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exhausted-archivist · 5 months ago

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Common Fanons That Are Confused As Canon

Through my time of collecting lore and learning things about Thedas I've come across a couple things of fanon that leaked into lists of canon elements. Which was an interesting little thing to follow the rabbit hole of where they even originated. While making this list I did ask others for any that I might have missed or not seen because I wanted to be thorough as I could when even making this list. I haven't been in the fandom long enough to see all the things that have come up.

To be clear, I thought it was neat to see what became so pervasive in the fandom to become easily mistaken as canon or misunderstood. I'm also not discussing whether canon as it stands is "good" or judging the fanon or anything like that.

I just wanted to put it all together in a list, especially as I have had friends who were getting into the series and ask about certain things; as well as Dragon Age Summer hitting us soon and new interest in the series abound.

General

Mages can sense other mages The closest source I can find to this is the fact that Anders states that he can "feel the power in you". No other mage states anything similar and could likely be attributed to the fact that he is possessed. Much like how Cole can sense your magical connection as an Inquisitor. An outlier is how Keiran can sense your magic regardless of if he has the Old God soul; but he is also not confirmed to be a mage as of yet.

All Saarebas always have their lips sewn shut/horns cut off This seems to originate from da2 specifically, with the model of Ketojan having the scarring, the other saarebas missing horns, the concept art, and then boils down to BioWare being inconsistent with their lore/depictions. Most of Thedas fixates on the fact that the Qunari have saarebas with their lips sewn shut, the Seer's yarn tale denotes that tamassrans tell the story of a saarebas with their lips sewn shut, the tarot art for Saarath, and the flippant joke between Sera and Iron Bull. But, the lore specifies that it is in extreme cases or in general that it can occurs but it is not the standard. [WOT p. 103 & 128] Much like tranquility, it is used as a form of punishment - one that we know can and is abused by certain factions. We also see saarebas characters in Inquisition who do not carry either of those traits. Specifically Hissera (multiplayer), Saareth (Trespasser), Heroes of Dragon Age models, and some Qunari in da2.

All Saarebas have their tongues cut out This is seperate from the previous point due to the different source of this fanon. It seems to be an exaggeration of one particulare line from Sten. In dao, Sten will state during the Broken Circle quest that "This is why we cut the tongues from mages, in Par Vollen." He is very general with the statement, but contextually it is reasonable people took this to mean all mages. However, since dao it has been made clear that it is not a universal practice throughout the Qun.

Elves are shorter than humans This one does have a clear point of where this started, though it is never stated in lore, back in Origins elven models were universally shorter than humans. But from DA2 onward, male elves were only shorter than their human counterparts of the same sex while female elves are shorter than both human sexes. Fenris is taller than f!Hawke while both forms of Hawke are taller than Merrill. Solas, Abelas, and a m!Lavellan are taller than female human characters but all human characters are taller than female elves (except Sera who has a female human model).

Dalish are illiterate This is a little less clear to me where its origins started. Perhaps based off of medieval period history (which da isn't necessarily medieval in time period) or due to the fact that most common folk in certain regions in Thedas are illiterate and reliant on pictures over written words. But we know from the Witch Hunt dlc that the Dalish keep tomes of their history and of the ancient elven empire. They also actively translate ancient elven script for their own records. Whether this is role restrictive or not is unclear, but we do know that the Dalish are literate in both Common and semi-literate in ancient elven script.

Dalish and City Elves don't have contact This seemingly comes from a misunderstanding stemming in the city elf origins in dao where some npcs will comment on how Dalish might be myths. However, in dao, da2, dai, the comic Knight Errant, and the novel The Masked Empire, that elves from both sides do semi-regularly trade people with each other if not visit certain alienages, as well have other points of contact with each other. Pol, Zevran, Coran (Vaea's uncle), and potentially Feynriel are all city elves that join Dalish clans. Merrill and Arianni are known Dalish who join alienages.

City elves are genetic/physical differences from the Dalish elves This one I have seen around a lot, most stemming from the idea of the previous one that the elves in the city are generations apart from the Dalish, implying they have no contact with each other. Which could be true for certain alienages. But as far as lore is concerned there isn't any example of this, not even as being a point of reference for the Dalish to consider any of the aspects as to what makes them "less of an elf" in comparison to Dalish.

Elves pass on their elven traits Most seem to know this isn't canon, albeit one of the less popular canon elements; but new fans don't always know this. It is popular fanon to give half-elven children the reflective eyes, smaller stature, more angular features, straighter nose bridge, and/or pointed ears from their elven parent.

Only elves can have mixed kids with other races This seems to come from the fact that elven traits aren't passed on to their kids when mixed parentage is involved. However humans, dwarves, and vashoth can all have mixed kids from the other races. According to Patrick Weekes, this decision was made consciously to avoid very racist and harmful rhetoric. We know of many elf/human mixed kids: Alistair, Eiton, Feynriel, Gestan and Thale (residents of elven area of Halamshiral), Kieran (conditions), Michel de Chevin, Rinnala, "Sabina's Brat" (son of the elven prostitute Sabina at the Blooming Rose), Slim Couldry, Tainsley (Potentially. Is described as a 7'(2.13m) human, though he references a Dalish uncle.) While mixed dwarf children are rare simply due to dwarven fertility issues we do know of two dwarf/human kids: Keiran (conditional) and the child of Tyrdaa Bright-Axe(Avvar) and Hendir (dwarf).

Elfroot leaves get you high/is Thedosian marijuana This is another Origins era thing, due to an easter egg that made a play on the American "This is your brain on drugs" anti-drug campaign using elfroot. This was then repeated in 2015 when Patrick Weekes said that its medicinal properties were rediscovered in 4:20. [Source] Elfroot hasn't been shown to get anyone high in canon, it is the roots that are primarily used as medicinal. In World of Thedas (WoT) vol. 2 the recipe for Dalish Deep Forest Comfort says you can substitute elfroot for spinach making the leaves more vegetable in quality. That said, marijuana leaves are edible and rather nutritious. They just don't have the chemical make up to induce a high. Those lie strictly in the buds. According to Origins, elfroot does flower though.

Red lyrium is completely different and more dangerous from blue lyrium This one is all on BioWare in regards to this misconception. Because while yes, it is more dangerous than the blue lyrium, they aren't two seperate substances. More that red lyrium is a branch off. To cover the generals of the written lore of lyrium it breaks down like this: Blue lyrium in it's raw form innately toxic to just be around to all but dwarves, however it will kill a mage who gets too close in proximity. That proximity being within the same room while non-mages would have to touch the stuff. It also has a pension of self-combustion without warning or a clear cause. When it is refined down for templar use it is "safe" for non-mages to come in contact with and consume. Whether this level of refinement is the same level as what is used to make various cocktails and liqueur is unclear. But we do know that getting too close, being in same room as lyrium refined to this level, is enough to make a mage sick. Finally, we have the most refined and diluted stage of lyrium, this is used by mages to make potions, certain alchemical work, and other things. This isn't enough to kill a mage, make them sick (without extreme over use), and infact can result in positive outcomes for a mage. Red lyrium overlaps with most of that, with a couple key differences. First off is that red lyrium doesn't seem to self-combust. There is some contradiction on whether or not non-dwarves can mine it as due to game mechanics you can destroy it, but the only ones we see mining wild nodes are dwarves. But if the red lyrium is grown from a living creature it seems accessible to all races? In codices about the various types of red templars, we learn that a small vial around a templar's neck is enough to make all the mages in the area around him sick.

Character Specific

Alistair

Alistair is a dog person I couldn't track any clear origins for this, it seems to be a case of overlap with the stereotype that "all Fereldan's love dogs" and a mix of building off of a line of dialogue about him being raised by the hounds and them being his family. However, he doesn't seem overly one way or the other. He mocks dog at times, talks down in not such a playful way, and at times seems to treat dog with the same attitude he does Morrigan though not as blatantly. This could be chalked up to his joking nature though.

Alistair's obsession with cheese While he does admit to an obsession to cheese, it is often cited that Alistair makes a ton of cheese jokes in dao. When in truth he only makes four through out the entire game. Given his joking nature it is up to personal interpretation of how much he actually loves cheese.

Alistair and Cullen knew each other before Origins This is more specifically that the two went to the same monastery for their templar training. There is no canon evidence for this though. That said, there is a possibility due to not knowing much of anything about how the Templar Order trains its recruits nor the amount of monasteries they have in Ferelden for training.

Alistair collects toy soldiers This seems to come from the gifts he can be given during the Feastday dlc. Canonically he is given runestones and carved statuettes of various types stone. These statuettes are described in a manner closer to effigies than toy soldiers.

Alistair's mother is not Fiona This one is a bit funny as it has multiple origins and is dependent on the player's experience with the series. From what I have gathered there seems to be one of three sources: - People who never read the Dragon Age novel The Calling - People who read The Calling after playing dao and feels like it is a retcon (though The Calling was released prior to the release of dao, same with the novel The Stolen Throne) - People who take a "chuck the baby with the bathwater" approach to the lore The funny thing about this is that the cover story in dao for Alistair's mom is based off a combo of things; the hypothetical scenario Fiona told Maric and answers she gave Maric when he asked what to tell Alistair if he asked about his mother. The hypothetical was that Fiona would not return to the Circle and would hide from the templars and pretend to be a washer woman. When Maric asked what to tell Alistair of his mother, Fiona said to tell him his mother was human as she did not want him to deal with being half elven and all the stigma that comes with that as well as to tell Alistair that she was dead.

Avaline

Aveline is straight She will kiss Hawke regardless of gender and ask them if they ever considered her and them. Though it is clear she never had romantic interest in Hawke in particular. An easily missed aspect I think given the general opinion of Aveline as well as most people seeming to not choose the flirtatious option with her.

Blackwall

Blackwall doesn't have a sense of humor This one genuinely surprised me considering he jokes with Sera, The Iron Bull, and Solas. His banter shows as much that he does have a sense of humor and tells jokes. But it does seem pretty common of a fanon characterization for him.

Dorian

Dorian paints his nails His model doesn't have painted nails in game, but it is a popular fanon. There is nail polish in Thedas though. It's mentioned in the novel Masked Empire as well as the novel Last Flight. It seems to be of Anderfles origins, but given the Last Flight is post Orlesian occupation, it could originate in Orlais.

Lady Mantillon said, tapping an elegantly lacquered fingernail on the polished wooden arm of her chair, “we will fail, or we will be killed. Neither is acceptable.” - Masked Empire, Chapter 17 p. 362 Every one of her fingers glimmered with a jeweled ring, and her nails had been freshly lacquered. - Last Flight, Chapter 13 p. 144

Fenris

Lyrium can be drawn from Fenris' tattoos There is no mention of this being possible in da2 or any of the subsequent media. There isn't even mention of others being able to sense the lyrium in his tattoos or even mages getting sick around him as they sometimes will dependent on the concentrations and/or purity of lyrium.

Fiona

How Fiona was cured of the taint This comes from The Calling novel, where it isn't ever clarified what actually removed the taint from Fiona. The common fanon is that it was either the mentioned brooch, or that by having Alistair. That it was by having Maric's son who has Great Dragon blood due to being of the Theirin bloodline that cured her. However, in the novel she is very clear that the mages at Weisshaupt aren't sure what cured her. She only offers one explanation that the Grey Wardens theorized and trails off before saying what the second one was.

“It’s gone,” she said flatly. “The mages at Weisshaupt weren’t sure if it was because the First Enchanter’s brooch sped things up artificially, or... at any rate, all the corruption vanished. They don’t think it’s going to come back, either. There was test after test, but they think I may be the first Grey Warden that never has to endure the Calling again.”

Hawke

Hawke is stabbed by the Arishok This fanon likely came into being due to one of the moves the Arishok has where it will leave you almost dead. So a bit of canon as it is in his move set, but fanon in the idea it is something that always happens in canon.

Unable to confirm if Fanon, Canon, or a mix of both

Teagan marries Bella, the barmaid from Redcliffe This one goes back really far and is hard to tell if it is a case of mistaken identity and association, or a really buggy option for the epilogue, or isn't actually a possibility. What I can confirm is that Teagan does have a woman he can marry given certain conditions are met in dao, but it is actually Kaitlyn, the sister who's brother goes missing in Redcliffe. If you properly compensate her for her grandfather's sword she'll open up a foundry in Denerim and will marry Teagan after having known him for a few months. According to this thread, you have to get Kaitlyn to move to Denerim with her brother, make Bella the maid to Teagan and in the ending slide Teagan and Bella will get married. Though I haven't been able to confirm that this is possible. (If you have a screenshot/video of this slide and know how to trigger this please let me know) This is also not an option mentioned in the Keep, however neither is Kaitlyn's. Which isn't surprising given some of the ending slides that were not direct player choice (ex) choosing Orzammar's king) are mostly cut from canon.

