#that Archdemon fight was horrible

[agent-liv]

So I finished dragon age origins, there are memes

[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 (':

[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*

[tcfactory]

Not quite at the end of Veilguard (just did a fight against two dragons), but I'm a good ways in, so some assorted spoilery thoughts under the cut. Tl;dr.: this is a fun, if kinda mid fantasy game if you aren't really invested in previous DA stories or lore and only care about what this game offers as a standalone. If you liked DA for the gameplay (DAV plays more like a Mass Effect title with a fantasy coat of paint, both in gameplay and I'd argue that also in story structure) or the lore (so, uuuuh. How do you feel about retcons? And past choices not mattering at all) then you might want to give this one a skip. Or only get it on a huge discount.

First off, to be entirely transparent: I did not expect to like this game going in. I bounced off of Inquisition for the most part and I only get to play DAV thanks to the generosity of a friend, so I tried to come in with very low expectations in the hopes that I'd be pleasantly surprised maybe? So far it's a very mixed bag with decent highs and some very low lows.

Also worth mentioning that my special niche interest is qunari (Sten and the Arishok are some of my favorite characters in the entire series) so I expected to just starve on that front, which did not happen, but I'm side-eyeing some of what I got, so.. we will get there.

First off: the first portion of the game has an identity crises where it can't decide who it wants to be for. To get new people oriented there's extensive, tiresome exposition and some horrendously bad tutorializing dialogue - some of the worst offenders are like the ballista introduction, where you shoot the wall and Bellara immediately exclaims "Look! Darkspawn just where you broke the wall!" when I was still looking straight at said darkspawn - that sort of eases off eventually, but having the characters be Captain Obvious for 12 hours before they are allowed to be their own characters again sure was A Choice.

At the same time, the prologue doesn't work if you are not familiar with the old games - it expects you to maybe care about Solas and definitely care about Varric and Harding and have an understanding of wtf is going on, otherwise it loses any and all emotional impact.

It could be a setup to show that the characters can get hurt (I got Harding injured and seeing her heal bit by bit was cool), but if it was then it didn't deliver on that promise.

Still on the topic of things that don't work for me: I think the two 'corrupted ancient elven gods' we got as main villains are boring as all get out. It's not necessary for a game to have an interesting villain to be good - DA:O's main antagonistic force is the Archdemon and Urthemiel is not the height of complexity either - but the blighted gods are only here to illustrate/excuse Solas' hubris. If Idiot McEgg instead accidentally set free some ancient demon from the Fade that then went and turned a slumbering Archdemon into a Super-Mega-Death-Archdemon to make a mega-blight, we would still have essentially the same kind of villain, but maybe with less lore retcon.

Speaking of Solas: I like his character arc - guy who goes along with the wrong decisions despite knowing better starts to triple down on his horrible choices to prove that he's right, he's been right all along!! is a good character concept - but the lore retcons around him genuinely pissed me off (he sucked enough as is! you didn't need to throw out the old lore to make him the reason for everything bad ever!!) and I hate how the game keeps pushing this angle that see, we might not be on the same side completely, but he's giving us invaluable information all the time! So far the only thing he told me that I haven't figured out on my own (I'm sure I never would have thought about getting a Fade-expert and a dragon-slayer when the enemy is meddling with the Fade and attacking with dragons. What a novel idea to call a firefighter when the roof's on fire.) is that I need to kill the Archdemons before I can kill the villains and that entire scene is a trashfire and a half.

On the flipside, I genuinely liked the siege at Weisshaupt. It was one of the highs of the game so far, few and far between as those are. The Cauldron and the fight against the two blighted dragons were also cool.

There are some really atmospheric areas in the game - the Hossberg Wetlands and the Necropolis are the biggest standouts for me - where I sometimes just stop to soak in the creepy-gross / spooky-charming vibes respectively. When we first step into that blighted village in act 1 I was floored how good the atmosphere was - I expected them to use the blight more sparingly, but they make it work. The environmental design is pretty solid overall, my one big complaint is that the Fade areas don't feel like the Fade.

