#worldstate : three

[zoya-nazyalenskys]

finished veilguard and my final thoughts on it are that it's a pretty fun rpg but a bad dragon age game

[veatomis]

It’s so refreshing to see someone also sharing the same sentiment that Veilguard really just felt like smth for solavellan’s or even ppl who are huge fans of solas and not for other ppl (especially ppl who romanced Dorian)

Yeah... they gassed up the solas arc so much for this game and then it was. so nothing if again you didn't make the choices the devs obviously wanted you to make. And the game isn't even for huge fans of solas really, i'm personally a big solas fan, I think he was an incredible character and i loved his friendship with my inquisitor but because i wanted to explore choices that it seems trick weekes was just not interested in writing i got fucked over. Like i'm still reeling from the fact that if ROOK. NOT EVEN THE INQUISITOR. decides to not redeem solas the inquistor/solas relationship (whether antagonistic or friendly) just never gets resolved. I wanted a 20 min argument where my inquisitor after 7 long years of turning around that last interaction he had with solas in his mind got to ask him VERY important questions like "did our friendship ever really matter?", "did you ever really stop seeing me as subhuman?" and what i DESPERATELY needed "if the qunari hadn't forced you out of hiding, would you have come to save me from the anchor?" but they stuck varric into the role that should've been the inquisitor's so i got nothing 😐

+ What they did to us dorianmancers was so insulting my blood boils every time i think about it again. The inquisitor is in minrathous. Dorian is in minrathous. We never get a proper reunion with those two and they also have the audacity to dangle that shit in front of our faces with the "yes i know u will be in minrathous" line in dorian's letter. The inquisitor doesn't even MENTION dorian to rook when he's in the city, the city can be overrun with venatori, half of it can be destroyed and we don't even get a voiced concern over the man he loves???????? sick and fucking twisted the way this game actually had me missing dav*d gaid*r's writing but it did.

[zhmyhnyto]

Well, now I'm surprised that they even allow us to pick other non-S*lavellan romances. They should have just made it "Did you romance Solas?" and stopped at that. Why give us a chance to select Cassandra as romance if we can't even choose who was the Divine. Or how does it matter that someone romanced Bull if game doesn't allow us to select if he's alive.

[crossdressingdeath]

If people could stop making massive, largely baseless assumptions about DAV based on a playtest build that only contains six hours of the game and that we haven't even seen all of that'd be great.

[shadovvheart]

I think I've finally decided whom to romance with my rooks. neve and lucanis are so my type it'd be a crime not to kiss them. and I won't forgive myself if I don't romance harding after ten years of asking for her to be romanceable

[hahren-tabris]

okay i KNOW i said I was retiring my lavellan. and i KNOW i said that i prefer other romances to s*lav*llan. but hear me out.

what if i started a new playthrough with a new lavellan.

[paniartistmauser]

Some more Rooks for Veilguard

[tezzaa]

need 2 talk about my dragon age protags here more bc i love them dearly and my warden is my most developed oc by far i could go on about her for days non stop

[crows-of-buckets]

My worldstate is so funny you've got:

Aviae Surana, an elven mage who is decently short

Lucio Hawke, 5'6 tiny guy with long hair and a pretty face

Then there's Selene Adaar. Shes a tall ass Qunari she towers of them. Group pictures of them often involve her at least a little hunched over

[queen-scribbles]

Every so often the urge strikes to reread my Jowan/Leliana fic and I pretty much never say no. (aka, guess what I'm doing rn)

[wild-houseplant]

kissu prompt for Rhodri and Zevran if you're doing them 👀 kissing the tears from their cheeks

Icemeister!!! Believe it or not I had something fitting in my WIPs folder that I've been looking to finish for a while. This little postwar oneshot delves into Zevran's PTSD, so fair warning to anyone feeling a bit unsteady today. It ends nicely, at least. :D :D :D Thank you so much for the ask!!! Let's get to it!! (more under the cut- at 1500 it's one of my shorter ones xD )

§

It had become surprisingly hot in the market square. Zevran huffed a breath of wry surprise as he wiped new sweat beads off his brow. When did it get hot in Denerim?

The answer, of course, was that it didn’t, and he was now turning into one of these icy Fereldans. What was next? Dog worship? A secret affinity for mud? Would he ever hear the end of it if he told Rhodri?

Oh, it didn’t bear thinking about. He pushed the notion aside and cast his eyes around for a distraction. 

The square was teeming with people. In the month that had passed since the end of the Blight, it was one of the only places that had been fully repaired. Consequently, as one of the few reasonably desirable places to be, people came like iron filings to a magnet. Stalls spilled out onto the paths when there was no more space in the perimeter, and people bottlenecked as they jostled and fought their way forward in the silent manner Fereldans had.

Not that there was no noise to be had. Merchants’ shouts and petitions rang through the glut, children screamed as they played, and there was always a mabari barking about something or other.