#dragon age #meta #dragon age fanon #dragon age origins #dragon age 2 #dragon age inquisition #the calling #dao #da2 #dai #Let me know if you have any you think I should know about #I thought it was interesting to collect the fanon I kept seeing and put it all together while tracking down it's origins.#This has been sitting in the drafts for ages but I will keep collecting others in a separate post

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no-where-new-hero · 1 year ago

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Any thoughts on the Victorian pearl-clutching “bull is a bad word because it’s too sexual, even when you are literally just describing the male bovine that chased you” scene in Emily Of New Moon?

I was gonna write a meta on the repression going on with Valancy referencing this but I realized I don’t have the full context of that and I thought you might have some ideas.

It’s always a good day when someone asks me to talk about Emily!

Ok so tbh when I first read this (aged 11) I didn’t realize it was supposed to have a sexual connotation—I thought it was connected to “bullshit” and that’s what Aunt Elizabeth was angry about lol. And even later I was so perplexed by how just a large angry bovine creature should be taboo that I guess I never really dwelt on it.

HOWEVER I currently have two thoughts: first, I think what makes Emily feel so very subversive is the fact that LMM was subtly interweaving her contemporary 20s mores into the turn of the century, about 20 years earlier. I was actually just reading a book about the post-WWI social changes in the US, and it mentioned that the increasing popularity of Sigmund Freud’s teachings meant that people were talking about sex a lot more openly than before. So on the one hand, LMM could write a scene like that and people wouldn’t think she’s crossing a line. They could even laugh in their sleeves a little at backward Aunt Elizabeth being so repressive.

I don’t remember whether LMM was a reader of Freud (I wish I had her diaries on hand because I feel as though she would have mentioned something like that) but even if not, the existence of the bull in the story at all is symbolically important, which is my second thought. The bull comes up 3 times: first is Emily and Ilse running away from it and then being scolded by Aunt Elizabeth for talking about it. It reads as a cautionary tale against adolescent sexuality, reinforced later by Emily (at the end of the letter) reiterating how her father remains “her dearest friend.” She is still childlike here. The second time it comes up is when Perry meets Emily by saving her from it. This episode forces Emily to confront Perry’s attractiveness and she also notes his difference from Teddy’s “subtle charm.” She’s starting to recognize crush-like feelings and performs the damsel role to Perry (who also responds to Emily’s physicality and, we can glean, lowkey falls in love with her there and then). The bull is also connected to the well in the field about which, in the end, Emily has her vision about Ilse’s mother. Beatrice Burnley’s story is one of transgression: even when her virtue is cleared, she has still “trespassed.” Emily is also a trespasser in this moment of exploring, with the bull representing the destructive sexual prejudices that retroactive harmed Beatrice.

(Sorry not to be on my english major bull(shit) again).

But yes I definitely see the way that the Stirlings treat Valancy as absolutely parallel to the way Aunt Elizabeth treats Emily, and I am very interested to see your meta about how that works in TBC! While writing out this whole reply I realized I actually have a lot to say about sexuality in Emily so perhaps I shall write another post of my own 😅

#emily of new moon #lmm lockdown #immortal poets society #blake’s asks #blake’s mail #blake’s last braincell

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cityandking · 2 months ago

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thinking about my inquisitors between Trespasser and Veilguard

Vesper Trevelyan

Vesper spends a few months unmaking the Inquisition and ensuring her people are taken care of — new postings, new patrons, the most trusted quietly set up under Leliana to become a smaller, tighter, more discerning operation — and then she and Cullen move to Arlesans for some much needed rest and recovery. Vesper's older sister Helene (Vicomtesse d'Arlesans) and her husband provide them a townhouse, and Vesper and Cullen spend a year or two learning how to live without the sky collapsing on them. They get married (a small affair, though Divine Victoria (Cassandra) officiates) and have their first daughter (Niamh). In that time, Vesper's eldest brother Kit (Bann Christopher Trevelyan, head of the family since their father died) finally manages to reinstate her into the family line and officially cedes the Trevelyan estate outside Ostwick to her, so Vesper and Cullen move to the Free Marches and into Vesper's childhood home. Cullen uses the land for his Templar rehabilitation program, and they raise hounds and horses on the land. They also run an outpost for Leliana's spy network out of their back rooms. Vesper splits her time between the ranch, the kids (they have two more, twins, Naomi and James), and the shadow of her Inquisition. Sometimes her work takes her abroad, but mostly she stays home and operates behind the scenes. She and Cullen are happily semi-retired, but she's ready to get back in the field if she's needed (fortunately they have a great babysitting network; the kids have loads of aunts and uncles).

Narayani Lavellan

Narayani declares the Inquisition disbanded and disappears before the ink on the order has dried. She makes a few stops—the Arbor Wilds, Crestwood, Wycome, the Tevinter border where a certain mercenary band operates—and then between one visit and the next, she vanishes. She lets a few people know she's going (Leliana, Bull, Dorian) but doesn't linger long enough to be talked out of disappearing into the Crossroads. On the occasion that she does pop up beyond the Veil, she can most often be found in the north. There's little to bind her to the south, or anywhere really, but she'll stop by to see Dorian, and sometimes the Chargers, and Arlathan Forest. Once or twice she even visits Leliana, who will always be her spymaster, even if she's sitting on the sunburst throne. At some point she intersects with the Veil Jumpers, but she isn't one of them and has no desire to be. As the years pass she becomes something of a ghost story, and then truly a ghost. (As tales of the wolf spread, so do tales of the hunter tracking him, though none of the stories say what she'll do once she catches him.) [AU version where she also has a little grey-eyed baby boy nine months after Trespasser. Whoops.]

Rasa Lavellan

Rasa maintains the Inquisition under Divine Victoria (Cassandra) as an honor guard. He doesn't make many decisions these days and mostly puts his energy towards fostering friendships and protecting the Divine. He's a little harder than he was in his younger days, and a little lonelier, but it doesn't change him much—he's still happy to help, still determined to do good, still eager to meet new people and make new friends. But he always keeps half an eye out for the wolf, and he knows that when the time comes for it, the full might of the Inquisition will go towards stopping Solas before he can ruin everything. He also makes frequent trips to Tevinter. It's important to foster friendships. And sure, there's grumbling and whispers about magisters in bed with the southern chantry, but Dorian does love a scandal.

#not sure about ghilana or odile but they aren't even a little bit canon so it doesn't matter #u ever have those inquisitors you Know should be companions/agents instead? that's rasa #really enjoyed the warrior build tho. my guy was unfuckwithable #dragon age #vesper #narayani #rasa

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wardencommanderrodimiss · 3 months ago

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Ena has a rough time re-learning how to fight after she loses her arm in Trespasser - her weapon of choice was the greatsword, which is now...unworkable, to say the least. She spends a lot of time training to find her footing again, and after a couple years, when she's ready for more "practical" experience, she tags along with Bull and the Chargers for some of their missions.

But because she staked a lot of her sense of self on being able to swing a big sword and stand on the front line in between the enemy and everyone else, to better protect her friends, she's - well, she's been better. She's still feeling very off-balance.

Which Bull recognizes is in part because she's still too in-her-head about things, and so one day he's like "Hey, Boss, got a special mission for you. I mean, for us, but mostly you. You gotta figure yourself out and get yourself back. Get outta your own way."

And then he takes her to fight a high dragon.

It is not their smoothest dragon fight, nor their proudest moment, but they make it through without grievous bodily injury. Ena can't say she's feeling back to herself and her old confidence, yet, but she's touched by the gesture, even though the gesture involves a lot of blood and frantic screaming. She likes dragons. Bull likes dragons. Of course they end up back here.

Somewhere on the other side of Thedas, Solas suddenly started having heart palpitations.

#area man knows that girlfriend is doing some dumb shit and can't do anything about it #ena lavellan

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baphometsss · 2 months ago

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A. Trick themself said that the 'is Cassandra defined by her cheekbones and not her faith?' conversation was them writing Solas saying things about their nonbinary identity before they were ready to hear it. Considering his appreciation for all things spiritual/non-mundane, and his understanding that 'real' is a subjective term, it's fair to say that he would be 100% accepting of a trans Inquisitor. He is written by a nonbinary writer after all.

B. On the Dalish, it's probably not possible to say bc there is so much variation between individual Clans. Clans do prioritise having children, but how much pressure they put on someone to do this is probably quite dependent on individuals. (As a side note, IIRC it's insinuated in DA2 Mark of the Assassin DLC that elves have generally more children than other races anyway.)

C. Re: transitioning--it is possible since we have Maevaris and she transitioned magically. But she's in Tevinter, and is a Magister, so she access to things that most people don't and many in Southern Thedas would probably not trust it anyway. Krem is also from Tevinter, and even he said he doesn't want any of that magic near his body. As a Mage from the south though, it really is up to you how you do it. E.g. I have a trans Dalish Inky who, with the help of his Keeper, researched old magic and found ways of changing his body. He adapts a method of creating magical prosthesis to have the right genitals, while also using various herbal concoctions to boost his Testosterone production and prevent breast growth. It comes in handy when he loses his arm and uses a mage hand to get by, but he can't hold onto it permanently as it uses a fair amount of energy to do both. It's a way to keep balance between having a unique prosthetic that fits in with the character and the universe without essentially removing the disability altogether.

Re: the arm--Solas taking your arm is a misconception. He doesn't actually take your arm at all in Trespasser, just the Anchor. The arm is irreversibly damaged by the Anchor and/or the process of removing it and it's amputated later at Halamshiral.

D. I have a lot of thoughts on Solas's sexuality. I've talked about it before but I don't think he should ever have been locked out of a queer relationship, esp when the reasons given make no sense in context. They wanted to avoid the depraved bisexual trope, yet we have a ton of bisexual characters who either do very bad things or portray stereotypes about bisexuals. E.g. Iron Bull is very promiscuous and kinky, and he can betray and try to kill you if you sacrifice the Chargers. Isabela can betray you and run off with the Qunari artefact, leaving you high and dry, while also being very flirtatious and promiscuous. Zevran is literally introduced by trying to kill you, and is very sexually promiscuous. Ironically, having a character like Solas be bi or pan would actually be a break away from that particular stereotype (promiscuity). As for the 'depraved' part--well, I wouldn't say that Solas was depraved. Messed up and misguided, very morally grey--but not depraved. 'Depraved' implies a thoughtlessness that he simply doesn't possess.

I could go on, but essentially I don't buy the official line that they wanted to avoid a negative trope. It's a lot more likely there were time constraints and they didn't want to come off as unprofessional enough to leave things so unfinished. Considering that they weren't even going to make Cullen or Solas romancable and only added it when they got some extra time, I think it's far more likely that they just ran out of time to finish what they started. The fact that most of the male romance lines are there for Solas, and that there are even a few in Trespasser too makes me think that Trespasser was never even meant to be a DLC. It makes no sense as a DLC, for one thing, because it's the actual ending to Inquisition, and the next game doesn't make much sense without it.

ANYWAY I'm gonna stop now bc I'm getting annoyed lol.

DAI and My Questions as a Trans Guy

So, I recently got into Dragon Age again (thanks @/fullgoob) and I've been sitting here with a thumb up my ass because I really would love to write a fanfic about Solas but I feel like I'm not there yet.

To any DAI fans, or DA fans in general, do we know how Elven and Dalish culture view trans people?

(Long thoughts ahead and very sleep deprived thoughts:)

We obviously only see transness through the lens of the Qun and Krem. (Only speaking to DAI, I haven't played the other games yet.) In the Qun, people are put into gender based on their role in society. In a conversation with Cassandra and Iron Bull, Iron bull states that women who are warriors are considered "men" under the Qun solely based on their role. He also sees Krem as a, for all intents and purposes, as a man not because of his role but because of who he is as a person and because he's just a great guy and cares (poor wording on my part, sorry). Now whether or not the Qun is "progressive" for this isn't what I'm curious about.

I'm curious on the rest of the party. We don't get to see or hear reactions of Krem's gender from anyone else besides Cassandra and Bull, but it's more about Qunari society and less about Krem, and Cassandra makes neither a positive nor negative remark.

So, to make a long story short and get to the point: How would Solas feel about a trans inquisitor? And adding onto that, how do the Dalish treat transgendered people/transexuals? Homosexuality is more "accepted" in Southern Thedas, but the Dalish are really keen on keeping tradition alive and passing down their lore, so I would assume that 'bonding' and child bearing is important one way or another. The acceptance of homosexuality would be on a case to case basis.

