#tower of ishal

[shewolfofvilnius]

so i'm replaying the opening parts of Dragon Age: Origins as I wanted to re-experience the female city elf origin as I HC my Rook in Veilguard having a connection to Warden Tabris.

WELL I got to the first appearances of the Darkspawn - and their defacing a bunch of ancient elven statues in the ruins of Ostagar. Post-defacement, they look EERILY similar to Elgar'nan in Veilguard. Like as though the darkspawn were modifying the statues to serve Elgar'nan in reverence.

Holy shit.

[theheartmold]

putting some of my favorite shots from the dao cutscene before you start the tower of ishal. includes 1) the chantry sister with her incense amidst the soldiers 2) the soldier beginning to turn coward before he is stopped 3) the archers preparing to fire at the hordes 4) duncan and cailan's wince when one of the dogs is killed 5+6) alistair and mahariel witnessing the first fall of the ruins from two angles. also some of these were def mentioned to me by @zevsurana so i made sure to pay attention and grab them lol

[minaakaajaa]

A clip from my upcoming fourth Episode of Let's Play Dragon Age: Origins with the Dwarven Noble Origin! Episode 4 will be released on Thursday, 7/18/24.

[nimthirielrinon]

Chapter 12 is up!

“Anyone that was in there before is either fled or dead,” said the mage, but Alistair focused on their goal.

“Whatever the case, we have to get up to the top. Can you help us?”

The mage looked like he’d rather do anything else, but he nodded and the trio made their way to the heavy wooden doors.

[the-fade]

[seeker-of-wonder]

I always thought this too! Although I figured it was less of a "he let them in" scenario and more of a "he found that big hole in the floor and just set guards and didn't tell anyone" situation

If it hadn't been our two main grey wardens fighting their way up the tower the battle would have ended up being fought on two fronts too! It would have been even more impossible for the king's forces to win trapped between two forces of darkspawn like that. And it would have added credibility to Loghain's claim that the grey wardens betrayed Fereldan, since shouldn't they have been able to sense the darkspawn coming from the tower?

In order to believe Loghain doesn't know about Ishal, I have to believe 1 of 3 things:

1) Loghain was guarding the tower, but for some unknown reason in a camp where they're sleeping in tents nobody ever thought to go inside

2) Loghain's people did go inside, but just didn't notice??? the giant hole in the floor leading all the way to the deep roads?????

Or 3) the darkspawn built this giant tunnel literally overnight

Given every interaction we have with Loghain prior to this point, ESPECIALLY the council meeting? I absolutely think he knew.

people's different interpretations of loghain are so interesting. i, for example, always thought he let the darkspawn into the tower of ishal and sabotaged the wardens/ostagar armies from the start. i think that the beacon was never supposed to have been lit in the first place, to give him plausible deniability for why he didn't join the battlefield.

[abyssal-ilk]

favorite thing my aeducan has done so far in this playthrough: impulsively bought a gold rope necklace for morrigan because she thought morrigan would like it (they have no money. sten is disappointed. leliana thinks it's romantic. alistair is hungry. the dog tried to chew on it.)

[a-gay-bloodmage]

Day 17: Her Usual Modus Operandi

(Neve Gallus & Ishal Mercar)

Ishal Mercar is a flirt. She can’t help it. And when the world is falling apart, she wants to at least have a little fun. At least Neve is willing to play along.

Written for the @loveofdragonage event!

Read on Archive of Our Own Here!

[flashhwing]

I love. Killing a hurlock with Alistair then we both chug a health potion in unison over its body

[wyllzel]

alistair has like 20 pixels put together and his hair makes him look like a doofus but why's he kinda... 😗✌️

[qunaricatnip]

maeve and alistair were never going to be friends this playthrough but doing the "duncan talk" really solidifies the gap between them. duncan is the direct cause of everything that's gone wrong in maeve's life and alistair expects her to share some of his grief after never once acknowledging that maeve had her whole family murdered a couple months ago at most

[minaakaajaa]

A clip from my upcoming fourth Episode of Let's Play Dragon Age: Origins with the Dwarven Noble Origin! Episode 4 will be released on Thursday, 7/18/24.

[ultimatecryptid]

wip: emery ostagar fic

The warden woman is doubled over her own sword dry heaving, the mage behind her is shaking so much their stupid feather cap looks ready to fly off, Alistair is frozen, and Emery can feel a dozen more darkspawn staked out behind the stupid door. The fire from the barricades on the first floor might not be following them up the stairs, but the crackle of it is echoing and she can't think past it. 

She forces her breath out through her nose. 

"I'm taking her shield," she says. It's not like the woman is using it. "I open the door. Pop in. They chase me out. You," she points at the mage, "Fire. Freeze, maybe. Alistair and I keep them pinned in the doorway until you can go again. Freeze first, actually, to block the door more. When they push through, we swing."

That seems to drag Alistair back. "Cath."

What? Emery blinks, she can feel her face twitching. Alistair isn't even meeting her eyes. "Their name's Cath." Ah. Forget the twitch, Em reels herself back with yet another breath. It tastes like the blood.

"Cath sparks. You and me keep the darkspawn back. Ready?"

[perilegs]

is there anything that points to how exactly it is chosen which god someone's vallaslin will represent? da wiki says "They still revere the elven pantheon, and in a ritual to commemorate reaching adulthood each member of a tribe will have the symbol of their chosen god tattooed on their face." but there's no source for that and ive never before seen that in game so idk. ive always thought someone else picked it for the elf in uestion but being able to pick it yourself makes sense with the reflecting on gods stuff

[bisexualalistairtheirin]

I'm so unused to not having the Mabari that I straight up forgot to give it the flower and only noticed something was amiss when we were arriving in Lothering.

[danceswithdarkspawn]

Hadley is having a fun time in the Fade (lies and slander)