And it was so hot. Andraste’s grace, he was sweating like a sinner in the Chantry. Heatstroke, probably; no wonder his hands were shaking. He shouldn’t have said no to that apple juice vendor. Oh, the shame of having to turn to Rhodri and ask that they go somewhere cooler. 

In Denerim.

She wouldn’t tease him, though. Not when his hands were shaking. 

Zevran turned to his right and she was gone. He glanced down at his hand. She always held his hand, fingers constantly massaging his-- empty.

The air went stale in his lungs. Gone?

He steadied himself with a breath and scanned the crowds for her. The people were swirling around him, spinning out in all directions. No single current of motion his eyes could train on to look for gaps, and it was so hot. Stifling. 

Off to his right, a flash of orange invaded his periphery, screaming through the marketplace and setting everything it passed ablaze. Hot. Hot. Where was she…

He tried to call her name, but the air trickled uselessly through his tight throat. A shout reached his ears, and then another. ‘Run,’ they’d said, and ‘ogre,’ and he had to find her now.

Zevran strained his ears as he followed the flow of the crowd. Not Rhodri’s voice. Not that one, either. No, that one was a little too high. She was here somewhere. She needed him. The place was going up in smoke and she needed him. 

He broke through the bustle, finding refuge and a viewpoint in an abandoned, muddy spot. The throngs of people were no easier to examine from a clear vantage point; why did she always wear black? 

Where is she… 

“Zev?”

A surge of energy tore through him strong enough to make his skin ache. Something cricked in his neck as his head snapped around to the direction of her voice. Urgent, firm, alert. Nowhere to be seen, though, obscured by the crush of people coursing around between them.

“Zev!”

He edged a furious, despairing growl out through gritted teeth.

She needs me where is she

He ducked back into the swarm and weaved his way toward the sound, habit the only thing keeping him from shoving the bovine humans in front of him. 

Her face materialised in the sea of heads up ahead, a mass of blood and pulp and char.

No, it wasn't. The skin was intact, because the furrow in her brow disappeared when she saw him. Why, he couldn't imagine, and the words of self-deprecating questions drowned in the screams pealing between his ears.

Rhodri was in front of him. Or he was in front of her. Someone had closed the gap. He grabbed her arms, his shaky fingers pulling the loose sleeves back to check for other injury. There was no doubt something, but I can help, my love. Mi Rhodri. I can help, I’m not too late. My darling. Stay with me, let Alistair kill it please please please

"Dulcis." Rhodri's hands went onto his, stilling them ever so gently while she shook her sleeves back down. Wide, gentle eyes inspected him. "You're unwell. Come, my love." She released his hands to reach around and hitch him up to her. "Wrap your legs around me, hmm? Nice and tightly-- yes, like that, dulcis, bonus. Ah, perbonus." 

More words came as she walked. Easy assurances, that he was with her, that things were well, that they were moving to their accommodations to get out of the bustle, all went on a loop. The repetition was soothing in its simplicity and predictability, assuaged frantic, cycling doubts of mishearings and misunderstandings. 

Long, splayed fingers brushed up and down his back; relief breached the cracks in his numbness, and in the manufactured privacy of her arms, Zevran wept. Such awful noises through a kinked-off throat, too many chokes and sobs, and nowhere near enough apologies for it. Too much evidence of it all right down her front. Third time this week he’d shattered like glass over nothing. 

She was going to get sick of him like this. As though there weren’t enough to make her sick of him as it was.

"Zev. Dulcis." 

He anchored his fists into her robes to lift his head. It was better that he couldn't see her face through the swimming blur; he blinked anyway. 

They were in their room again. Rhodri was watching him with a tenderness that risked fresh tears. It was in the eyes, mostly, but there was a tiny, warm bend in her lips as well and how had he ever seen anything but gentleness in that face? 

She combed her fingers through his hair and lay them both down on the bed. "Hello."

"Forgive me," he croaked. "There was… ah…"

Thick, hard arms pulled him up in line with her face. Rhodri clucked her tongue softly and kissed away the fat tear under his eye he thought he’d blinked back.

“Corculum. No apology, hmm?” She kissed his other cheek, and then over both his eyes to catch more threatening water, breathing the same soft, unintelligible line of Tevene between each press of her mouth. 

“No apology,” she said again. “These things, the memories, they happen. Thank you for letting me help. How are you feeling now?”

He nodded and pressed a tired, salty kiss on the corner of her mouth. “The worst is over, I do believe.”

"What set it off? Last time it was that guard shouting outside the tavern.” Rhodri frowned. “I don’t recall hearing anything like that this time."

"Mm. It was the heat, would you believe it. It was… stifling in the marketplace. To think at the time I appreciated the heat of those fires, no?" He chuckled weakly.

"Ah." Rhodri nodded solemnly. "Do you know, dulcis, I think we might be going about this the wrong way.”

“Oh?”

She hummed. “I've always believed that if something bad enough happens to someone, the place where it happened will be ruined for them beyond repair. And…” Rhodri shrugged. “I don’t know. I think going somewhere like the marketplace makes for unnecessary suffering for you.”

