theneras-la-lath

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One of the ballsiest things Tolkien ever did was write 473k words about some hobbits called frodo, sam, merry, and pippin and then write in the appendices that their names are actually maura, ban, kali, and razal. 

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OC/canon and selfships are good y’all are just scared of having fun

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The spread of red lyrium

This isn’t new information by any means, but with the extent of the inclusion and the sheer amount of red lyrium shown in the three DA4 teases we’ve had thus far, it’s shaping up to be a prominent plot thread and considerable threat in the next game, so I felt like revisiting it.

Environmental impacts

It can grow almost anywhere. In some places the composition of the earth makes it grow faster and more abundantly 

Once enough of it is present in an area, it’s very difficult to near-impossible to remove. The chances of even dwarves removing it from Emprise du Lion is thought to be 0.014%. Characters worry such a removal attempt could go wrong and cause it to become airborne

Even if the crystals themselves are removed, the substance will have already been introduced into the food chain, first at the trophic level of tiny underground creatures and then progressing upwards as they are eaten by various other animals

Red Templars at advanced stages of red lyrium corruption are able to sow it into the soil from their bodies. They “spread” it and it “grew at their touch [sic]”. “Let it follow where we walk, take root where we settle.”

Effects on health

Physical: Increased strength, increased endurance, increased pain tolerance, new powers, altered appearance, pain, corruption, deformity, petrification, death, poisoning if ingested in fatal amounts

Psychological: Paranoia, possessiveness, aggression, hearing the “song”, mental agony, memory loss, lyrium madness, insanity

Other attributes

Stronger, much more potent and more addictive than normal lyrium

Doesn’t need to be ingested in order to have an effect on a person

Tainted by the Blight

Its growth can destroy inanimate objects

It can make things float and inanimate objects come to life

Thins the Veil, making it easier for spirits - and alarmingly, demons - to interact with the waking world

😬

For some reason I’m struck by the similarity between how red lyrium progresses through the body -

Crystals will grow inside their bodies; even, I am told, sprouting through their heads 

+

I opened up the creature and saw that red lyrium had fused to the bones, overgrown its lungs, and spread like a fungus into the brain. As I watched, the red crystal pulsed and spread the smallest fraction of an inch deeper into the flesh of the corpse. Blood drained out of the surrounding tissue, as if the lyrium itself were feeding on it.

I have ordered my assistants to wear masks and gloves while burning the body. Posterity forgive me, I want no truck with the forces in that thing.

and how dragons are unusually resistant to the Blight, with physiology that can to an extent stem the spread of the Blight infection -

Within the carcass of the Abyssal High Dragon, we found cysts of hardened flesh. Sister Brigette, a scholar from Nevarra, said she had seen, once or twice, similar nodules in other beasts. To protect itself, the body grew a barrier around a foreign object that could not be removed.

Naturally, of course, we cut into the cyst. The flesh within was Blighted. We immediately examined all other cysts found in the other dragon carcasses. Each time, we found the Blight. The only conclusion we can draw is that dragons can stem the spread of the Blight within their own bodies. They cannot do this indefinitely, as the existence of Corypheus’s dragon suggests, but they are more resistant than other creatures.

I guess it’s no wonder why dragons don’t want to go near red lyrium. That would be a form of Blight corruption they couldn’t to an extent deal with or stave off -

From eyewitness reports, the adult dragons never ventured close to where the red lyrium grows, even though they could easily have done so. I can only conclude that the creatures instinctively understand that red lyrium poses a threat.

You see a LotR ‘One Ring effects’-style impact of red lyrium exposure on characters like Bartrand and Meredith. If Solas is using or going to be using the red lyrium idol… is he immune to the effects of the substance? Andruil wasn’t immune, he wasn’t immune in the Red Lyrium Future. Is that why he’s on a dinan’shiral?

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This was a joy to read! You have captured Loghain’s voice and his motivation so beautifully. His road to redemption was hard earned, and as with everything else he doesn’t make excuses, but accepts the facts for what they are. 

Fanfic:

Pairing: Loghain x F!Amell

Rating: T

Word Count: 16,276

Summary:

Loghain only survived the Landsmeet because Solana needed him to help her fight the Darkspawn. He never expected her to soften towards him after all he’d done, much less become his friend, and, in time, over a great distance, so much more than a friend.

On AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26211049/chapters/63790051

On FFnet: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13700291/1/Maps-and-Mountains

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Fanfic

Characters: Abelas, Merrill

Rating: G

Word Count: 776

Summary:

Abelas wakes to an intruder in the temple. Luckily, she is agreeable.

On AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26348788

On FFnet: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13700289/1/Quick-Turn-Around 

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I did that thing where I was checking out a wip I haven’t touched in a long while, and before I knew it I was really sucked in and just reading it and enjoying it, and then it just fucking ended abruptly during a good scene and I nearly started screaming, and then I remembered it’s my own fucking wip and that means I have to be the one to fix this and finish it and I really really nearly started screaming and just asdfghjkl

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Recently fell in love with another fictional character and cannot compute anything else right now, please try again later

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Old fans welcoming new people to a fandom:

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An inspiration to us all

Patreon | Instagram | Goddammitstacey.com

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Member of the “Sorry, I didn’t hear what you just told me, because there are those two people talking 5 meters away, a child crying on the opposite sidewalk, and 3 cars passing by, on all of which my brain focused and put at equal volume in my ear instead of politely putting your sound first” squad

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do we REALLY need to bring back "don't like don't read", "YKINMK" and "no flames uwu" from FFnet circa 2007? Because if antis can't handle any level of nuance then maybe we should just have ourselves our fancy little disclaimer that works 100% of the time in all cases.

already been proposed and loads of people have utterly missed the point like “don’t like don’t read was about normal fic you weren’t interested in not PEDOPHILIA” as though “dldr” wasn’t being used on NSFW Harry Potter fanfic before these children were born

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“The Dawn Chorus,” “Arc en Ciel,” and “The Enchantress” by Hamda Al Fahim

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Me: You need to write stuff that progresses the storyline

My brain:

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me: i am INSPIRED i want to WRITE

my brain, immediately: i have never once even seen a sentence