I really don't know how the Dalish would treat transgender people, however. I would assume that for the most part, as long as you are fufilling your duty (whether you are to be a keeper, hunter, mage, etc.) it wouldn't bare any issue. The issue of child bearing and keeping up the population and passing down the gift of magic would pose a question, but so would it in the case of homosexuality. I assume that as long as population numbers are steady and there is no active threats against this, trans people and gay people are fine. It would varey from clan to clan.

Now, Solas. I really can't get a read on this guy. I would like to believe he would be accepting (just cause I, unfortunately, love him) but I don't really have any justifications for this (I also don't have justifications for the opposite either, not trying to be negative, lol). Sera, from her point of view, sees the Lavellan/Solas relationship and says Solas probably shouts "Elven glory!" during sex, but that's just from her perspective as a City Elf with her biases towards the Dalish. The most I can gather from my single playthrough of DAI is that Solas would, probably, be super understanding about it. He doesn't have much connection to this world at all, much preferring the Fade, so maybe being transgender is just a new concept to him. Or, maybe it's completely normal, since spirits in the fade just... mimic the lives of mortals. Spirits are completely agender, just encompassing a specific purpose and fufilling that purpose, they have no use for the concept of gender. AND THEN... we know Solas is only straight because Bioware wanted to avoid a negative trope and have him not be bisexual. Because IF Solas lives with agender beings ALL THE TIME then why would he care if the Inquisitor is a woman or not?!

So, as I write this currently, I think I have come to a small conclusion:

I don't think he would "care" in a negative sense. I don't think he would be rude or crass, or even angry about the inquisitor coming out as trans. I don't even think that current canonical straight Solas would care if he was in a relationship with female Lavellan and Lavellan came out as a trans man to him. I think he would probably consider this natural and completely not "odd". Probably would say some shit about how in the fade, a lot of his spirit friends don't have gender either. I feel like he's a guy who just GETS it. He would probably have questions about like, the bodily process of transitioning (I still don't understand how the body magic works. Is it like magical HRT? Do they do like, magical T shots or rub magical T gel? Is there puberty blockers? Do you even have to do voice training? Someone please tell me) and would try his best to understand. If he got rid of your hand could he perform top surgery? Just like rift fade them off your body? Would you trust Solas to do your top surgery? I think I would.

Anyway. Let me know if we got any other opinions or stuff to add onto this. I really want to write some transguy fics with him because there is a SEVERE lack of them on AO3.

#solas #dragon age #solavellan

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xxx-rozes-xxx · 2 years ago

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Trenderman; More Headcanons and Lore:

TW: A bit of gore, dollification, body horror Sorry, this took a while to make, I was swamped with work and just finished writing an art exam. Luckily, all has gone smoothly and I can continue to write about the poor sassy mannequin man. ___________________________________________________

Trendermans Mall:

Now in my head, each brother has a mansion of sorts, however, their place of "work" is completely different.

For instance,

Slender lives in his mansion (one that has run in the Slender family for years but that is a different story) but he hunts in the woods.

Splendorman has a mansion but many places where he takes care of the kids, abandoned carnivals, a magical garden, a playground, ect.

Offenderman is a bit of a different story but I'll cover all of their places in future posts.

Trender, as I said in my previous post, lives in a dead mall. Basically abandoned yet nothing grows, not mold, not ivy, nothing. Anything in his basic presence tends to shiver away.

So allow me to paint this image in your head:

You find yourself in a dim empty mall, like when it's closing time but the lights are on. Tightness of the air, stale as if nothing inside was alive. Nothing but broken glass and falling interior, despite that the place seemed to be in good shape. However, you just can't stop the feeling of being watched. Followed by something or someone. You go into a random store just to get out of its line of sight yet as you enter you fall over something. A mannequin arm. Strange. You venture further into the store to see what it had to offer. It was a clothing store but based on the empty hangers you couldn't tell what type of clothing they sold. The store was not lit up like the halls of the mall, similar to other stores in the mall. It wasn't until you made your way to the back did you notice something out of place. A book was on the floor. Not just any book, it had a leatherback and a lock on it. You spotted it as a journal of some sort. After fiddling with the lock it finally opens, only for all of the lights to shut off and footsteps echo in the hallways, heading your way...

Yes, Trender has his own game he plays with trespassers. Though his game works a bit differently.

Similar to Slenderman and his 8 pages; Trender has 13 journals. Only 1 of the journals has the map to the mall. Like most Slenders, Trender places dark magic over the mall to make it seem endless, a labyrinth only escapable if you find the journal with the map in it. (sound familiar?) And again, similar to his brother, Trender does not play fair. Even if you manage to escape, he will still hunt and find you and then add you to his pretty collection of dolls.

Trender lives in the basement of the mall, close to the parking lots by the security office. He created a small little office for himself as well as a studio closer to the first floor. All of this is sealed off magically since intruders tend to go through his stuff while trying to escape. Thus, the reason why he uses the journals as a red herring. See, if an explorer came into the mall, they would be fine but take anything from the mall then the journals spawn, and you are screwed, to say the least.

See, Trender isn't as cruel as his older brothers, no, he doesn't mind it at all, he understands humans are curious creatures by nature but thieves will not pass in his books.

Now don't get him wrong, he understands the state the world is in and such, fortunately, anyone with a sound mind would walk into the place and immediately sense that they are not welcomed, which is why there aren't any squatters.

Besides, if you're willing enough to stay in an abandoned mall, in the middle of butt nowhere, then either you have the balls and apiol of a bull or you're really not the brightest. Either way, ignorant and stupid people are plenty in this world and Trender does not mind lower that number...

Trendermans Proxies:

Now, Trender doesn't necessarily have proxies, but if you count a horde of mannequins then, sure, he has them.

See when there not chasing after the poor unfashionable souls of humans, they're in his studio wearing his designs or in a backroom like normal mannequins are stored, except this time they are human or what's left of "human".

They are sort of like this clip from Dead Body Hijinks by Sam O'Nella Academy at 3:40. Dead but not dead.

The "Mannequins" feel pain, they just don't react to it, and they stay perfectly still until ordered by Trender to move. They'll stay and collect dust, still conscious for as long as they are ordered to.

This the part where you start to prefer getting caught by Slenderman.

See, Trender rarely kills his victims. He hates getting his clothes dirty, it's usually his mannequins who do the killing for him. And he doesn't turn just anyone into one of his mannequins, no those are for his special pieces of art. If you're some poor quality human well then you've been spared the fate of being turned into one. Sadly, you're not out of the blue just yet because if there is one thing this hippie slender loves is all-natural ingredients and to him, killing and harvesting are two completely different things.

How pretty you'd bleed for him as he uses your soft skin for leather, your hair for thread, and your bones for jewelry. Now he would never wear such a thing or give his brothers this clothing however there sure are a lot of creeps on the internet who would pay a good buck for items made of that.

He hates being wasteful, his mother has always scolded him. So even if you are not a perfect vessel like his mannequins are, you're still going to be put to good use.

He'd give the rest to Eyeless Jack to eat or also sell it on the internet but that whole ordeal is messy and so time-consuming he'll only do it once every blue moon or when he's really pent up.

Even with this horrible discovery in mind, he still is one of the more 'safer' brothers to approach because he genuinely couldn't care less for a lower being and killing them, unless you peak his interest but even that is hard to do.

*Bonus!*

A few random headcanons about Trenderman in no specific order:

Despite what has been said about Trenderman, he is still one of the "chiller" brothers.

Trender has the character of Patrick Bateman from American Psycho but is less narcissistic and chatty.

In fact, Trendermans theme in my head is the slowed-down version of Oblivion by GRIMES solely for that one "did you know I'm utterly insane-" audio.

Just that blasting through the speakers in the halls as you try and escape him in total darkness.

Inner monologues and everything

Trenderman is known for being a diva but I don't see him as a 'loud diva'

More like a salty older gay man.

He speaks quite monotone, like Slenderman

The rest of the 12 journals have old designs in them that he doesn't use anymore or just old logs of money transfers, though one of them is rumored to have nude drawings in them of Trenders favorite models over the years

that rumor, of course, was started by Offender.

It's not 100% false however that journal remains locked up.

Slender and Trender get along better than most think however because they don't need to be in the same room as the other to hear what they are saying (telepathically), the rest of the pastas assume they can't stand each other.

Trenderman made all of Slenders suits and doesn't find them tacky, however, is extremely annoyed that he wears the same type of suit.

Splendors suit, on the other hand, he thinks is extremely tacky.

Has said that it made him look like a quote, "drug-abusing clown"

Splendor cried that afternoon.

Trender has yet to say sorry.

Trenders glasses aren't just there for style, they help him see the sealed entrances to his studio or office.

A crack headcanon:

Trenderman accidentally made "the backrooms" and the "infinite IKEA Store" when first trying to figure out his magic with other dead malls, then just blamed the SCP foundation for both of it.

Actually a lot of "magic went wrong" is blamed on the foundation

They still don't know about it

Slender keeps erasing their memories

I hope you guys in join the read, again sorry for the long post and the rushed writing, I just need to get a grounding going before anything really. Working on more lore as we speak ;-)

#creepypasta headcanon #slenderman #offenderman #lore #trenderman #splendorman #creepypasta x reader

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electricshoebox · 3 years ago

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writing tag

Tagged by the lovely @adventuresofmeghatron, thank you!

Tagging: @junemermaid, @molliehaswords, @desynchimminent, @valkyriejack, and @mercurymiscellany, if you’d like to do it!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

39. Holy shit.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

533,274 words. Holy shit.

3. What are you top 5 fics by kudos?

How to Share a Bed Without Killing Each Other: a Love Story (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dorian/Iron Bull, 5 Chapters, Complete) The trials and tribulations of literally sleeping together.

Rivers in the Sand (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dorian/Iron Bull, Oneshot, Complete) The Hissing Wastes unsettles Bull’s memories, and when he and Dorian are trapped together by a fallen pillar, Dorian helps him deal.

a soft place to land (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dorian/Iron Bull, Oneshot, Complete) When a letter from his father sets him off, Dorian turns to Bull for a distraction.

Always Good at Bad Ideas (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dorian/Iron Bull, Oneshot, Complete) Bull gets injured fighting a dragon, which leaves Dorian frantic enough to blurt out the one thing he was trying to keep to himself.

Flashpoint (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dorian/Iron Bull, Oneshot, Complete) “One time he got so excited he set the curtains on fire.”

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, always! I’ve seen various opinions on whether authors should, but to me, engaging with and getting excited with readers is half the fun and half the point. I also just really want people to know how much it means to me not only that they read, but that they take the time to leave a comment. Comments are hard to write. I completely sympathize with that, sometimes you just don’t know what to say or how to say it, and I absolutely don’t begrudge anyone that doesn’t. It just means a lot to me when people do, even when it’s literally just “This was cool!” or something, and I want them to know that it’s appreciated!

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm. I guess that sort of depends on your definition of angsty. None of them have directly tragic endings, it’s just not in me to write that way, but I have one or two with open or less definitely, obviously happy endings. The rarepair DA2 oneshot I wrote for Merrill/Orana, Counting the Cost, has the most open ending, left completely up to interpretation. The Inception AU DAI fic I wrote for Dorian/Bull, In the Shadow of Dreams, has what I think of as an optimistic ending, and less a happy one. I tried to end that one with more romance, but it just didn’t fit the tone of the rest of the fic, so a quiet ending that signals a road to recovery was what I chose instead.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Most all of my oneshots have pretty happy endings. I guess I’m tempted say A Line in the Sand, my Deacon/MacCready start-from-scratch slow burn novel, just because it goes from antagonists to lovers and has the longest road with the most earned happy ending. I feel like the long struggle to get there makes it feel happier.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not really. Instead I’m sometimes tempted into AUs based on other media, but not full blown crossovers with actual different characters meeting. Even then, I’m really picky in what I enjoy. I’ve only written one, the Inception AU for Dragon Age that I mentioned above. Honestly, it requires no knowledge of Inception at all. I really just stole a bunch of concepts from it and then made my own modernized Thedas around them.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Thankfully no! I’ve received one or two kind of odd comments, but otherwise I’ve been very lucky and everyone’s been really nice.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Hell yeah! I’ve written many kinds, really, whatever I feel like or whatever fits the fic. I’ve done plenty of your typical smut. I branched out into light BDSM with several of my Dorian/Bull fics, as well as waxplay and praise kink. I’ve also done some roleplay in the vein of “established relationship pretending to be strangers meeting at a bar” for Deacon/MacCready with By Any Other Name.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have! Two of my Dorian/Bull fics, Wishing Stars and No Patron Saint of Silent Restraint, both by the same lovely person: landanding on AO3. I don’t think I stopped flailing for a solid day when I got the request for permission either time.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not since pre-AO3 days, beyond collaborating in a tabletop setting. I’m not completely opposed to the idea but it would have to be someone I felt really, really comfortable with and with whom I have really good communication. I’m really particular about my writing, and I’d need to know someone’s emotional comfort level with trading and changing and even eliminating ideas.

13. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Oh god that’s honestly really hard. I’ve written the most for Dorian/Bull and that ship will always have a special place in my heart. But I did write my first full-length novel for Deacon/MacCready, and they’ve already got me in the middle of my second. So they’re the ship that taught me I could do that, and they’re my beloved rarepair. There are a few more I absolutely love, but I think those are my top two right now.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Definitely Uprising. It was the first time I tried longform fic, and it was meant to be an entire retelling of DA2 with Velanna as the Justice-bearing character, rather than Anders, because after learning the developers almost took DA2 in that direction, I couldn’t get it out of my head. I had a lot of plans for it, for how Justice might develop differently, for what it might have looked like if elves had been more of the battleground issue instead of mages vs. templars, for some angsty bittersweet long distance Nathaniel/Velanna and some complicated Fenris/Hawke and Merrill/Orana. But I drifted away from Dragon Age fandom in interest a long time ago, and I’m not sure I’ll ever get the steam back for it. I’m proud of how far I did get, though.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I feel pretty confident with dialogue, I can usually make a scene flow with it pretty well and I spend a lot of time trying to be meticulous about character voice. I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on my descriptions, which I appreciate and wouldn’t have considered a strength, but my readers have been kind. I think I’m pretty good at including body language, too, though maybe to a fault.

16. What are you writing weaknesses?

Much as people have been kind on the feedback, I really feel like action scenes are a weakness for me. I don’t enjoy writing them and I struggle a lot to make them feel like they’re flowing over just bulletpointing. I also feel like I struggle to make them exciting. I feel like I struggle with exposition scenes as well, and keeping them interesting over info-dumping.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I’m generally in favor of including them, but with the caution of doing thorough research if it’s not a language I speak. I shy away from it if I can’t be completely sure it’s accurate, because I don’t want to risk putting off a native speaker reader, or saying/doing something offensive. I’d expand that to include anything about another culture, really. For example, I’ve been slowly picking away at writing a Fallout fic for my Sole Survivor Anthony and Preston, and part of what has been slow going is just making sure I’m getting Anthony’s culture right. His parents immigrated from Vietnam, and I want his experiences with them and with his culture to be as accurate and respectful as possible, not falling into any stereotypes but also being allowed to be complicated.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Depends on what we’re measuring. The first fandom I ever wrote fic for of any kind was Sailor Moon. The first fandom I actually put fic on the internet for was Lord of the Rings, on good old fanfiction.net. The first fandom I published on AO3 for was Dragon Age.

19. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

God this is such a hard question to answer, my feelings on my writing change so often. I think it’s hard for A Line in the Sand not to be my favorite for the reasons I’ve already mentioned, it’s my first successful novel-length fic, I accomplished a lot with it and learned a lot from it, and it’s a rarepair I got to kind of develop from scratch in my own way.

But if I look back at my whole repertoire so far, just to branch out from the usual answer, I’d say I’m also really fond of To Have and to Hold, which was the first time I ever participated in a minibang, or really any kind of writing challenge. It’s a Dorian/Bull established relationship fic set during Trespasser, and it’s kind of a meditation on Dorian’s past and present and how they’ve shaped his feelings on love and commitment and marriage, all while he’s trying to decide his future. I’m proud of how it came out, and I think my Dorian voice still holds up okay. Plus I had two incredible artists working with me who put together stunning work for it, and how could I not be super grateful for that?

It’s funny, most of the top ones up there for kudos are ones that I don’t personally think are my best, it’s a lot of my very early offerings for Dorian/Bull that I think I could improve on a lot of if I tackled them now. I’m grateful people like them but I feel like they’re more an accident of timing, being published early in the ship’s popularity.

#writing tag #writing memes #my writing

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pikapeppa · 4 years ago

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Pikapeppa wears a tinfoil hat: The Arishok in post-Trespasser times

[Warning: this contains spoilers for Trespasser and for Tevinter Nights. Proceed with caution.]

For anyone who doesn’t know me, I’m a HUGE FAN of Sten from DA:O. While doing research for my current fic, I was reviewing Tevinter Nights and the Dragon Age Wiki, and I pulled together some threads regarding the qunari and their activities during the time of Tevinter Nights.

In a nutshell: I HAVE CONCERNS ABOUT ARISHOK-STEN’S SAFETY AND WELLBEING.

Read more below the cut!

A quick refresher of qunari rulership

Just as a reminder, the qunari are ruled by three leaders:

The Arishok: the military leader. Leads the antaam, i.e. the army.

The Ariqun: the leader of the priesthood, who are also the scholarly branch of the qunari.

The Arigena: the leader of the craftsmen and support workers of the qunari people.

Together, these three leaders are called the salasari. The salasari are supposed to make decisions jointly about how the qunari people proceed at advancing their own culture and bringing the uneducated bas into the wisdom of the Qun.

A summary of what we know

Sten becomes the Arishok around 9:34-9:35 after Hawke kills the current Arishok in Kirkwall. By the time the Inquisition rolls around in 9:41, he is still the Arishok as confirmed by dialogue between Bull and Varric.

In Trespasser, in the Darvaraad, we find a letter from the qunari to Josephine stating that the Viddasala was acting without the qunari leaders’ official sanction — an indication that their citizens are not as well-controlled and orderly as they would have the rest of the world believe. Of particular note, this letter indicates clearly that “military action has not been approved against the Inquisition. No one in Par Vollen has authorized actions of any kind involving the Exalted Council. Nor will they.” To me, this speaks of an Arishok who is being quite conservative in his actions. Similarly, in world states where Bull becomes a Tal-Vashoth, the qunari did not send military action against the Inquisition even when the Inquisition reneged on their hoped-for alliance.

All but one of the stories in Tevinter Nights take place post-Trespasser, and the qunari feature heavily in these stories. The book opens with Three Trees to Midnight, which tells of the qunari making a bold and unprecedented attack on the Tevinter city of Ventus. Importantly, it is mentioned that the antaam (i.e. the qunari army) are acting without the support of the priesthood or the workers:

Usually the other Qunari were there to support the Antaam—the workers crafting the gear and managing supplies, the Tamassran priests making sure the Antaam were healthy in mind as in body, the Ben-Hassrath spies scouting behind enemy lines and removing any Antaam who might forsake their training and abandon the Qun. This time, the Antaam had attacked the bas of the south without the blessing of the other Qunari, and little things were not working as well as they should. Supplies were late. Ships were not in good repair.

When I read this, alarm bells immediately went off in my mind. It seems odd to me that the antaam would suddenly attack Tevinter on what feels like an impulsive move, without the support of the two other branches of the Qun. Importantly, the antaam is under the Arishok’s (i.e. Sten’s) rule, and I thought it was VERY out of character that he would do something so anti-qunari as to basically go rogue without the support of the Arigena or the Ariqun.

Another relevant story is Brother Genitivi Dies At The End. In this story, Brother Genitivi, Philliam, a Bard!, and another lesser-known but infamous writer named Formerly Sister Laudine form a reluctant team to recover books from an elvhen library that, for some reason, has “fallen” underground in the Silent Plains in Tevinter. The mission is cut short by a qunari named Rasaan, and the three writers manage to snatch a small number of elvhen tomes before narrowly escaping from Rasaan and her soldiers. It very important to note that in this story, Rasaan refers to the army as being “my antaam”, and it is emphasized and pointed out that she called the antaam “hers”.

I should say now that I haven’t read any of the DA comics. On a whim, I decided to look up Rasaan in the Dragon Age Wiki, and I discovered that Rasaan is a prominent character in the comic Dragon Age: Those Who Speak, and that she belonged not to the military branch of the Qun, but to the priesthood/scholarly branch, and that she was next in line to become the Ariqun. The wiki says the following: “Rasaan was stranded in the Qunari city of Qunandar, unable to perform her duties. Since a new Arishok was chosen in 9:34 Dragon, Rasaan has been at his side almost constantly.” It’s also interesting to note that Rasaan has a particular interest in people’s ‘true names’ and believes that a person’s many names or titles are indicative of their character, their triumphs, and their failings.

Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego Sten????

OKAY. To sum up, then, the qunari situation in the post-Trespasser Tevinter Nights era is as follows:

The antaam, usually governed by the Arishok, has gone rogue, and it would be very out of character for Sten-Arishok to sanction this without the okay of his co-leaders.

Rasaan, a higher-up of the priesthood, is in mainland Thedas chasing down information about Solas and referring to the antaam as hers.

From this, I can only conclude that Arishok-Sten is not fully in charge of the antaam anymore, and that Rasaan plays a major role in this. Maybe Rasaan has pulled a coup and is trying to take over as the new Arishok, believing that ‘Arishok’ is supposed to be her true name. If this is the case, WHERE IS STEN? Is he a prisoner back in Par Vollen, perhaps? Stuck working in a labour camp? Or… Maker fucking forbid, is he dead?

Personally, I don’t think Arishok-Sten is dead, and this is not just my undying love for him that’s talking. There are indicators in Three Trees to Midnight that, even though the antaam has gone rogue and some of the qunari are acting extremely cruel, there other qunari who are still trying to maintain the integrity of the Qun. One example is the character named Saarbak, a Ben-Hassrath agent who has been tasked with removing threats to the Qun such as the overly cruel qunari. Characters like Saarbak make me think that the qunari are divided within themselves: there are those who have been impatient to move on Thedas, leading to the hasty attack on Ventus, and there are those who are trying to maintain the integrity and order of the Qun, such as Saarbak. And it’s my belief that Arishok-Sten is one of these honourable qunari, and that he is still alive and may play a significant role in DA4.

Fen’Harel ma ghilana: Solas’s interference

There's one other piece of qunari involvement that should be mentioned. At the end of Trespasser, Solas says that “in stopping the Dragon’s Breath, you have prevented an invasion by qunari forces. With luck, they will return their focus to Tevinter. That should give you a few years of relative peace.” It does not seem coincidental to me that a year or so after Solas says this, this is exactly what happens — particularly in light of the story called Half Up Front. In this story, it is discovered that Fen’Harel’s agents are purposely trying to fan the flames of the war between the qunari and Tevinter.

Why would Solas be trying to do this, though? Especially after telling the Inquisitor that he wants the people of the Inquisitor’s time to “die in comfort” free from the Qun? My conclusion is that Solas is trying to prevent the former Inquisitor from allying with Tevinter or the qunari. If they’re caught up in a war with each other, neither Tevinter nor the qunari will have the resources (or fucks to give) to invest in military efforts against an alleged elven god. I also think that Solas has no qualms about screwing Tevinter over by throwing them under the metaphorical bus of the qunari, given their longtime treatment of slaves and spirits. (Please note that I say all of this with great love, as I also have undying love for the Dread Egg.)

DA4 hopes: allying with the qunari

Based on the above, it’s my hope that a big part of DA4 will involve stopping an all-out war between Tevinter and the qunari, and then gaining the cooperation of both groups to help The Group Formerly Known As The Inquisition™ to stop Solas’s plans. It’s my even greater hope that the qunari portion of this will involve finding Arishok-Sten, restoring him his place as the rightful Arishok, and thereby securing his alliance to stop Solas. It’s my even greater GREATER hope that the Hero of Ferelden will play a role in this and have some ACTUAL FACETIME in the game by helping us to broker an alliance with Sten.

Of course, it’s a Bioware game so there has to be choice, so the choice here might be between helping Sten vs. helping Rasaan, but I’m sure you can all see where I would stand on this. (I just want Sten and his kadan to have a sweet sweet reunion, okay?? My tender heart is soft and weak for him.)

Okay, that’s it! Them’s my thoughts! Sorry if this has already been laid out before by somebody else – I just had to word-vomit my thoughts because of STEN FEELS.

Feel free to comment or reblog, but please do not use this as a forum to discuss the pros or cons of the Qun. I am wholeheartedly middle-ground on the Qun and can see both sides, so please refrain from that rhetoric here.

Finally, a little self-promotion: I ship Sten with my Warden Yara Mahariel, and have written a relatively short fic about their romance, which takes place during the ship ride from Denerim to Par Vollen after the Fifth Blight is ended. It’s called Fall Into The Tide, and you can feel free to check it out on AO3!

