teiranlavellan

[teiranlavellan]

an act of mercy.

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[teiranlavellan]

Offhand Dragon Age Fact #8: Orlesian masks are designed to show who’s noble family you are a part of/work for.  In The Masked Empire, Briala gives the example of if a lord’s house mask was a lion carved from ivory and inlaid with onyx and gold, his servants’ masks would be lions as well, painted black and lined with brass. Celene Valmont’s masks are inlaid with moonstone, with gold trimming and purple jewels. (White, purple and gold are the colours of the Valmonts.) Servants of the empress were enamelled masks (or of ivory, if they are high-ranking) with the gold and purple painted on. Gaspard de Chalon’s masks are are gold with emerald jewels. (Gold and emerald are the colours of the de Chalons.) Comte Chantral of Velun‘s mask is nacre with strings of black pearls. Lord and Lady Montsimmard‘s masks are set with glowing lyrium crystals on each cheek. Remache de Lydes’ mask is gold and silver.

[teiranlavellan]

Why I Love the Solas Romance

I have thoughts, and when I have thoughts, they get written down into a thing.

The fact there even is a Solas romance blows my mind. I mean, here is a world Solas has written off as being full of not-real beings. Small minded, uncaring, unfeeling things. He has no notion or reasoning to get attached to anyone.

Yet Lavellan completely catches him off guard. At first, I’m sure he convinces himself his preoccupation with her is strictly situational. She has the Mark, after all. Of course, she would hold his attention.

“You were a mystery. You still are.”

But little by little, he finds himself drawn to her in ways he can’t explain. He becomes enamored by her. Yet even when he admits his feelings to himself, he knows it can never be more than a fantasy.

Then they find themselves in the Fade together, and Solas’ feelings slip through. He tries to cover his mistake by telling her his words were only a figure of speech. He turns away from her because he knows this cannot happen. He will not encourage this. But then she turns his head and kisses him, and all his will power goes out the window.

“You change everything.”

Even then he tries to fix it. This isn’t right. We shouldn’t. This could lead to trouble. Even if Lavellan agrees with him, he still thinks of her. He can’t not. And when we find ourselves on the balcony scene, Solas’ feelings slip again, and again he tries to walk away. But Lavellan takes his arm and asks him not to go, and he is completely doomed.

He is in love with her, and there is no escaping it.

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[teiranlavellan]

Cole: There is pain though, still within you.

Solas: And I never said that there was not.

[teiranlavellan]

uploading some Solas drawings because I finally transferred all my art from my old laptop. The starry panel is from a solavellan comic :’)

[teiranlavellan]

Writer’s tools

I’ve used the below website more often than I can count when writing: it has generators for literally every single thing, names, dungeons, taverns, weather, fantasy calendars, towns, villages etc! I enclose an example screenshot from its tavern generator.

[teiranlavellan]

the first two tunes I made up on the dulcimer!!

[teiranlavellan]

I'm crawling out of the sewer to say it again: don't let anyone stop you from writing what you want to write.

Don't let people saying your writing is too 'self indulgent' stop you.

Don't let people saying your writing is 'not original enough' stop you.

Don't let people saying 'you shouldn't write this' stop you.

Write what compels you.

[teiranlavellan]

Sweet Saturday

Tagged by babes @schoute and @alyssalenko! 

I have two extracts from two things, both with a common thread: attempting to break language barriers. 😂

From the next chapter of Sten x Yara Mahariel (Fall Into The Tide):

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“How are qunari comfortable being, um… half-naked all the time?” Yara asked.

He wilted slightly, and Yara couldn’t help but smile; he was wearing his signature you-foolish-bas look. “I could ask how you are comfortable being so hindered by your many layers of cloth and metal,” he said. Then he huffed. “Besides, the swamp witch did not seem concerned with being half-naked.”

Yara smiled more widely. “I knew you had a crush on Morrigan.”

Sten frowned. “I did not. I would have to find a way to incapacitate her before crushing her, or she would set me on fire with her unbridled magic.”

