to look at him, the stark line of his nose. “Have the dreams started yet?”

“The dreams?”

“There are very specific Warden nightmares to be had during a blight”, my eyes followed the flow of the river again. 

“Yes”, his voice got sombre, “they have started.”

“Are you alright?” I glanced at him. The sunlight hit his hair just right and showed that it was an even deeper black than my own. 

His eyebrows rose in surprise. “You worry about me?”

“Of course.” 

He shifted his weight. “They aren’t all that different from the nightmares I had since Ostagar.”

This shitty war. Leaving nightmares with all of us. “I’m sorry.”

To describe his expression as flabbergasted would have been an understatement. “Whatever for?”

“Ostagar was horrible for everyone, you included”, I turned to face him, “I can’t imagine what it must have been like, leaving them all to die. Not only Cailan.”

Loghain’s shoulders sagged. “I know every single name of the soldiers who died on that field.”

I averted my gaze. “I don’t know how to do it.”

“Send them all to their deaths?” Loghain’s voice was the softest I had ever heard it.

“Yes, they are only here because of me, if I hadn’t”-

“If we don’t fight the blight now, it’ll catch up with all of us eventually. You couldn’t have spared them, you could have only made them live a little longer, not even years maybe”, Loghain’s hand landed on my shoulder and I looked at him more out of surprise than anything. “Nydhena.” Hearing my name from his lips made my spine tingle. “You are doing the right thing.”

“I’m not sure if you saying that inspires confidence”, I said with a crooked smile. 

Loghain scoffed, “take that from the man who fought in the rebellion not the one who messed this up”, he vaguely waved around, “but even then I did win the military part of the civil war.”

My smile grew more genuine. “Careful, if you show humour people might actually like you.”

A dry chuckle escaped him. “I doubt we run into the danger of that happening anytime soon.” He nodded towards the river where all of the others were watching us. 

Once they noticed my attention they quickly went back to whatever they were doing, except Leliana who was actually glaring. 

I glared right back. “Judgy bunch, aren’t they?”

Loghain’s hand still rested on my shoulder, a calming, grounding weight. I barely resisted the urge to lean into him. “I don’t think they are judgier than most.”

“Well, I think they are judgier than most”, I sighed, “thank you for coming up here.”

“Of course, I heard your argument with Wynne the other night”, his voice got that soft rumble again. “I wanted to make sure you have someone to talk to. Someone who knows the burden of command.”

Being surprised by and around Loghain was rapidly turning into a thing. “I kind of thought you hated me.” 

Loghain shook his head. “I don’t hate you. I respect you. More than I can say.”

My heart lightened. “It means a lot coming from you. Even elven children in the alienage heard stories about the rebellion and Loghain MacTir.” 

Loghain raised a doubtful eyebrow. “Oh really?”

“Yes… so how do you do it? Send your soldiers off to war?”

“I remind myself what I’m fighting for”, he squeezed my shoulder, “you are fighting not only for Ferelden but all of Thedas.” 

“No pressure then.”

He chuckled. “None at all.”

Both of us grinned in faint amusement. 

“I need to thank you", Loghain said with more importance than that sentence should carry.

“I think I can only take so many surprises from you in one day.”

His lips actually curled into a miniscule smile. You know I had never found human men all that attractive, but there was something about Loghain’s permanently sour expression lifting to reveal that twitch of lips, that demanded my attention and more. “You stood up for me in front of all of your friends. That demands respect.”

“Well, you are a person and you deserve to be treated like one. Also, I meant what I said”, I scowled. 

“I believe that now. And for that I want to thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Do you think she’ll murder me if I keep my hand on your shoulder any longer?” Loghain said, his gaze settling on Leliana.

I snorted, “maybe.”

With that small smile, that made everything seem so much easier, he pulled his hand away. 

[elfmagesurana]

so because they all exist in canon they just die, i have made OCs of the other origins in my main surana playthrough

amell is already a harrowed mage, around anders age, and he is primarily a primal mage like most circle mages. hes a massive dick tho, cos hes my 'evil' playthrough character of sorts. to the point that anders fights to not mention how horrible it was to know amell cos he's such an ass. he wants to go to tevinter for the mage freedom part, but refuses to 'lose' by becoming a blood mage, and the slavery part wouldn't necessarily be a deal breaker. dies during uldreds uprising. Would have romanced morrigan and recruited loghain and sent alistair away to be a drunk :(

mahariel was my take on a dalish elf scared and distrustful of humans cos she's seen them hurt her people so much. dies from the taint, but shes surrounded by her family and friends in her final moments and gets told about what happened to her parents. Would have romanced no one, she would have did the ultimate sacrifice and died cos while she didn't like being a warden or never being able to go home, she still respected them

tabris is a devout andrastian and was looking forward to her wedding day, but that's not to last ofc. She tries despite her hardships to find the good in people, or else her suffering made her worse. she gets executed by hanging, probably either in the alienage or they dump her body there, but either way those scumbag humans are dead that hurt her and her cousin. Would have romanced leliana and killed the archdemon herself w the dark ritual cos shes afraid of death

brosca gets caught in the proving and dies in a cell next to her friend, that's canon we See the dead body (bones?) but she cared for her sister and sometimes her mom, and leske and she was so gnc. doesn't regret what she did but hopes her sister makes it and is happy. Would have romanced zevran and refused the dark ritual and sacrifice alistair

aeducan is similar to trian and everything wrong w dwarven society so bhelen never felt bad about killing his brother. would have been a deadbeat dad to that kid he has too. dies fighting a hurlock in the deep roads ofc, and wouldn't have romanced anyone cos there aren't dwarf female companions in dao and done an ultimate sacrifice death

cousland is a rich snotty noble who im torn on making a man or woman, but either way they don't respect other people especially those below them and would have been another evil run and they r devout andrastian as well, but the shitty kind unlike tabris, so they're v much a 'rich waspy christian' stereotype and they also suck, and had a one night stand w that one guy in the prologue I forgor his name. incredibly selfish. would have tried romancing zevran as a side piece and leliana as a main course so to speak. becomes king and kills alistair cos he's a theirin :( oh I guess I made him a guy lol

[wrdncmmndr]

there is something just desperate about the grey wardens. desperation is inherent to the wardens. they are an order built on desperation. an order born in two centuries of blight. how desperate would they have been to consider drinking darkspawn blood? you know? the thing that taints you? drives you mad? gives you a slow horrible death?

how desperate would they be to sacrifice themselves to kill the archdemon? (a noble sacrifice for sure. brave. but still desperate.) this is an order who accepts EVERYONE no matter what. how many grey wardens only became grey wardens because they did not have another option? joining the wardens is a desperate act for desperate people (of course there are others who join the wardens bc they think it is noble, bc they want to fight darkspawn, bc it gives them a purpose. but i feel that they make up the minority)

the grey wardens are an order born out of desperation. filled with desperate people. who will do ANYTHING out of desperation to win their battle. in war; victory. (the costs don't matter. desperate times call for desperate measures.)

“You will guard them and they will hate you for it. Whenever there is not a Blight actively crawling over the surface, humanity will do its best to forget how much they need you. And that's good. We need to stand apart from them, even if they have to push us away to make us do it. That is the only way we can ever make the hard decisions.”