- Love from your friendly neighbourhood Pikapeppa xoxo

#sten #sten dragon age #dragon age lore #tevinter nights #tevinter nights spoilers #qunari #anaan esaam qun #da lore #trespasser dlc #solas #da4 speculation #da4 hopes

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writingthedas · 4 months ago

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ok I'm putting this under a cut bcs this is gonna be long. some of these worldstates are newer and need more fleshing out but I love them all.

worldstate 1: Belladonna Amell, Easter Hawke, Niara Lavellan

ok so this is my 'main' worldstate

Belladonna is probably my favourite of all my heroes of thedas. shes a blood mage, she's 16, she's got a god sized ego, she's aroace. she's got it all. she heard about Anders blowing up the chantry and that he was possessed by a spirit and thought, "huh. i can do that" and let herself get possessed by a spirit of wisdom who'd been visiting her in her dreams since she was little. his name is Wisely. they're platonic life partners. she's also related to one of my other wardens, as well as my friends warden (as in they are all siblings)

Easter is technically Belladonna's 2nd cousin but is at least 8 years older than her. Easter is a blue/purple mix leaning more towards purple as the game progressed. her life is a nightmare, Bethany dies before they get to kirkwall, Carver dies in the deep roads, then her mother gets killed. also she romances Fenris so there's the whole breakup that she also has to deal with.

Niara is my Solasmance inquisitor bcs I love pain. she's a fighter bcs I love that solas canonically likes buff women. and she's a templar for angst reasons. she was originally born into slavery in tevinter but her mother grabbed her and ran when she was about 7 and left her with clan lavellan. her mother ended up in orlais and they reunite post trespasser.

worldstare 2: Eden Amell, Tola Kader, Jeannie Hawke, Celene Trevelyan

Eden is probably my most tragic warden. she's Belladonna's older sister, they look nothing alike. she's a bleeding heart. I designed her to be representative of the warm, protective, healing aspect of fire. she romances Alistair, and doesnt let morrigan do the dark ritual with him. she never even tells him it was an option, bcs she knows he'd ignore his own discomfort to save them both. she died killing the archdemon. she was only 19.

Tola comes from a carta family and has done everything she can to escape them, going so far as to join the grey wardens. she's the warden commander for awakening since Eden is. y'know. dead. I know it's not canon but she ends up in a relationship woth Nathaniel bcs I say so.

Jeannie is 1 of 2 blue hawkes I have. she's a lesbian and romances Isabela. Carver becomes a templar in her timeline which has extra sting behind it bcs she has some intense templar related trauma. I like to think her and Isabela are living happily sailing the waking sea post inquisition. they deserve it.

Celene is another lesbian, and she romances Josephine. she's actually a half elf, her Orlesian mother having had an affair with one of her family's servants and being married off to Lord Trevelyan before she started to show she was pregnant. Celenes step father was kind enough to give her his surname and raise him like she was his own. she ends up meeting her father after Josephine finds out who he is for her, and he comes to work for the Inquisition as a groundskeeper in skyhold. he later comes with them to Antiva post trespasser. also when I named her i forgot the empress of orlais was named Celene, which is why her mother ended up being orlesian

worldstare 3: Jelsi Brosca, Malcolm Hawke JR, Sumeyye Adaar

Jelsi Brosca i love you. Trans woman, bisexual, in love with Morrigan but gets rejected and romances no one. she fathered Kieran though. she's a dual weilding rogue, and until coming to the surface didn't know how to read or write.

Malcolm jr is my second blue hawke. a gay trans man who romances Fenris. he's desperately trying his best and do good in a world that does nothing to help him and always seems out to get him. Bethany becomes a warden, his biggest regret is bringing her with them to the deep roads.

Sumeyye is a no nonsense mage who fights on the front lines alongside bull as a knight enchanter. she romances blackwall. she lives her small human boyfriend that she can pick up without trying too hard. and he lives that she can pick him up so easily.

worldstate 4: Jon Cousland, Amelia Hawke. Efe Adaar

Jon is another one of my characters whos a soft bleeding heart. he wants so bad to be what's expected of a warden, to make his parents proud. he becomes king by marrying Anora. their marriage starts of purely political but Jon eventually starts falling in love with her, and they start a courtship despite already being married. it's very cheesy and romantic.

Amelia is one of my red hawkes. I think red hawle is severely underappreciated. she's a dual weilding rogue who romances Merrill. its very much a 'touch her and I'll kill you' kind of relationship. neither of her siblings survive past act 1 unfortunately.

Efe is Sumeyye's younger brother, he's taller than her and has no horns. he's Bi and romances Cassandra. i don't have too much fleshed out for him yet.

worldstate 5: Arenil Surana, Valentine Hawke, Esric Lavellan

Arenil is actually the first warden i made, now revamped and renewed. she has a twin brother named Lion (leon) who uses crutches to get around. she's a hopeless romantic who believes in soul mates and romances Leliana. she's also albino

Valentine ehehehe. a mage who's doomed to repeat the mistakes of a father she wants nothing to be like. she's got his personality, his eyes, his magic. she turns to blood magic like he did. shes red, romances Isabela and Carver becomes a warden.

Esric is another one I don't have super fleshed out yet. he's twins with Esmae and is the more chaotic, spontaneous of the 2. he's a trans man who romances Dorian.

worldstate 6: Oriel Mahariel, Holly Hawke, Esmae Lavellan

Oriel was in love with Tamlen, but never knew if his feelings were reciprocated until he had to put him down. she romances Morrigan, and follows her through the Eluvian. also they're genderfluid and use any pronouns.

Holly is the definition of disaster bisexual. everyone's hot and she doesn't know what to do about it. she's purple. romances Merrill and Bethany becomes a circle mage.

Esmae is the third inquisitor I still need to work details out for. she's Esrics twin sister and is the more careful and calculated of the 2. she's a trans woman and romances Cullen

worldstate 7: Eloril Tabris, Theodore Hawke, Von Cadash

Eloril is one of my favourites. she's a lesbian who didn't want to marry Nelaros, and hates that he died for her. she's angry, aggressive, straightforward, and sometimes downright mean. she romances leliana. is some canon divergence, after the blight she's given the title of Arl of Denerim, and after finding a cure for the blight, she takes up her position. she's nicknamed The Wolf of Denerim.

You know how Anders says that he'd drown the world in blood for Hawke or something like that. yeah, Theodore thought that was the most romantic thing he'd ever said. Theodore is my third red Hawke. he's bad with people but tries his best for Anders.

I created Von bcs I saw like. no Cadash romances for Bull and thought that was a crime. Von is another carta dwarf who wants nothing to do with his family, and uses the Inquisition to put some distance between himself and them.

worldstate 8: Adelaide Cousland, Fiona Hawke, Fane Lavellan

Adelaide has a lot of Lioness imagery in her Pinterest board, and i live that for her. she romances Alistair. honestly she doesn't have a lot of drama surrounding her.

Fiona wants to be your typical knight in shining armor for Anders, but cant take things seriously long enough to do so.

Fane is my little weirdo. thousand yard walleye stare, necromancer obsessed with death, sera romancing weirdo.

AU 1: Minerva Bywater

OK MINERVA. There's a lot about her, but basically she was a harrowed mage in the Ostwick circle. when the circles began uprising, some of the templars in her circle got scared and grabbed a bunch of mages and made them tranquil, Minerva was one of them. she, alongside others, was brought up at the conclave to prove the templars abuse. this caused a huge argument and justinia called for a break which is when corypheus arrived.

being sent into the Fade + exposed to that amount of raw magic undid the Rite of tranquility. Minerva's an emotional mess for a lot of the story, but with some help from Cole she relearns how to control her emotions. she's a spirit healer and basically refuses to use offensive spells.

she ends up in a relationship with Krem. and after trespasser becomes a member of the chargers. her and krem get married on a battlefield very Elizabeth Swan and Will Turner style, with Bull officiating.

AU 2: Inquisitor Belladonna

she's back, baby!! this AU came to me one night and ive been obsessed with it since. Basically, Belladonna attends to conclave to see what's up, disguised of course. when the wardens show up with Corypheus Bella's darkspawn senses go nuts so she goes to investigate. and then the explosion happens.

the most drama here is how her companions react to finding out she's possessed. like, her and Vivienne BARELY get along, they'll gossip over wine, but that's it.

also poor Cullen (not really) has to deal with the girl he had a crush on 10 years ago now being his boss.

I love hearing about people's specific world state dramas in the tags. Whenever you reblog a post from me and expand upon your wardens, hawkes, and inquisitors and their fucked up lives, know that im sitting here like "wow I love that please tell me more"

#ocs #coles ocs #dragon age #dragon age origins #dragon age 2 #dragon age inquisition

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greenjudy · 3 years ago

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Inquisitor Ask Meme

Reposting this for fun.

Anyone else want to take a crack? What kind of Inky would you be?

@allsortsoflicorice? @tyramir ? Bueller?

1. Race:

Human.

2. Class/Specialization:

Rift mage.

3. Your homeland?

The Free Marches. Wycome, to be precise.

4. Your family?

Keep my family out of this; they have things to do besides die.

5. Who were you before?

A Circle Mage of some skill and much fear. Given my personality, the Circle would probably not cater to my strengths. It would make me more nervous and paranoid than I already am. The Inquisition would force me out of my comfort zone and give me some resilience I would never otherwise develop. Left to my own devices, I’d fall prey to obsession, and possibly possession by a Pride demon.

6. Would you be religious?

I’ve read a lot of books by Brother Genitivi and Philliam! A Bard; I’m actually using my clout as Inquisitor to gather whatever is known about the Black City. You might say I’m an originist, I want to know where we came from; Andraste is kind of late on the scene for my interests.

Post-Trespasser, this quest will more or less eat my brain.

Short answer: obsessed with “religious” subject matter, not religious per se.

7. Do you have a mabari?

Nope. But I spoil Cullen’s baby.

8. Your opinion on other races?

Raised to “not be racist” (as far as that goes) in cosmopolitan, edgy, free-wheeling Wycome; family with a ton of Dwarven trading connections. Angry about the elves. Knew loads of elven enchanters in the Circle, but I have awkward awareness of human privilege around the Dalish.

Fascinated by the Shaperate. Wish all Thedas had those. Can you imagine?

Worried about the Qun, but deeply impressed with the handful of Qunari I’ve met in person. Not mindless drones at all. Disciplined. Community first has some virtues, must say.

9. What would Varric’s nickname for you be?

Baffler.

10. What would your tarot card look like?

The High Priestess: an older, abbess-looking chick standing at a scriptorium, surrounded by magical paraphrenalia and a gorgeous view out my high window. Raven (with message) standing on the windowsill.

11. Where would you hang out in Skyhold?

My bespoke mage tower, if I’m not in the Undercroft picking Dagna’s brain. Do a little weeding in the herb garden from time to time; we’re growing some fascinating things in there.

After Solas leaves, I’d go spend time in the destroyed holding cells, watching the water fall.

12. What would you do for fun?

Study. Knit. Paint. Visit my horses; the smell of horses is very comforting.

I’d have highly technical arguments with Dorian and spend a lot, a lot, a lot of time talking to Solas.

13. What armor would you wear?

Cutting-edge tactical enchanted fabric. Light, layered, tweedy, enchanted.

I’d probably get sucked into magical materials research, specifically, making improvements to armor base-layers. I’m obsessed with armor. I have a whole research group (headed by Dagna, Cullen consulting) devoted to armor improvement.

14. What would your room look like?

Given the state of my current room, a chaotic mess of books, papers, research tools, letters from colleagues, blueprints, schematics, dirty dishes, orchids, and automata (Josie and I would be doll-geeks together).

15. Who would be your friends at Skyhold?

I try to make sure that the Inner Circle understands how much I appreciate them as a general rule.

As for friends:

Cassandra is one of the great ones. Just about the best person I know. Never met anyone so ready to acknowledge her mistakes. I’d trust her to be the next Divine.

Dorian is a dear. One of the best sounding-boards. Somebody peel that man a grape.

Cullen and Josephine are terrific advisors, couldn’t ask for better, their own problems of course, we’re all doing our best. I’d like to know Cullen better—suspect we have things, Circle things, to talk about. In another life, maybe.

I’d get on with Varric—everyone gets on with Varric, come on—but I find him ultimately very armored, hard to know. Hid his best friend, didn’t he? Never talks about the lady he loves.

Sera is actually easy to understand. Raw genius with a bow, one of the best to have along, out in the field. Not exactly my friend. So down on the Dalish. It’s her business, though. She and Dagna are adorable together. She makes Dagna happy, that’s good enough for me.

I have a bit of a GP for the Iron Bull. (He had me at “front-line bodyguard.”) Never acted on it, though.

Solas is my… see… well, see below.

16. Would you have any friends outside of the Inquisition?

I’d have the Thedas version of LinkedIn comrades in Antiva, Nevarra, and Orlais—researchers all. Plus one brilliant friend who’s a materials mage based out of Denerim, working with Sandal on woven metal enchantments; call her my “knitting buddy.”