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And from the next chapter of Solas x Nare Lavellan, for @elbenherzart (Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This). I can’t remember if I posted this little bit already, so SORRY if I have:

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Nare seemed to be enjoying his touch and his talking, but in truth, Solas was a bit disappointed in himself. He could see why his words might seem like mere flattery to her; the common tongue of this time was a crude language without any of the inherent magic or lilting fluidity of his native tongue. This language lacked the layers of metaphor that Elvhen words so neatly encompassed, so of course his words didn’t have the proper intended effect: they weren’t the words he truly meant. 

He frowned, then dismissed the quandary for now. He refused to let a foible of language interfere with Nare’s pleasure. He would simply have to get around the linguistic hurdle in a different way. 

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Tagging forward to @johaeryslavellan @faerieavalon @serial-chillr @elveny @solas-disapproves @mythicaitt @mrscullensrutherford @hellas-himself @the-rogue-mockingjay @irlaimsaaralath @dafan7711​ @galadrieljones​ @thevikingwoman​ @obvidalous​ @charlatron​ and anyone else who wants to play! Consider this a tag for Six Sentence (or Sinful!) Sunday if you prefer, given the time… 😉

[teiranlavellan]

How to Write Relationships Your Readers Can Get Behind

There’s a quote from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone that I adore:

There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.

I think it states in simple (silly) terms a complicated truth about friendship and relationships and the moments that cement them.

Real, lasting bonds are formed by acts of support in moments of vulnerability.

The more two characters expose vulnerabilities to each other and the more they support each other in those moments, the stronger their relationship will be. 

During the troll fighting incident in Harry Potter, Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s lives are all in danger (vulnerability) and they each play a role in getting one another out of danger (support.)

This example works particularly well because there’s an equilibrium of support and vulnerability. There may be a bond between two people when one person is doing all of the supporting, but it won’t be a healthy one.

Of course, moments of vulnerability don’t have to be life threatening. They can be moments of emotional vulnerability. For example, if person A performs in a dance recital for the first time ever (vulnerability) and person B comes to watch them (support).

As humans, we don’t like to expose our vulnerabilities to people with whom we don’t already have a strong bond. When starting out a relationship, these moments are usually out of the person’s control.

For example, person A walks into a crowded classroom for the first time, looking for an empty seat and person B takes pity and moves their backpack from the seat next to them onto the floor, freeing a place for person A.

After class, person B spills the entire contents of their backpack onto the floor and person A helps pick everything up.

These two moments won’t make person A and person B instantly friends. Bigger moments strength bonds quicker than smaller ones, but the more we support people and the more we expose ourselves to them, the greater our bonds grow. The stronger the bonds, the more likely we are to willingly expose our vulnerabilities to people and purposefully deepen the relationship.

If you’re writing a relationship and you want it to be something built on solid foundations that your readers can support, you’ll want to show these moments of vulnerability and support.

Start small, with moments of vulnerability that are accidental or forced. As the bonds grow stronger, let the characters purposefully initiate the moments, signaling trust and comfort in the relationship. Level One is moving a backpack and freeing up a seat. Level Ten might be fighting a mountain troll together. Level Twenty is handing someone a ticket to your first ever dance recital.

How to Manipulate This Rule to Create Complex Relationships 

Just because the foundation for a relationship is there doesn’t mean the characters have to act like it is. 

A perfect relationship is boring to read about. Support doesn’t have to be given or received kindly. Especially in those first stages of the relationship. Person B can be grumpy and resentful of having to give up their extra seat to person A, and they might not want to accept person A’s help when person A helps them pick up the contents of their spilled backpack. Even once a person admits to themselves that they like the other person, two people who openly care about each other can still bicker and squabble and disagree. Supporting each other when it counts in no way precludes that.

If you want to complicate the relationship even more, if you want to write about a complex, difficult relationship: have characters fail to support each other in moments. Explore the consequences of those decisions.