The companions are fine, but come off as a bit bland - not because they don't have interesting internal or inter-group conflicts, but because Rook's main function (other than heavy hitter and makeshift leader) is to be a peacemaker, so we figuratively knock their heads together and tell them to behave before any of the conflicts could get really going. The banter is pretty fun once it gets going, but it seems more interconnected than in previous games - there are long 4-5 occasion long banter chains that come one after the other - so it can take a while to build up. They all have some degree of trope-subversion going on that can be hit or miss, but I generally liked the angles they are going for.

Side note: I'm not certain if it's a bug or not, but until I got all of my companions they all just stood around in their rooms, doing nothing. Even the one-line quips they supposed to say when you approach them didn't play. Once I got everyone, they started wandering around the Lighthouse and interacting with each other.

Also, their personal side-quests are completely missable. I came back between every quest to check if anyone has anything to say and Neve's quest still didn't trigger for me, so she basically hates my guts since act 1 and I'm completely locked out of her quest. Right now I'm trying to see if there are any consequence if I keep antagonizing her, but so far nothing happened.

The most controversial companion, I think, will be Taash. The anti-woke crowd sure loves to lose its shit over the they/thems, but I found it a pretty fitting narrative. It's messy and the writing is pretty weak at parts (but that goes for every companion and the game as a whole anyhow), but I think it works overall - Taash's general arc is about finding their identity, so it's fitting that gender identity might be a part of that.

...It probably doesn't help their case that they are from the Lords of Fortune and not gonna lie, Isabella leading what's basically an ethical treasure hunting operation is the funniest shit I've seen in this game. Girl really learned her lesson from the whole Tome of Koslun business, huh?

On a related note: the qunari both have something very interesting going on (the Antaam ditching Sten and going off to be basically roadside bandits while the few remaining ones got folded under what's essentially the spy corps fits perfectly into the lore and plays into the theory that the whole Tome of Koslun incident was the start of a long con so the Ariqun could either raise a puppet Arishok into position or get rid of the role as a whole and take control of their entire military branch) and some changes that make me go😬. There is a degree of defanging going on - when Taash talks about how you can just leave the Qun... you know. The religion where they reeducate you by force if you strain too hard against the system. Where it's been established that they hunt down Tal-Vashot with extreme prejudice since DA:O. That Qun. - to make it more palatable. But at the same time, the Antaam designs in this game are... somehow we are backsliding into "big angry almost-naked foreign barbarian" territory. Could we not??

Random end notes: combat feels a bit easy, but I'm having fun with it. I do wish the companions didn't have a CD on their abilities, because the whole detonation system really just pigeonholes you into setting off detonations and ignoring the rest of their abilities. There were some challenging champion fights that I enjoyed - the undead generals, at least when they weren't filling the arena with shield-carrying mobs, were pretty fun - but I find it baffling that every longer quest chain I followed to its end (fighting the champions to unlock the gates, collecting the memories, the demon behind the door in the necropolis) ended in a dragon fight. I get that this is dragon age, but can we maybe get something else please...?

I'll see how I feel once I'm at the end and I can see how they stick the landing. Maybe the end will be so good I'll swing back around to liking this game, but the butchery of the established lore is making me angry enough that I find that doubtful.

[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

[icharchivist]

Veilguard Spoilers

also it's a minor complains but i find it wild how Tevinter Nights introduce the concept of so many terrifying and cool monsters and the game has GHILAN'NAIN as an antagonist and yet the only very cool monster fight we get is the fight against Ghilan'nain's archdemon and then everything else is like.... corpses/darkspawns/demons for the most part and the two elven gods, and like 5 dragons (half of what we had in DAI). We don't even kill the last archdemon bc we're focusing on fighting Elgar'nan as he flies around.

the moment it really hit me was during Emmrich's quest where you had this cool giant skeleton monster and the boss fight is with one flying mage while the Skeleton is basically a background thing.

and when you go the Minrathous' catacomb and they hint that something horrible must hide in something this big and i thought of the two extremely horrifying monsters lurking under Minrathous in Tevinter Nights, and jinkes, it was neither, it was a pride demon!

and also with all this teasing about like. lots of underwater things esp with Lucanis' recovery, while we know Ghilan'nain was especially found of extremely huge sea monsters (hell the inquisitor mentions a Leviathan in her letters, fucking show me that???)

like. guhhhh. what a wasted opportunity, how do you have the Mother of Monsters and you only have One Cool Monster Big Boss Battle.