17. Who wouldn’t you get along with?

Leliana would trouble me. Don’t like having someone this emotional and vindictive managing our intel networks. It’s bad juju, Ambassador; can’t trust her judgment, can you? And that feels like a loose end. Put us in a tight spot someday. Couldn’t we ask Varric…? No, I quite see that. Still.

I’d understand Vivienne, and try to maintain a cordial relationship because I think most of her head is in the right place, even though she is entirely too power-oriented for a real friendship.

Blackwall’s “find Darkspawn, kill them, repeat” approach would bother me. When I found out the truth about him, it would confirm my feeling that you need to lie to yourself, a lot, to just have enemies and kill them without compunction. I would also find myself highly influenced by Solas’s take on the Wardens.

18. Who would you romance?

I’m a Circle mage who’s watched close friends be tormented by romantic love. Demonic possession and Tranquility. Babies taken away. This is not the kind of conditioning that disappears just because you take me out of a Circle. In my youth I worked it out by restricting myself to impossible love objects—there was this one Templar, very stern, very disciplined…he’d barely speak to me… Well. That was many years ago.

That said, the best impossible love object I’ve ever encountered in my life is Solas.

What does it matter, really? Bonds of friendship, don’t you know; romantic love leads to envy demons. I’m old now, at any rate. Inquisigeezer not exactly a romanceable character.

19. Would you do pranks with Sera?

Probably not. Too busy. Too tired. Feel too much sympathy for her innocent victims.

But I would do operations with Sera, with pleasure.

20. Would you sleep with the Iron Bull (casually if not romance)?

My front-line bodyguard? Get on with you. It would get too complicated—for me, I mean, not him.

21. Would you keep Cole around?

Yes. And I’d agonize about what would be the best path for him to take, and probably make him a spirit.

22. Can you play the game (politics)?

Yes. I’m better at it the more distant it is. If you’re talking about what to say at a party, I’ve developed a persona for that sort of thing. Stakes are high. Can’t be fooling around. A mage, remember? This guard drops, I get possessed; lose my temper, might incinerate you, can’t have that.

23. What would be on your tombstone in the fade (What are you afraid of)?

“The world fell apart on my watch.”

24. Who would you recruit to seal the breach?

Mages. I understand mages. Their leadership’s been simply awful. Not sure what Fiona did with her spine. Without decent leadership, it’s mages running amok, trying to protect themselves, doing awful things out of fear; can’t have that, they’ll pull their own house down. Get them out of the weeds, stick ‘em in the Inquisition, give them a chance to show what they can do for the right cause.

25. Opinion on Mages versus Templars?

It’s all about training, though, isn’t it? Templars and mages both need much, much better training. Without training, without a penetrating education with a solid grasp of magical theory, history, ethics—co-train the mages and templars, make ‘em take core courses together. Make them work together in strike teams; I’ve been doing that since we recruited ‘em, they actually partner well, as long as you’re not, you know, mad.

I would become obsessed (do you see the recurrence of this word) with the idea that mages could be Seeker-trained to resist possession and mind control, obviating the need for Tranquility. These disciplined (another key word) and trustworthy mages could be placed in a position of joint authority with properly educated Templars to create a College of Magi with research cells all over Thedas…

Yeah. We’ll see how that works out.

26. Who would be put in charge of Orlais and why?

Celine and Briala. Celine is the one with the right temperament, and for some reason I viscerally understand Briala. I’m all about reparations and integrating elven populations and something something protect the Dalish (can’t we actually give them the Dirth?).

27. Would you sacrifice the Chargers?

I couldn’t.

28. Would you go after Blackwall?

Oh, yes. And I’d keep him on, as Thom Rainier.

29. Would you drink from the well?

Knowing me? Not knowing the implications except for those vague warnings? Yes, I would, and it would affect me for the rest of my life.

I’d spend what’s left of myself using whatever insight and connections the Well gave me to work on Solas.

30. Where would you go if the Inquisition was disbanded?

Under ordinary circumstances, the College. Daresay they’d want me to do something draining and administrative because of my being the (ex)Inquisitor; I’d look for a research niche but probably not get to keep it.

Solas is not ordinary circumstances. I’d dedicate the rest of my life to that problem.

31. How do you react to the egg telling you he is an elven god?

I’d naively and arrogantly imagine that I could—if we could just get enough time to sit down together—he must understand what he’s likely to bring about, he needs people to talk to, dammit—

He would be the death of me, I’m afraid.

#DA:I

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magneticmage · 3 years ago

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Quiz Meme; OC-style

I was tagged by @rozhevisny to take this quiz.

I also ended up doing a number of my OCs. They are under the cut for length.

I am tagging @awellboiledicicle @mikkeneko @changeling-fae @higheverweave @yusukesmomjeans @dalishious and @draxen1123 but don't feel pressured to do so if you don't wanna! It's all for fun.

(Inquisitors)

Paeriel Lavellan="You're choking on how much you have to try". Accurate by the time of Inquisition (specifically around Skyhold) as Paeriel very much embodies the virtue of suledin. She can handle the amount she's dealt with but it is still a burden and she worries about how it will affect others if she slips and drops under the weight. She doesn't want more harm to come to innocents and those who are already struggling under their own burdens (mages, dwarves, elves, even the templars to some degree), and yet it is a fight that continues on and on seeming without end. Just as Solas walks his path to break the systems oppressing people, she tries to work within those same systems to better chances for those who need it.

Armashok Adaar="You were meant to". Accurate prior to his joining the Inquisition. He spent so much of his life struggling to find his place as everyone told him what to be; silent, obediant, a weapon to be protected against. He chafed and struggled to find comfort in it and yet he ultimately realized that he was his own person. No one could tell him who and what he was or was meant to be, not even his wife. So he chose for himself; To be Armashok Adaar.

Ransley Trevelyn="This isn't enough for you" Also accurate for pre-Inquisition Ransley, as he balked against his family expectations. They wanted him to marry a nice noblewoman of status and wealth. He courted them but couldn't quite bite the bullet as something about them just lacked....something. Even when he met his lover, he struggled against the fact that they had to be discreet for her reputation as a Knight-Divine. His family demanded he become a Templar, he decided the Seekers would be a better use of his talents. Always when he was told something, his innate ambition would push him for more and better things. While he can give up things as needed, he dislikes it. That last part is something he struggles with-and notably fails during Trespasser-post-Inquisition. This is a trait that Josephine can understand, though like their lover Cassandra, she tempers it in herself and him with patience.

Naranka Cadash="Because you have made mistakes you cannot swallow" Pfft. Yeah, this is very much her. She seeks redemption just as badly as Paeriel does for Solas, just as badly as Blackwell-her love interest-does.

(Inner Circle)

Kara Adaar="Because you cannot hold freedom". Very true. She's seen what freedom has cost her parents to give her a better life and plans to make the most of hers. That desire to enjoy life is shared with Sera. The desire to understand the world through the lens of ensuring that freedom for others is something she shares with Dagna.

Emilyse Trevelyan="You swallow pain and fold around it" Yikes. This is accurate to her time in the Circle, however. She spent much of her time trying to be a "good" mage, despite a number of abuses by the Templars and the Chantry. It was only when her brother visited her during his training as a recruit that some of those abuses came to light and she was brought to the Circle in Ostwick, closer to home and with the newly added bribes to ensure her safety, she did much better. However, this newfound life did not for too long as the Rebellion broke out and she was left adrift for a time before making her way with some other refugees to the Conclave at Haven. She was nervous about so many Templars, but eventually found solace and peace with Cullen as they each began to heal over their own traumas of their respective sides, and together as they began a family shortly after Trespasser.

Samrel Lavellan="because you cannot hold freedom" Interesting. He's actually one of my simplest OCs; a simple life with his clan and husband, First to the Keeper and cousin to Paeriel, is all he wants. Unlike some of my other Dalish OCs, he hasn't faced quite the same level of hardship and loss, and though he does mourn the loss of his clan, he seeks to rebuild it alongside his husband and the few survivors that managed to escape the humans' blades. So perhaps that defiance of the losses inflicted harkens back to the Dale's and the elves' refusal to submit to the Alienages, by simply standing up and saying "No, you cannot silence us" is enough? That could be a type of freedom and there is power in that refusal. Thoughts to consider more later.

Pyrmar Cadash="This isn't enough for you". Oh that's interesting. Pyrmar is one of those characters that seems super simple (ex-surfacer Carta bruiser with a notable penchant for leadership as a Champion) and, for the most part, he is. He likes drink and fun as much as any other mercenary like the Chargers. But, like Dorian, he sometimes feels inadequate in some way. As if he is meant for more; to be and do more. Most notably for basic respect and care, something his upbringing in the cutthroat nature of the Carta was missing. Dorian shows him that he is capable of love and being loved and The Iron Bull gives him the respect and belonging he lacked previously. While he can still fall orey to his baser nature at times, his heart as grown much over the years and so it becomes less common to "want more" as he used to.

(Last Court)

Aurore de Serault="Because you have made mistakes you can't swallow" Ooo. She does carry some lingering guilt and grief over her late husband's death at the hands of the Game. She struggles with the Orlesian court at times, and much prefers solitude and peaceful quiet to gossipy ballrooms and noble Lords and ladies demanding a dance, a bonding point for her and her love interests of The Silent Huntsman and the Elegant Abbess. However, it's not that she's unskilled in the Game; in fact, she's quite good at it. She simply prefers simplicity to more complex machinations. All that said, she does regret the ferocity with which she holds grudges; she had gone on to murder the entire families of those individuals responsible for her husband's death.

Marcel de Serault="You swallow pain and fold around it". Hmmm. Not sure of this one. Marcel divorced his wife to pursue a cloistered and scholarly life in pursuit of knowledge (he was once a Chevalier). Eventually he began to crave the adventure of the Game again, which is how he fell for The Wayward Bard and the Dashing Outlaw. Again, not too sure but it's interesting. Perhaps he simply internalized his losses and pain?

(Hawkes)

Knight-Commander Jasper Hawke of Kirkwall="because you've made mistakes you can't swallow" Oh cool! Jasper watches his younger siblings-three of his fellow quadrupled and Carver- go off into the Deep Roads expedition. He made the decision to stay behind to protect Bethany and their mother in case things went south. Despite assurances from his departing siblings, things did go south. After being pissed at Batrand, he sighed and went to work for the Templars. Shortly thereafter, despite his best efforts, Bethany was caught by Templars and taken to the Circle. Jasper did what he could to protect and shield his sister from the worst abuses of the Templars under Meredith's command, no matter the personal costs and enmity it earned him from his siblings and companions. It even ended his relationship with Anders around the beginning of Act 2. After Meredith was defeated, he worked with Cullen to try and reform the Templars and rebuild Kirkwall post-Chantry boom. His efforts were strained once red lyrics began to show up and corrupt his fellow templars. Despite narrowly avoiding being swept into the group while infiltrating it to gather intel, he succeeded in driving them out. When Cullen left for the Inquisition, he stepped up to continue reforming the Templars for protecting the mages. While he originally balked at the pro-mage decisions of the Inquisition, he ultimately agreed that the Chantry had abused all of its charges-mages and templars both. He began to reshape the Templars under his command to fit in line with the changing world; a choice to take lyrium, and a recovery and rehabilitation plan set in stone for all members who wished to leave, new rules and regulations in place to protect the rights and dignity of both mages and Templars, slowly making them a secular force beyond the Chantry but under the control of Vivenne's newly reformed Circle of Magi perhaps. He does what he believes to be right and for the best of his family, even if they dislike his decisions. A trait he no doubt picked up from his mother.

Lord Gray Hawke of House Amell="You swallow pain and fold around it" This is fitting for Lord Amell. While Jasper and Violet always held loft goals to pursue and Skye simply wanted to go and see the world for all it was, Gray preferred to remain at home and tend to their family. He is the one most connected to the Amell legacy rather than the Hawke self-made determination. That's not to say it isn't there; he's more than willing to help others and make something of himself, but it comes back to wanting to appease and help his family in whatever ways he could. He pines for Anders for a great deal of time, but doesn't make a move due to either Jasper dating the mage or simply not wanting to be a rebound for his brother. In the end, however, Anders surprises him (perhaps nudged on by Skye and Violet) by initiating a kiss and the two quickly develop into a stable relationship. He is even willing to leave all he'd built to go on the run with Anders and further aid him in his cause. Gray is just a cutie who wants a simple meal and a nice husband. If he gets to watch Anders shoot lightning at fools, well, who is he to laugh?