Zevran hooked one ankle around hers and dragged her leg in between his. “You think so?”

“I do. The world is so small, and we could be any number of places, finding new happiness.” She shook her head. “Why are we circling back to misery instead?”

He sighed. “It has happened in happier places, as well, for no reason.”

“Very true. It won’t completely fix things, I know, but perhaps it will make life a little easier if we minimise the bad times where we can."

Zevran gave a weak, wet chuckle. "I do not know where else you will find your peanuts than the market square."

Rhodri watched him without a hint of a smile. "In what world," she asked gravely, "does a bag of peanuts take precedence over your comfort?"

"Ah," he offered. "I had meant it as a joke, in fact."

She watched him closely, not saying a word. A year ago, he would have been saying his last prayers, and now the intent scanning was enough to coax a smile out of him.

He took one of her hands and kissed her fingertips. “Not one of my better ones, is it?”

“No.” Rhodri shook her head. “Should I do one of those polite laughs, though?”

“Mmm…” Zevran chuckled. “I think that opportunity has come and gone. So we are to move on, then? Is it time to go home to Minrathous?”

The Warden– his Warden– snuggled him into her. Her chest rumbled against his as she gave a thoughtful hum.

“We have to decide together,” she replied after a moment, “but that would be my suggestion. We’re fit enough to travel now, and our family is expecting us. And truly, I don’t think there’s anything left here for us.”

Zevran absently twiddled one of her fingers. “Was there much here for us to begin with? Contractual obligations aside, of course.”

Her bitter scoff made his eyebrows rise.

“Loved ones aside,” she said, “absolutely not. Wretched fucking place this is.”

He snickered. “Quite right, my love. Then it’s settled? Onward and outward, to our sun-kissed paradise?”

“Ah!” She grinned. “Music to my ears, dulcis.”

[avvidstarion]

Does BioWare not understand that the reason I am so drawn to dragon age over, say, the elder scrolls is BECAUSE of the worldstates?? I love that each game is a single part of an ongoing story, I love that decisions made in previous matter. What sets dragon age apart from the rest of the fantasy rpg genre if not that?

[shathanns]

Truly torn between having my Canon Hawke have some sembleance of hope by being on the kirkwall polycule situation with fenris-isabela-merril and surviving inquisition or.... Running away with Anders and then Lost to the Fade and fully embrace the tragedy of it

[spellandblade]

[danceswithdarkspawn]

thwip thursday

yesterday was a lazy day after a busy week, this is from something verrrry different from my usual flavor of things

She dragged the lockbox that sat on the far end of the chaos closer, opening its lid a little more forcefully than she intended, and began to put the night’s lost work away. Her hands shook as she snatched a scrap of parchment. She dipped a quill pen a little too carelessly; ink splattered on the edges of the paper. The hurried instructions she wrote for Charter seemed barely legible to her eye, but it would have to do.

Leliana glanced up as she placed the note inside the box. Morrigan waited at the opposite side of the desk, arms crossed, waiting for her to finish. There was no winning this. “There has been so much chaos in the world,” Leliana softly said as she placed the last of the things in the box. It quietly clicked shut. “My burdens seem small in comparison.”

“You nearly died.”

Leliana froze in place, hands still primed at the box’s lid. She looked up slowly at Morrigan, and unsurprisingly found an edge of ire in her features. But it was the type of anger that came with worry, Leliana knew, more frustration than true vitriol. Perhaps she earned it.

“Do you not remember how ill, how feeble you were?” Morrigan accused. “‘Tis astonishing that you survived after what you tried to do. You were driven to put yourself, both of you, on a pyre.”

Leliana ran a hand over her eyes and sighed. “Morrigan, it is just busywork.”

“Were you so abused under Justinia's thumb that you forgot what it was like to be shown a modicum of decency?”

“No, I-”

“You nearly died.”

[fereldandog]

your canon DA worldstate

as veilguard's premiere comes closer, an ask game with a couple of lore-heavy questions for your warden/hawke/inquisitor — answer for all three in your canon worldstate, or for the protagonist of your choice.

your Warden/Hawke/Inquisitor's opinion on Orlais?

are they skilled in The Grand Game?

opinion on blood magic?

attitude towards Andrastianism?

attitude towards the Chantry?

attitude towards the Qun?

if they had to choose one person most important to them, who would that be?

who do they hate the most, and do they have an arch-nemesis?

what is their love language? 

are they good horse riders?

what are their religious beliefs, if any?

attitude towards Mabari?

their thoughts on the Grey Warden order?

who are they closest to from their family?

preferred weapon of choice?

do they get sentimental about their weapons or armour?

what were they like as a child?

do they have any irrational fears?

are they afraid of death?

where would they like to be buried?

what is their biggest regret?

have they ever been to Tevinter?

do they have, or want to have, children?

what languages can they speak?

what did they plan for their life to look like before the events of the game happened?

do they get a happy ending?