~Cosmic Watcher~
Accessories:
Nip Nop Piercings: [CX] - Mahlat Piercings
Star: .STOIC. - Falling Star
Glasses: .STOIC. - Summer Solstice Shades - (Kustom9 - Event - June 2022)
Third Eye & Finger Talons: aii - + Demonic Touch +
Earrings: PROMAGIC - Swarna
Horns: rotten - {chubbi horns} - fatpack
Body:
Hair: Moon. Hair - Nox - Blacks - (Kustom9 - Event - June 2022)
Bangs: Moon. Hair - Sad Bxtch Bangs - Blacks - (Hongdae - Event - May/June 2022)
Tattoo: [AERTH] - Dehumanize Body Tattoos - Monochrome Pack
Eyes (edited to glow) and Eye Tattoos (face): XO - Eye See You EVO X Gift
Head: Lelutka - Halle
Body: Legacy
6 notes
·
View notes
● Sponsor: [ Nathalie] [ Speakeasy]▶ {Speakeasy} Goodgirl Tattoo pack
↳Belleza | Legacy | Signature | Omega
↳BOM Layer Fresh | Worn | Faded
Mainstore: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Champ/238/140/15
Marketplace: :https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/126525
▶ Natalie - Set "Alice" Fatpack
↳ Feated For
↳ Legacy | Perky | Maitreya | Ebody | Juicy | Rolls | genX | Curvy
Mainstore: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Isla%20Margaritta/219/54/22
Marketplace: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/244200
===============================================
● Others
BODY: [LEGACY] Meshbody (f) Special Edition (1.6)
HEAD: LeLUTKA Raven Head 3.1
SKIN: [Heaux] Lilith - Sunkiss *Velour Tone
HAIR: *S.E LELUTKA X SNOW HAIR GIFT
LIPS: Adore Dark HD Lipgloss by Boscato
BOOTS: PROMAGIC Lagani Boots
0 notes
the comment you made on your ProMage Rebellion post about Fiona in DAI, the "a choice largely seen as foolish, but I disagree" comment, I would LOVE to see more of. I am so here and ready for this essay if you've got it in you, especially after reading more of your posts. Fiona 👏 deserves 👏 better 👏
YES THANK YOU Fiona is one of my favourite Dragon Age characters and I think DAI is written in a way that means people dismiss her and it makes me very sad. I DO have an essay in me on this (I wrote it up somewhere in part before but it was mostly about one exchange between her and Vivienne so I'll do it in full this time). So, the full essay that two people have ever wanted (me and you):
Why Fiona's Choices at Redcliffe Make Sense, Actually
The overriding factor in Fiona's DAI appearance, the one that dominates everything about how she gets interpreted, is her choice to place the mage rebellion in service of Tevinter. From the player's angle, this is a bad choice; from the Inquisition's angle, it's the same. I think Bull says something like "this is why you should never trust mages" which is a whole Thing like woah there buddy.
But my defence of Fiona is that her choice, in her context, makes all the sense in the world. There are a few reasons why I wish ppl wouldn't judge her so harshly for making it in the way she did:
The sky just tore open and demons are popping up everywhere. This is a huge danger to her forces without any other contributing factors. The rebellion is, what, a couple hundred mages, most with only a handful of years of combat experience (against Templars)? This includes non-combatants (ie children, I think). They NEED safety, or they'll all die.
The Templars, one of their three potential enemies (along with aforementioned demons and the local population), have set up in an actual fortress. Their movements have become unpredictable and concerning (more than they already were, as a group of people trained to kill mages). Again, the imperative here is security as the tides change.
This is a world-ending crisis. At the moment, the mage rebellion even having shelter is dependent on the good will of the Fereldan monarch(s). Fiona is correct in assuming that the moment things shift a little too much, that shelter will no longer be an option (see: monarch reaction at the end of the quest).
A huge magical explosion tore the veil open at a congregation of mages that Fiona was not present at. It probably killed a lot of her people, and may well have been blamed on a mage (in the case of a mage Herald)/the mages.
So, Fiona needs to make a decision about how the mage rebellion are going to respond to these circumstances. What are her options?
Give up - which she can't do. The mages under her care would likely die and the thing she spent years of her life working towards would fail.
Attempt for compromise again - which she can't do. The last attempt killed the Divine and huge chunks of her forces/potential allies.
Ask the Fereldan crown for a formal alliance. I want to go into this one a bit more below because the reasons she doesn't go for this are so interesting.
Ally with the Inquisition - she tried this. She goes to the Herald and asks to meet with them. However, this gets erased from her personal recollection of events due to timeline shenanigans, which influences her subsequent choice.