Viscountess Skye Hawke="Because you cannot hold freedom". Accurate. Skye loves her freedom. While she is certainly ambitious, it often comes down to more power means more freedom. She rules as Viscountess of Kirkwall for a time until abdicating in favor of Varric so she can pursue Tallis across the seas, but also to simply go back to adventuring and exploring. While she does not care for the Qun and its Qunari, she cares about people and her family most of all. It is one of the few tethers she did not choose but it is the one she keeps above all others. After all, even the Sky must touch the earth at some point just as a Hawk must return to its nest to rest and tend its young.

Champion Violet Hawke of Kirkwall="Because you have made mistakes you cannot swallow". Fitting given that Violet is both a blood-mage (also a spirit-healer and force-mage) and extremely pro-mage freedom, and her choices often led her to conflict with Jasper due to their views and lives. She has only ever wanted to be free to live her life as she chooses, with is how she fell for Isabela. She fell for Fenris because she's a bleeding heart who wants to help everyone as much as she can. Kirkwall left its mark on her and she's struggling to do better than what she views as a failure due to her diplomatic nature in the name of mage freedom by the time the Inquisition comes around. While just as driven by the cause for equality as Anders, she often privately struggled with her mother's death among the many other revelations and choices of her family, fearing the loss of all she called dear. Luckily Fenris and Isabela returned to her and they made a pact to live well on the seas after everything had settled down and Champion Hawke was no longer needed.

(Awakening)

Senior Warden Dion Caron="This isn't enough for you" Okay. So, Dion joined the Wardens to escape the Templars (p.s. it didn't work) and his adopted sister Victoire-Ainsley was already joining and he had promised to protect her for their parents. He's happily married to Garam and spends much of his time training recruits and fostering camaderie in the ranks of the Wardens. What more could he want? Perhaps it is nothing and the doubt is simply there as is human nature, perhaps he frets about his dwindling time in the world before his Calling, perhaps he does want more. Who can say?

Senior Warden/Warden-Constabke Victoire-Ainsley Caron of Orlais="This isn't enough for you" Pfft. Victoire-Ainsley's ambition to make a name for herself and her family (she came from a long line of Chevaliers) nearly cost her her life and resulted in her father's death. Her mother adopted an orphan boy-Dion-in the hopes it would curb some of her darker tendencies. It partially succeeded. While she did not go as far as she'd once been willing, she still acted ruthlessly and this earned her quite the name in the Game for a time. However, her fall from grace was just as bloody as her rise, and she was only spared by the intervention of the Wardens' Conscription. She lost a great deal and was now forever barred from reclaiming it. She acted out for a time and was surprised when the Wardens allowed-encouraged even-it. However the death of her husband to save them during a nasty skirmish against a powerful broodmother she'd led them against resulted in a mission successful but at a cost she hadn't wanted to pay; only her, Dion, Garam, and I senna made it out alive. Since then, she had been working towards redeeming herself, opening up to the criticism and vulnerability she'd been so afraid of, much like Loghain is when he is sent to Orlais. And so while her pride demands more of her, she focuses instead on what she can provide and tries to bite back the bile this causes. After all, this is for the best and that is enough. Right?

Senior Warden Isenna Andras="You were meant to" Isenna lived first under the Orlesian cruelty in the Alienate and then the Templars' in the Circle. It is no wonder she fights to carve a name for herself in history, to make herself her own, to be what she was never meant to even dream of. She wants to be a hero but struggles against her own inner nature to survive. She is driven by the conflict of selflessness and self-preservation. Perhaps Mhairi's idealism is enough to tip the scales for her.

Senior Warden Garam Kader="Because you have made mistakes you cannot swallow" Accurate. He joined the Wardens after passing off the wrong Carta Boss and then spent years helping Victoire-Ainsley and her brother grow their ambition and then....his unit died beyond the four of them. And all the glamor of the Wardens fell away and he realized just how far some would go and he began to wait for them to step back, hoping they would step back. Victoire-Ainsley and Dion and Isenna did. He did. But the Clarel didn't. He hopes Loughlin will do better as the Warden-Commander of Orlais. He knows he will do better and he knows his husband, Dion, will.

(Wardens)

Warden-Commander Lynera Mahariel of Fereldan="You were meant to" Ouch my heart. Lynera lost Tamlen and never quite recovered. She was forced into a Warden and then into leading the party as the Hero of Fereldan and then into the role of Warden-Commander/Arlessa of Amaranthine and she did it. She took all the pain and hurt and losses over the years, the Taint and its horrors and its strength sapping, the politics and hard decisions; she took it all and she did it. She did what was needed, became what a Grey Warden Commander and hero was meant to be. She can't even say she regrets becoming a Warden anymore as its become so central to her identity now, only mourns the things and people she's lost to get there. I think Sten-excuse me-the Arishok understands this. Perhaps that is why they both hope to never meet on a battlefield unless they are on the same side again.

Warden Isemaya Tabris="You swallow pain and fold around it" Okay that's like SUPER interesting. See, Isemaya learned about the injustices elves face early in life. It cost her her mother's life and very nearly her twin brother's as well, after all. She became a warrior to protect them (her family, her community, her home) and she was good at it. But then she saw a glimpse of a different life with Nelaros, one where she might be happy simply letting someone else deal with all the fighting and clawing and exhaustion. She wanted it, she realized, she wanted it very much. But then she lost him and Shianni was hurt and she was hurt and Vaughn was dead and the humans were so angry. She geared up to protect her people again, to be the brave warrior like her mother before her. And then....Duncan Conscripted her. She was forced from her home, alive and angry and proud, and so she expanded her family to her companions. Then Zevran tried to kill them and they let him live and she watched him like a hawk and saw the same longing for a life, for more in the absence of loss, in him. She helped him heal and learn to live again and he helped her set down her weapons and her anger for a time and then the times became more frequent and they grew closer. She told him she loved him in the brisk Haven air and he gave her a golden earring to match the old and blood-stained wedding band she still wore, and she had found peace. She continued with the Wardens, with helping him take down the Crows, with searching for a cure so they could have more time. She took her pain but instead of weaponizing it like Lynera and others did, she learned to let it go and continue on. She learned to live in spite of, not because of, her pain.

Arcane Advisor Catriona Surana of Fereldan= "Because you have made mistakes you cannot swalllow" Oof. This is definitely Catriona during Origins. Her decisions to betray Jowan, to use blood magic at Ostagar and then to continue to practice and study it despite the stigma it holds, the merging with Compassion to save Cale, to give up her dreams of marriage and freedom and let Alistair marry Anora for the good of Fereldan and again when Leliana went on to become the Left Hand of the Divine and then again as the Divine Victoria...she makes a lot of mistakes and the consequences haunt her for a very long time. While she does manage to find some good in them, or at least simply makes peace with them, they still color how she becomes in 2 and Inquisition and beyond.

Warden Cale Amell=

Teryn Fion Cousland of Gwaren=

Paragon Prince Barran Aeducan=

Warden Paragon Tatha Brosca=

(Origins)

First/Keeper Vireth Mahariel=

"Dark Wolf" Elthorn Tabris=

"Stormcaller" Alaros Surana=

Lord Azul Amell=

Lady "Nightshade" Raven Amell=

Lord Carmine Amell=

Lord Reed Amell=

Lady Marigold Amell=

Captain "Highever Spitfire" Aelynne Cousland=

Princess and Orzammar Commander Valda Aeducan=

(Canon Solo Shepard)

Commander and Spectre Annette Shepard=

(The Sibling Shepards Canon)

Spectre Riley Shepard=

Spectre/XO Roscoe "Ros" Shepard=

Spectre/Commander Joanna "Jo" Shepard=

(Shepard Cousins)

Angelus "Angel" Shepard=

Elliot "El" Shepard=

Jaden "Jay" Shepard=

Alexandra "Alex" Shepard=

Kristopher "Kris" Shepard=

Clover "Clove" Shepard=

(Starship Ryders Canon)

Pathfinder Lucas "Luke" Ryder=

Pathfinder Rebecca "Becca" Ryder=

Pathfinder Shiloh "Shy" Ryder=

Pathfinder Evander "Evan" Ryder=

Pathfinder Asher "Ash" Ryder=

(Baldur's Gate)

Cei Gloomdraft=

Faenerys Elendir=

"Sable Shades" Risaeder Rosandoral=

Saga "Muse" Musehart=

Lyr(e/a/an) Lovemoor=

Rune Mistsea=

Lucine Mistsea=

Roan Roarke=

#my ocs stuff #my baldur's gate 3 ocs #my Shepards #Sibling Shepards #My Dragon Age OCs #My Wardens #My Origins #My Hawkes #My Marquises #My Inquisitiors #My Inner Circles #My Team Tadpole

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fordboyle · 3 years ago

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jewishzevran · 4 years ago

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between the shadow and the soul

thirty-five: “can i have one last kiss?” / requested by @purahs and @dalish-gloves

a/n: massive spoiler alert for trespasser dlc

“tell me of something fiercer than the love with which i gaze upon you

or something softer than the tenderness with which i hold you.”- sanober khan

It had been hours.

That morning, they had woken up in the Winter Palace, and Anders had helped Ori dress ready for the Inquisition hearing. The last of their companions had arrived. Dorian had announced he had been made a Magister. Everything was going smoothly.

Then that damned qunari corpse had shown up and Ori had been travelling back and forth through eluvians all day, trying to find out what the hell was going on. The last time she disappeared, she’d winked at him and told him she’d be ten minutes. Anders had watched the sun set and almost rise since then. The sky was stained pink and yellow in the light of dawn. Birds were starting to chirrup in the bushes and trees. And Ori had still not returned. He was going mad.

He paced the courtyard, wringing his hands and at a total loss for what else to do. He couldn’t eat, even if there was food available; his stomach was far too knotted and he could taste bile in his throat. He hadn’t tried to sleep. How was everyone so damned calm? Anders was going spare because Ori was his wife, but that aside, she was the Inquisitor, the reason everyone was here; she had been missing for over half a day and people had just eaten dinner and gone to bed as usual. Like nothing was wrong.

There was a loud crash from inside the cellhouse, and his skin tingled with latent magic. He felt giddy with relief for about three seconds before Bull’s voice echoed up the stairs.

“We need help, NOW!”

Maker, no.

Dread started to make Anders’ head swim as he almost fell down the stairs, bursting into the room and taking in the scene in front of him. Dorian was grey and looking incredibly panicked, Varric looked grim-faced and utterly out of his depth, and Bull was - Bull was -

Bull was kneeling on the tiles, cradling Ori in his arms. She was limp, barely conscious, and writhing in pain. Her skin was ashen, she was covered in sweat, and her left arm was hanging uselessly at her side. Anders’ eyes followed the line down to her hand and almost fell over.

It was stone. Frozen like a statue. He could see tendrils of it slowly creeping up her wrist and forearm, and his hands flew to his mouth before he dropped to his knees in front of Bull.

"We still don't know what happened," Bull said through gritted teeth. "She followed the Viddesala through an eluvian and came back like this. She’s said a few words here and there but she’s barely coherent, and half of what she has said has been in broken elvish.”

Anders pulled Ori into his lap, running his fingers over her forehead, letting frost crystallise in her hairline in an attempt to cool her down. She was writhing and moaning, and her eyes rolled to look at him. It broke his heart.

“Ori? Ori, darling, can you hear me? Talk to me. Help me understand.”

"Anders?" she whispered, frowning and trying to focus on him.

"Yes, darling. It's me. I'm here. What happened?"

She murmured something he couldn't hear and screamed with pain again, her breath coming in shallow pants. Anders was vaguely aware that there were people shouting and scrambling around outside, and he could hear a bell tolling in the distance.

"Ori, love, please. Tell me if you can. Anything that will help." He placed a hand over her chest, radiating blue light, and sent pain relief coursing through her system. She relaxed a fraction, and held his gaze a little clearer.

"Solas, he's… he's the dread wolf. He's Fen'harel. Spies everywhere. You have to tell the Warden-Commander. She has to know. You have to tell her. She'll help. She'll stop him. He - my arm - stone magic to stop the anchor spreading-" She cut off with another scream of agony, and Anders felt tears starting to burn in his eyes.

Anders took a deep breath, letting the familiar calm wash over him, and allowed the chaos around him dissolve into quiet. He could see the tendrils of the strange magic curling around her arm: a blue so pale and stark it was almost white. He felt it too, unforgiving, forceful, and relentless.

Ori reached up to cup his face with her good hand. "I love you, Anders. I love you so much. Don't forget that, please, please don't ever forget how much I love you."

Anders' heart sank. "No, no Ori, you don't get to say that. You can tell me that later when we've worked out how to stop this-"

"It feels cold." She rasped. "It hurts so much. It's like frostbite but heavy. I don't think I can - I don't -"

"Shhh, shhh love," Anders said, starting to cry freely. "It will be ok. I promise you."