As for characters who would die for one another…

Your characters should all have driving motivations. The best way to build strong relationships in your writing is to show your characters supporting each other in those specific efforts.

Show moments of support that come at a cost to the person offering it. Person B goes to Person A’s dance recital, but skips out on a date to do so. 

A recommendation: show the non-POV character support the POV character in a moment of vulnerability first. We’re already in the POV’s head and we’re already on their team. We still need to be convinced by the non-POV,  as the author, you have to make the reader like the non-POV character before we like the relationship. A quick and easy way to do this is to have them support the character we already like.

If the relationship is more contentious at first or your story doesn’t allow for that, a second option is to have the non-POV character do/say something that the POV disagrees with, but the reader knows is right. it will not only be a point in favor of the non-POV character, but it will show the reader that a relationship with the non-POV will be good for the POV.

[teiranlavellan]

so i'm making a companion oc for inquisition who's a dalish mage but not the keeper's first/second/third (is there more than three? idk). i'm looking at the wiki and the roles i can see that might be filled by mages are halla keeper (which i believe is canon as elora in da:o is a mage) and "hearthmistress" (healing + "domestic arts", whatever that means?). do you have any other ideas? thank you

I can share what I’ve come up with for my made up Dalish clan, Aradin:

Keeper

First

Second

Hearthmaster

Craftsmaster

Huntsmaster

Halla Keeper

Dirth’hahren

Hahren

Hahrens nominate who will receive the title of Master and Halla Keeper, when it needs to be passed down, based on who they think has excelled in the relevant field. The Keeper is, of course, the clan’s literal and spiritual leader, and the clan’s expert on elven lore. Mages who are selected to study in the Keeper’s path do so from the time their magic manifests. Because of the Keeper’s crucial role, there is usually always a First and Second studying beneath them, should the worst happen. However, as important and source of guidance Keepers are, the real “authority” of the clan lies in the Hahrens. The Keeper never makes a grand decision without consulting the Hahrens first, and the Hahrens are capable of overruling the Keeper. Of the Hahrens, there is always one leader, or spokesperson, more appropriately put, known as the clan’s Dirth'hahren who addresses the clan on behalf of them all. The Dirth'hahren is regarded as wise but open, kind but stern, patient but persistent… It is the most honourable role one can be granted.

Feel free to copy or take inspiration from, if any of those ideas spark interest.

[teiranlavellan]

Solas

[teiranlavellan]

Trespasser - The Mages explosion.  aka: Our baby's big bada boom

[teiranlavellan]

Kópakonan (The Seal Woman)

According to Faroese legend, seals are the reincarnations of people who chose death by drowning in the ocean. On certain nights, they would come ashore and remove their sealskins, taking the forms of humans once more. On the island of Kalsoy, a farmer from the village of Mikladular witnessed a seal shed her skin and become a beautiful young woman. He watched her hide the sealskin amid the rocks and stole it when she wasn’t looking. When she attempted to return to the sea at dawn, she was unable to without her sealskin. She begged for the farmer to return it to her, but he refused. Trapped in human form, she had no choice but to go with him.

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so. we’ve known for a while that solas has lavellan ride his thigh in the fade, thanks to flycam and posts like this. but since i haven’t seen any gifs on the specifics of how it happens, i made some. here’s the breakdown:

as tumblr @kreebby​ notes, solas first pulls lavellan’s hips to his. really, though, it’s more like he slams her to him? he’s that horny. i had to slow the gif quite a bit.

two different angles for the thigh-riding for y’all. for some reason, i assumed the dipping wasn’t as deliberate as it was desperate. i was wrong. as we can see, it was deliberate. he literally bends lavellan to a position where she’s perfectly situated to ride him. any lift of his thigh is minor, as he only needs to apply a little more pressure.

[teiranlavellan]

There's a site called tvtropes.org, it describes tropes used in different types of media and alike. I decided to go through DAI characters and found THIS on Solas

So I rewatched the trailer in question and...

HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS BEFORE?????