[flowersonpebbles]

Week 4: Endings 26. Remembrance – Hawke Cadash Dallas

@elfroot-and-laurels

TW: identity crisis, violence

The Hero of Ferelden, the one who helped stop a blight even when all odds were against him. Few recognized him outside of his uniform when his mouth was covered, luckily. Just another elf, but once the blighted corruption started showing, he was easier recognized and respected quickly. His scar also helped to encompass who he was. The lip scar was given in the fight against the archdemon after all. Among his newer recruits he was more called Warden-Commander. He never felt forgotten or lost to time, knowing he gave his best. An elven circle mage is what they will remember, he’s sure of it. And if not, then so be it. He didn’t much care to be remembered, not outside of his close friends. His friends and his lover’s memory of him is all that matters to him.

The Champion of Kirkwall. The one who fought an arishok in single combat and won, saving her city and becoming its champion. But blundered in that responsibility royally when its chantry got blown to pieces and an all-out war with templars against mages. Its First Enchanter became a horrible abomination and the Knight-Commander driven mad by a red lyrium idol and ultimately made into one herself. The Champion standing victorious but having been a mage herself and aided mages instead of templars, she shirked her duty and had to flee. An estranged Hawke, all alone in family ultimately, mother and father dead, sister killed and brother estranged and a warden. Even her lovers had to leave her side… Hawke never did anything that truly mattered and stuck, for it was not even her who started the rebellion, only having aided in it. A nobody, but also a failure. Not ever truly recognized outside of the city… only heard of her tales and some not even believing them.

Inquisitor Cadash, the Herald of Andraste. A dwarven lady once of the Carta, but it needed to be quickly covered but also used to the inquisition’s advantage. Few recognized her immediately at the beginning because they call her Herald – yet they never want or suspected it to be a dwarf. Once they did start recognizing her, it was with horror or anger, distain. How could their Lady choose a dwarf over so many humans? Will history even remember her as a dwarf? As just a person who wasn’t actually chosen by Andraste because it was all done by an ancient, elven ‘god’? It wasn’t Andraste but a spirit of the deceased Divine who aided her in the fade later, who Carika couldn’t save as she was sucked back into the living world? She does not know, and she fears how her story will be rewritten and twisted and gnarled to make it suited for them. Be it made into a scoundrel of a dwarf who wanted to rule the world and was thusly forced to end the inquisition or a blonde, human woman who stood justly against the end of the world and wished for peace so agreed to end the inquisition? She fears the latter almost more so than the first, for she does not wish to share the fate of Ameridan.

[the23rdnerd]

Day 1 of Demon’s Souls

So I started playing Demon’s Souls since I finished Elden Ring (not SOTE, still have to play that), and thought I might catalog my experience here. I’ve been having fun so far, but oh boy is it different. So the first world wasn’t too bad, as far as first levels in souls games go. Get killed by boss, unlock hub area, find some good weapons, get lost in castle. You know, the usual. I picked the Royalty class since I gravitate towards spellcaster builds and Reddit said it was better than magician. They weren’t lying- that one starting spell can oneshot plenty of the pathetic scrub enemies in the start and still holds up well after that. I do wish the lock-on system had more range since most of the time I have to get closer than I would like to target someone, but it isn’t too bad of an issue. Overall the first world, the Greedy King or whatever it’s called, wasn’t too bad so far. I haven’t progressed past the archdemon fog gate after the Tower Knight, but overall a fun level. The bosses (Phalanx Demon and aforementioned Tower Knight) were challenging enough to be enjoyable without being overly frustrating. On that note let me say:

FUCK THE ARMORED SPIDER SEND IT STRAIGHT TO HELL OH MY GOD

Arguably the third boss in the game, this stupid fucking son of a bitch is just plain bullshit- trapped in web, pelted with fireball until death. If you somehow make it past the tunnel into the arena, you contend with its massive fuck-you piercing legs and its ability to tar and combust 95% of the fucking floor- if you’re too close to it and it does that, you’re fucked. It took me so long to even get to this motherfucker because there’s no saving or anything beforehand- the nearest save point is AT THE START OF THE LEVEL, meaning you have to have the runback route down to a fucking science just to fight this thing again. I ran out of healing items and had to go restock. The best way to cheese this boss according to the folks on the internet is hiding behind the corpse on the right wall and pelt it with arrows until it dies. Unfortunately the first time I tried this I brought too few crossbow bolts, and while I ALMOST killed it with my sword i died just one hit away from sweet victory. That was probably more my fault, but didn’t help my inhuman anger any. I took a break by farming the guys just before the Tower Knight arena, which was actually pretty calming because I was listening to Crystal Castles and noticed that the two knights alternate their starting attacks (if one opens with a sword thrust the other will use a shield bash, and vice versa- I just found that interesting). Anyway I eventually killed the spider. Giant Enemy Spider? Pain in my ass. Flamelurker and the Dragon God were thankfully much less frustrating to fight. The runback on Flamelurker was pretty bad, but the fight itself is simple- avoid melee range and pelt him with spell until death. His design was pretty awesome too. Dragon God has less horrible runback because its arena is right after Flamelurker and therefore has a save point right before it, and the required stealth is fair once you get the hang of it. The fact that if you mess up it one-shots you is also beneficial in a way, because it saves you from wasting healing items. So far, a pretty fun game (except for Armored Spider)! The boss design and gameplay is challenging but enjoyable (except for Armored Spider) and it’s a nice change of pace from Elden Ring (except for Armored Spider). Also the Moonlight Greatsword isn’t a magic weapon? I looked it up because I wanted to use it and it scales with faith in this game instead of magic?? And it’s the only game to do this??? Why???????

More updates will be coming irregularly as I progress more in the game, for anyone who reads this. P.S. Fuck you Armored Spider. Burn in hell.

[silverspleen]

DnD DAO update

Super intense but funny RP only session today that took place over the course of a week. Most of this was literally us just physically recovering from the demon fight as Fin antagonized the shit out of everyone at 7 am for four days trying to get them to check up on Sethlos (who saw his dead sister in the fade earlier, as noted, and she told him not to give up, and then he had a genuine crisis of faith about it), and then hauled him out of the room on the fifth day by dimension door-ing into his room (we learned 10 minutes later that the door was unlocked).

Alastair and Bhalkam had a genuine bonding moment over morning yoga light training and the light angst of trauma.

Varand had to explain about Artoria's tragic death to Fin, and why Sethlos was acting so weird. Fin referenced the FUCKING SONG that Sethlos wrote (and that his PC sang to us in character) like "WAIT YEAH YOU GUYS DID HAVE AN ARCHER!!! THAT WAS HER!!" Everyone still hates Fin, he is so interesting.

Ultimately, Bhalkam made the call to leave Sethlos alone for the week until he came out on his own, despite Varand wanting to talk to him earlier. Sethlos spent the first five days in his room like, naked and disheveled and sad in a depression nest before he left with Fin.

After Fin finally dragged him out, Varand was like "Hey. I uh, I'm bad at this stuff but uh. Whatever you decide about your sister we will back you up on. It's ok. I know what it's like to lose someone and I think if I could bring them back with what I know now I wouldn't be sure what was the right thing to do was. You make the decision and we'll deal with it." and Bhalkam was like *nods in stoic but passionate agreement*

We then had a massive meeting where some other Grey Warden called Riordan chewed Sethlos out for not being 100% onboard with resurrecting Art, because we're very very low on Grey Wardens atm. We all learned about the archdemon blood thing AND about why Grey Wardens are so important and that presumably one of us will die at the end of this journey. On account of the archdemon.