"Vhenan, please… can I have one last kiss?"

"No. Ori, don't, I'll save you, I promise. I’ll kiss you a hundred times when this is fixed -”

“Anders, we’re running out of time, please-”

Anders had never been able to deny Ori anything, and he sobbed as he leant down to press a fierce kiss against her cold and clammy lips. “I love you, Ori. You are my life.”

“I know, vhenan,” Ori whispered, voice trembling as her own tears rolled down over her temples and into her hair. “Thank you for seeing me.”

As she fell limp in his arms, finally succumbing to unconsciousness, panic, grief and rage all rose to a blinding cacophony in Anders’ chest. He delved into the very bottom of his mana pool and blasted as much healing energy as he possibly could directly at her arm, gripping it tightly, willing something, anything to work. He pulled on the threads of his healing magic and weaved them round the skin, but it did nothing, he tried to dispel the magic, he tried to force the curse out of her, but everything he attempted was like hitting a brick wall with a feather.

Help me!

There is nothing that can be done, Anders. This is magic not even I recognise. It is ancient and powerful. If you do not stop it spreading, Anders, Ori will become stone. She will die.

I can’t let her die, I can’t, I can’t, you have to help, there must be SOMETHING!

Other people were in the room now, other healers trying to pull Ori from his lap. He held firm, refusing to let her go, glowing so brightly with magic that he could see Bull and Dorian squinting.

“Don’t touch her!” Anders yelled, tightening his grip on her shoulders, needing the warmth of her body against her to remind him she was still here, still alive.

Be calm, Anders.

Anders was about to retort to Justice when he realised he was right. He was no good to Ori lashing out like an animal caught in a trap. He took another deep breath, and extinguished the magic in his hands, looking up at the other healers, forcibly keeping a hold of himself. “It’s old magic. Ancient, even. I don’t recognise it. I don’t think it can be stopped. The longer we try to hold it back, the further it’s going to spread.”

One of the other healers crouched beside him. “I know the two of you are married, but you’re the most senior healer here. Do you feel able to make the call?”

Anders felt his stomach lurch as he realised what he was going to have to do to save Ori’s life. She would never braid her own hair again, and for that alone, she might never forgive him, but he couldn’t let her die. Not as his patient, and not as his wife. He nodded. “We have to amputate the arm,” he said, and when the words left his lips, they didn’t feel real. “At this point, physical intervention is the only way to stop it spreading.”

The next 15 minutes were a blur. Anders stood, lifting Ori with him. The other healers left, and he followed, being led to a private room in the palace, where he gently lay her on the bed, and they began preparations. It felt odd, almost as though he was sitting back and watching whilst his body moved of its own accord. He was calm and level headed, just as if this was a normal surgery and not a life-saving operation for his wife. He was given surgical tools. He made sure the environment was sterile. He washed his hands, three times just to be sure. He could feel the panic simmering in the back of his mind, waiting for a moment where it could release, where he could scream and cry and process the fact he was watching his wife turn to stone before his eyes, but he was good at this, and he knew how to lock it away.

The surgery itself took remarkably little time. When it was done, Anders cleaned his instruments, thanked the other healers, then when he and Ori were alone in the room, he crawled onto the bed beside her, pulled her close to his chest, and wept. Relief flooded through him, relief mixed with terror and profound loss; Meredith could rise from the bloody dead and it wouldn’t move him now, nothing else mattered except the fact that Ori was alive.

When she woke up, he was going to kiss her as often as she could stand.

#ash writes #anders x lavellan #anders #inquisitor lavellan #trespasser #ori x anders #wow this was physically painful to write

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blarfkey · 5 years ago

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director’s cut, director’s choice of ⭐️Dear Fen’Harel⭐️? (Though generally speaking, I’m intensely curious as to how you develop characters because everyone you write is so brilliantly layered)

So um, this exploded. And I apologize. I am very much a character-driven writer versus a plot-driver writer. Also, how I develop characters is not a process I think about, it just happens, so this is also me finding out for myself how my own brain works, haha. If you want the full fucking three page essay this turned into, there’s more under the cut.

If not, and I don’t blame you, TLDR: I break a canon character down to their parts based on what I see in-game, I look at how their personal quest affects them, and I try to find a modern day equivalent to that. Each character has an issue they need to get past and I create situations to challenge those issues. And Ellana was created to be a foil for Solas and I dumped all my negative traits into her because neither she nor I can afford therapy so this is our best bet.

First of all, developing characters in fanfic is different than OC characters because I have a pre-set personality to work with rather than making someone from scratch. So for this, Ellana’s development is different from the rest of the cast.

For fanfic characters, obviously I look at the source material and see how they’ve reacted to certain situations and what they have canonically expressed about themselves in both deed and word. Honestly, I pay more attention to what they have DONE versus what they have SAID because a lot of characters tend to fool themselves into thinking they’re one way when they’re not (here’s looking at you, Solas).

Because DF is a modern AU, I take what I have seen in Canon (which is a lot because Bioware is very good at giving so much material to work with having all those different dialogue trees) and I apply it to the Modern Day. Some characters fit very easily – Dorian was made for Academia. Krem seems a more modern character anyway with how he constantly roasts Iron Bull. Josephine’s prowess in DA:I translates very easily to political science. Varric kind of has a modern writer’s career anyway.

Some are not easy – Solas is actually super hard for me to write in DF than he is in Thick as Thieves because so much of his characterization, his world views, his prejudices, are rooted in the fact that he is an ancient being out of time – which is impossible to have in this AU. I have crafted a sort of back story for him that might explain some things later, but it’s flimsy at best, haha.

So I’ve had to really look at what Solas is like in Inquisition when he’s pretending to be a “normal” hedge mage hermit from nowhere and how he behaves in his romance and extract from that. Solas is a nerd, he’s socially awkward from self-imposed isolation, he constantly struggles with what he wants and what is the morally correct thing to do and the temptation to be loved usually wins out over his convictions until the last second when he gets his common sense back and ruins everything.

It helps that in both DA and DF Solas is keeping a massive, massive secret from the Inquisitor about his identity that will shift the power balance between the two, so I’ve used that to guide me when I’m unsure. He still feels off to me, but it’s whatever at this point, lol. I did my best.

Once I’ve boiled a character down to their usual traits, I figure out how I’m going to have them grow throughout the fic and use their growth to help Ellana’s growth. I try to pull from their personal quests as much as I can, when I can get it to fit.

Some people, like Iron Bull, are static because they’ve already gone through their journey and have reached acceptance. I didn’t really know how to work his Leaving the Qun story line in the modern day, since it is tied so closely with war and potentially killing the Chargers, so by the time Ellana meets him, he has already left the Qun and made his peace with it. I use his static nature to help guide Ellana when she’s conflicted about her identity.

Some people, like Josephine, have personal quests that don’t fit with a modern era but I want to show them grow anyway, so I create something else for them. Right now, Josephine is mired in family drama and trying to figure out how to balance shouldering the weight of her responsibilities to her family with being her own person. That I drew from my own personal experience with being the only sane person in my family with their shit together, haha.

Or Cassandra, who is definitely NOT going to be Divine here, lol. So instead she gets to struggle with her art and how she can express herself in a way that leaves her vulnerable to scrutiny and yet can be so freeing.

Some people, like Krem, get a character arc that I think should have been explored but never was. Krem being trans is something that’s mentioned and talked about a little and never explored. I mean, he’s not a main character, so I get it. And I liked that Being Trans wasn’t his entire character. But there was no way to put him in the modern AU without his trans identity impacting some of his story and growth, even if he had already made his peace with it.

Now, I will say this upfront: I am not trans, and I haven’t had the opportunity to be close friends with a trans person, but I have done a lot of research on what trans people have said about their own experiences, and combined this with other research I’ve done over the years with other minorities and tried to put together what could be lingering insecurities for him and how he could overcome them.

I’m definitely not saying that I’ve done this perfectly and I’m always open to any trans reader who would give me correction, but being trans was not an aspect of Krem’s character that I wanted to ignore just because I wasn’t familiar with it.

I will say that his romance with Josephine was Not Planned. It just kinda happened and I happily ran with it, haha.

Varric’s arc with Bianca is just wishful thinking because I hate her so so much and Bioware just dropped that bomb in Varric’s lap and then just lets him keep holding on to it and it’s bullshit.

The other character journeys are just ways to explore vulnerability in them that I didn’t think got enough attention in the game or I think they could realistically have even if it wasn’t in canon. Like Dorian dealing with his father. Now, in the game, Halward doesn’t have a disease and he dies unexpectedly. But I wanted Dorian to have a realistic reason why he would reach other to his estranged father in this AU and a ticking countdown to an inevitable death seemed right.

Now we get to see Dorian really struggle with this new-found connection with his father that he always wanted to have and now it’s temporary and heartbreak is inevitable and is it still worth it to him? I think Dorian has similar feelings in Trespasser when he found out his father was murdered because he still invested himself to rebuild a lost connection, only to lose it so soon after.

Zevran’s past with the Crows is also something that I really wanted to explore because in the game he is sad for a hot second and then moves on with the Warden and his newfound goal of destroying the entire Crow organization. So I wanted to see Zevran struggle with his inner worth, the fact that he can’t hide forever and his past puts his loved ones in danger, the fact that he can even HAVE loved ones and how it scares the shit out of him. I wanted to have a character who puts on such a good front about not giving a shit about anything to hide how very deeply afraid he is. We are going to see more of this also before the story is over, lol.

Now, Ellana. Like all original characters, Ellana has a lot my personal experiences tied in her. But I originally created Ellana to fill a need for a type of character that I wanted to see with Solas and don’t really get to. I mean, I have not scourged the corners of the internet to find it so I’m sure there are other characters like her, but I haven’t found very many.

I see a lot of very beautiful, very delicate and feminine, very kind and gentle Disney Princess kind of Lavellans. I see a LOT of them. And I don’t hate that necessarily. I mean, Josephine is all of those things and more and I adore her and I sort of crack ship her with Solas anyway, in the secret recesses of my heart. And I love seeing a female character who is the epitome of a “weak” female use those “weak” traits to succeed.

But I am also not very beautiful, I am NOT delicate at all, I’m not gentle. I am not anywhere close to a Disney Princess or a Josephine. And it was disheartening to see Solas romance all these Ocs that were nothing like me after a while because it kind of gave me the message that someone like Solas, a character that I admire and def have a fictional crush on, would never want someone who looks like me or acts like me. That even with unlimited freedom in creating a romantic counterpart for him, I saw so much of what society already reinforces as an ideal that I will never match up to. It doesn’t help that Bioware’s body diversity for elves ranges is nonexistent.

So I made Ellana for me. Not because I want to hate on other Ocs or prove that mine is superior, but so that I would have something that I connected to. And I wanted to explore a dynamic with Solas that I didn’t get to see very often.

So when I first imagined Ellana, I wanted her to be strong and tall and muscular and powerful in a way that makes a lot of unenlightened men uncomfortable. I wanted somebody used to manual labor and dirt and the outdoors and solving problems with their fists and just totally unrefined because I wanted her to be the complete opposite of Solas. (So like Cassandra but in elf form, haha).

I did not want her to be soft or conventionally attractive at all. Ellana doesn’t shun femininity, because I don’t think femininity is inherently wrong, but she is uncomfortable with it and she doesn’t indulge in it.

(Just FYI I am NOT built like Ellana at all either, haha. This is the wish fulfillment part of the OC. I greatly resemble the dwarves, which is why I love them so much.)

But I also needed her to have a reason to leave home, and to have some points of commonality with Solas, so I made her a nerd. A jocky nerd who is insatiably curious and stubbornly independent. And then because I wanted Ellana to feel like a real person instead just a wish fulfillment fantasy, I needed her to grow. So I gave her all my complicated anger issues, my bluntness, my struggles with homesickness, the way I compartmentalize negative events in my life so I don’t have to deal with them just so they can bite me in the ass later, my experiences of going from a lifestyle where all my needs were met and I was oblivious to how great I had it to living with serious poverty for the first time.

And then I devised situations with her life and the other characters where Ellana has to confront these issues and learn to accept them and either move past them or learn to control them. Sometime she gains wisdom and imparts it to people like Sera or Dorian when their struggles come up. And her biggest challenge has yet to arrive, so she’s still cooking, so to speak. Ellana still has a long way to go before she really reaches maturity.

As far as her relationship with Solas goes, I wanted her to challenge him and give him a total upheaval everything he thought he knew about his own culture and his own self. And I wanted him to do the same for her. And then when all the pieces are done falling, they have grown into two people who can handle being together.

So that’s basically it. If there is any character in particular you want to know more about or why I made certain decisions, always feel free to ask!

#asks #dear fenharel #my fic

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