Ally with the Tevinter magister who is willing to provide shelter long-term and pops up exactly when the mage rebellion needs them most.
From a player perspective, obviously she shouldn't ally with Tevinter! It's the surefire way to lose all her other potential allies! But that's not how it would appear to her, in a crisis position that could become impossible to sustain within days. In her mind, the Inquisition are unsuitable for so many reasons:
The Herald may be aligned with the Templars. They are (mostly) a complete unknown to her, and they are potentially partially responsible for the chaos.
The Inquisition is led publicly by a Seeker, an Orlesian bard (who has admittedly been noted to act in favour of the mages, but she was still an agent of the Divine. This is Fiona "fuck the Divine" we're talking about here), an Antivan diplomat, and a (former) Templar.
This former Templar can be rumoured to have murdered multiple apprentices in the Circle closest to Redcliffe and was present at the Annulment of the Gallows. No matter Cullen's views on the incident, Fiona has no reason to trust him.
Other than (potentially) the Herald, there are no mages in the Inquisition leadership. If Fiona's intelligence network is good (we can assume it's good enough that she knew to meet them in Val Royeaux, but we don't know how much better it is), she can know that their operatives include an elven apostate with no recorded views, a decorated Grey Warden (more on this later again), another elf with no recorded views, an author who may or may not have participated in the Annulment of the Gallows (and goes on the record w his dislike of the events that sparked off the rebellion), a Qunari spy, and one of Fiona's most fervent political opponents.
Fiona approaches the Inquisition DESPITE ALL THIS. That's how desperate the mage rebellion are for good allies, in the absence of any other real choices. In that light, it's not really any wonder that she took Tevinter up on their offer - better to ally with a pro-mage force than take their chances with an unknown.
Are Tevinter bad in this case? Yes! Is it a major misstep to do this? Also yes! But I don't think Fiona entered the choice lightly, and this is why:
Fiona is seasoned in mage politics. She's not a young mage idolising the idea of freedom for mages in Tevinter.
Fiona is a former slave. She's not frivolously making a deal to enslave the people she's risked her life for - she genuinely believes that the deal did not involve this, and is horrified when she learns that this is Alexius' intention.
As outlined above, her other options are impossible to implausible. She doesn't know the Inquisition is coming. She has no reason to think they will come, because time travel shenanigans mean she thinks it never happened. This is her only option.
The main flaw in Fiona's actions, when we take away the fact that she didn't know about the plan to "indenture" the mage rebellion, is that she chooses to ally with Tevinter while her people are in Ferelden, thus getting her people kicked out. So why doesn't she appeal to the Fereldan crown?
Fiona has a million and one reasons not to trust Wardens when shit starts getting fucked up (see: The Calling). 2/3 possible individuals on the throne are Wardens (m/f Cousland, Alistair (a WHOLE OTHER THING adding complexity to her choices here), and then the non-Warden Anora), and all of them were put there partially by Wardens.
Fiona knows from the worst kind of experience what happens when something/someone is no longer convenient to the Wardens. It's the reason she was in the Circle to lead the rebellion at all.
Her own relationship with the Fereldan crown is sensitive. It might not be a consideration if anyone else had been leading the rebellion, but Fiona is the purposefully unknown mother of the Fereldan King in Bioware's canon, which would very much influence the way she was written here (I know I've only talked about in-universe reasons so far, but more Bioware-level stuff comes a lil later).
Ferelden are probably having their own problems with the whole demons and huge hole in the sky thing. Why would they offer more aid than they already had to the mages, especially when it's the presence of mages that has led to a Chantry splinter group headed by non-Fereldans (+ Cullen) setting up military operations within Ferelden. That's a huge political tangle that Fiona, head of a group of refugees resisting their wholesale slaughter, is not equipped to handle.
So if it's not a bad decision when viewed with its full context, why is it treated as such? This is the bit where I express frustrations with the way this was written, and it boils down to this:
The mage/templar thing is meant to be a choice players meaningfully make; there has to be a reason to go for the Templars other than pre-existing preference. Tevinter, consequentially, are easy to invoke as big bads (their only appearance in DAI so far would be through Krem, and their prior impression in the series is dominated by Fenris). They're the ~evil mages~ and aligning the rebellion with them makes said rebellion less legitimate. This introduces (semi-)meaningful debate, both for the companions and for the player, over which side is better to pick for the Inquisition going forward.
I think this covers everything I can remember right now. But tl;dr: Fiona's choice to ally with Tevinter is made out of desperation and a lack of alternatives. It's not her fault it went south, but narrative blame is placed on her rather than the circumstances because the format of the game demands it.
47 notes
·
View notes