When Riordan was yelling at him he was like "well it's a moot point anyway, I stopped casting Gentle Repose on her two days ago, she's already begun to rot" and we were all shocked. Shocked I tell you! The decision had been made. Fin attacked Sethlos upon learning this and his dog knocked Fin down and guarded him until Fin went into his room to sulk.

There was a lot of funny back and forth, but what got me, emotionally speaking, is that Sethlos was still quiet and depressed about trying to decide what to do about Art. Should we resurrect her despite the risk? What if Wynne dies or we summon another demon to the mages tower? But it was done.

But then, later, in private when it was just Sethlos, Bhalkam, and Varand, Sethlos revealed that he lied, he had still cast Gentle Repose on Art, she could still be revived but Sethlos didn't think he could make the decision himself. Not without us. And he didn't want anyone else to try and make the decision either, just those of us who knew her well. The Sethlos Gang. (and Wynne, who would be casting the spell, and who we learned some fun facts about)

Anyway, we're gonna talk to Morrigan about it too, since Sethlos was like "I can't make this decision on my own, this is up to us." and well, Morrigan and Art were kind of doing the romance thing a little at the end there. They were close to smooching.

And what got me. After all this. After all of this stress, all of this horrible angst, five days of just stewing in his sadness (and a real OOC time week between our sessions). It's that Sethlos thought Varand and Bhalkam would be all for resurrecting Art and they'd be mad at him for being unsure about it that got me. (his player told us that's what Sethlos thought) And instead he was met with both of them being like "hey fuck those other people, whatever you decide it's ok, alright?" He was staying up alone (with just his dog) for the first five days but Varand and Bhalkam moved their stuff to his room (we're staying at an inn by the Mage's Tower, we HAD single rooms lol) so we're all basically treating this like we're on the road and sleeping in the Tiny Hut again. for emotional support. And there's something about that that's really sweet, and like, they've all grown as characters and been through all this shit together and bonded.

He also told us he's leaving to journey to his birthplace to commune with the gods about his near loss of faith, OOC this is because he's changing classes and I could bet ACTUAL MONEY on him transitioning from Paladin/Bard to a Cleric. He'll be gone for a few weeks and Bhalkam and Varand have to do like, war table planning stuff for the shit with Loghain and the Darkspawn. (OOC this is building castles on the map for stat boots in certain areas via a third party 5e book)

Varand: Are you coming back?

Sethlos: Gods willing.

Varand: Well try to, Art went out on her own and came back and you should as well. ...I'll miss you.

(privately a little shocked that he'll miss Sethlos, as he always thought he was a little annoying and full of himself at first)

[gikairan]

Like, this is what i like about Dragon Age. The little things that send your mind on JOURNEYS

So, like, not only is there a hole in the ground where the Darkspawns work is 90% done, which sure is a worry.

.... But what actually would have happened if the wardens found the archdemon? All we do know is "darkspawn find one underground and corrupt it and now its an archdemon". But do the darkspawn just touch it, or do they corrupt it Broodmother style? And if its the first, would being a Warden alone be enough to trigger said corruption? Being a Warden counts as darkspawn enough to take the archdemons soul after all. Corypheus also uses Warden bodies to body hop. What would happen?

And hey, whats up with the body shopping full stop? Who exactly gets access to it? Keep that thought and stay with me I think at this point in time we can be fairly certain that the corrupted Old Gods have some connection to the Evunaris. I'm not 100% convinced they are the Evunaris though?? Like the Evunaris are trapped behind the veil, so how are they also deep underground? 🤔 The Dalish believe there are 2 sets of gods, the Evunaris and the "Forgotten ones", and Fen'harel would be basically work with both groups until he betrayed them all. With the Evunaris basically recontextualised to be Tyrants, where the Forgotten ones they faught an endless war with.... freedom fighters? Who knows! The forgotten ones are forgotten - theres very little to know about them!

I also think its highly likely that the Evunaris made the blight. Specifically - Ghilan'nain. After the Horror of Hornack, shes definitely gone from "god who made the Halla" to a very Evil Scientist splicing together creatures to make horrible horrible beasties.

Like, youve got 2 groups of really powerful people fighting an endless war. Theyve both, potentially, got access to the same power pools (having a dragon form was a sign of ancient elven godhood). War in the real world created the nuke in order to get one up on the enemy. .... What if the Blight was created as a magical nuke to finally end this war?

I'm also fairly certain the Golden City is simply Arlathan. Where the Evunaris are presumably trapped. Entering the Golden City activated the Blight. Why would the Evunaris put a "if someone accesses this place, activate our Nuke" spell down if they did not believe their enemies would do just that. The old gods specifically were baiting Tevinter to do just that! To create a way into the golden city! Like, unless the Evunaris created the blight simply to watch the world burn from their golden prison, i dunno what the other motivation is. I even consider this one less likely, because Solas seems to know something about the Blight and its dangers that no one else does. Hes very very evasive about it, but its clear his opinions on the Blight do not follow what the rest of the world believe. Which might imply the Blight, as a concept, existed before the veil went up. If the Evunaris decided to just burn the world down because they were imprisoned - they would surely have developed the Blight after said imprisonment. (But also i guess we dont really know what Solas has been doing since the veil was raised. We can assume he was probably dreaming in the fade that whole time, so might have seen the Evunaris work?)

So, back to body hopping. Theres Trespasser text that says "The Evunaris are mortal like you, they can die". So what if they partially extended their life... via body hopping? Every time they died, or got close to, they just possessed one of their slaves. Or maybe they used some magic to ensure their soul could pass to specific child .... you know, like the Dark Ritual? Morrigan of all people is the one to know about it - a woman raised by Mythal. And presumably taught it by Mythal. Morrigan is also in DAI as the "elven expert" despite having no history of being particularly knowledgeable about elves. I got a feeling she might have realised Flemeth seemed to have a looot of ancient elven knowledge over the intervening years. Its also worth noting that Mythal was sneakily working with Fen'Harel against the Evunaris and they all teamed up to kill her. But she survived through the ages. I'm not even sure if she ended up trapped behind the veil like everyone else? Shes potentially been going from host to host until eventually coming to Flemeth. Mythal would know who the archdemons are. They are, presumably, people she wants to save. Because shes the one who tells Morrigan to travel with the HOF. Likely implying "perform the ritual, save the soul"

I DO NOT THINK MYTHAL IS ASKING MORRIGAN TO SAVE THE SOUL OF AN EVUNARIS. She was working quietly to stop all the others! Because she recognised them as tyrants!! They killed her for it! Why would she save them?

And, like, I kinda like the theory I've seen around that Andraste is Mythal, and it sure is coincidental that she was born not long after an Archdemon was finally defeated. But i dont think the old gods are the Evunaris, and I'm not sure if Mythal was ever one of those trapped like that. She could very well be an Old God Baby! I'm just not convinced its Mythal, lol.

And now i just want to actually try again to enjoy this game because theres still a few things i need to revisit! Like, Keiran is suddenly extra interesting to me?? What if there are any other small little details that make my mind go BRRRRRR like this??

AND ALL THIS THINKING OVER A GIANT HOLE IN THE GROUND.

And the hole matters because like, if the Wardens HAD made it to the Old God, and being a Warden didnt count as darkspawn enough to corrupt it (Or if it has to be actively corrupted)..... They could have their entire world view shattered. They might have the chance to KNOW what the old gods really are. To speak with it. And who knows where that might lead.... it makes me go AHHHHHHHH to think about

Ok wait there was ONE semi good thing to come out of today's attempt to play Inquisition

There's just a big-ol hole in the ground in the desert that the Wardens dug to find an archdemon

And they apparently got close enough to hear it sing for real (not just the singing of the Calling)

And then got told to abandon the whole thing

I don't recall the text having a date, but also I might have just tuned it out.... Cant remember!! But there was a piece of red lyrium just sitting there outside the hole laying on its side as if brought up from the depths....

And that suurrree is interesting to me as I try and sleep rn.......