#playing dao and not romancing alistair would feel wrong at this point for me it's so crucial to the entire story and its development

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

This. This. This entire conversation with Morrigan actually makes me want to sob. She and my Tabris always becomes close friends over the course of DAO; that, paired with the fact that my Tabris always romances Alistair, makes everything about this hurt so much more when you take DAO's ending into account.

Her confusion over why my Tabris didn't send her away. Why she didn't abandon her after they learned of Flemeth's plans. Why Tabris went out of her way to slay Flemeth and bring her the true grimoire. She asks Tabris why, and is baffled when the answer is, "I did it because I'm your friend," as if it's that simple.

The way Morrigan looks at the warden, the way her voice cracks when she says, "I want you to know that while I may not always prove... worthy... of your friendship, I will always value it."

She knows how this will end; Flemeth sent her with the wardens with the end goal of stopping the blight and obtaining the old god soul through the dark ritual. Morrigan knows that Alistair and Tabris are the only Grey Wardens here, and assuming they don't find more, one of them will have to die defeating the archdemon unless they agree to do the dark ritual.

With that context, her asking Alistair, "And what if a Grey Warden has forced to choose between the Warden he loved and ending the Blight? What should his choice be?" suddenly has so much subtext weaved through the words that I'm gonna start foaming at the mouth. She's practically telling Alistair that a warden has to die. She's scrutinizing his reaction to find any hint that suggests he would agree to the dark ritual in order to save himself and the woman he loves. And when he doesn't choose, she has her answer.

Morrigan made comments to Tabris about him, almost hopeful that their relationship was just a physical thing between them and not actually riddled with feelings... and then gives disapproval when Tabris says she loves him.

She doesn't want the warden to die; hell, she doesn't want Alistair to die, either; whether because she does actually care about him or because she knows it'll break her friend's heart if she loses him, or both!

Things would be so much easier if the only two Grey Wardens left to defeat the blight didn't fall in love, wouldn't they, Morrigan?

She knows that in the end, no matter the outcome, she will lose the woman she called sister and it's devastating.

Morrigan, who has never known true friendship. Who grew up isolated in the woods with an abusive mother and terrible implications for her future. Who discovered said mother planned to take over her body just as she did with her other daughters. Who doesn't understand kindness as it was rarely given to her without a catch. Who isolates herself from the others in camp. Who finally has a companion she cares about... and in the end, if her plan works and the dark ritual is completed, she'll end up pregnant and alone and wearing Tabris' resentment like a tender wound on her heart.

Or Tabris will reject the ritual, and will die to the archdemon.

Or her lover will.

I just- the dynamic between the warden, romanced Alistair, and Morrigan is so good and painful and rich that I'm gnawing on furniture as we speak.

#dragon age origins #dao #alistair theirin #dao alistair #dao morrigan #dao tabris #warden tabris #i'm replaying dao right now in case my recent written posts haven't made that obvious #the relationship dynamics the warden has with each of the companions is so so soooo good like there isn't a companion i dislike #i play into the slow burn with alistair's romance but it's not even just the romance aspect it's also their friendship too #playing dao and not romancing alistair would feel wrong at this point for me it's so crucial to the entire story and its development #and i love morrigan's friendship with the warden and how gutted tabris is when she comes clean about everything and offers the ritual #and then bails once everything is over and tabris is torn between hating her and feeling hurt and not wanting morrigan to be alone again #i talked more in depth about morrigan and the ritual in a previous post but it's a lot... especially when it comes to the witch hunt dlc #oh and then there's the friendship between tabris and zevran like don't even get me started on that sksksks i won't be able to stop #even a character like oghren who is the last person you'd think tabris would ever become friends with since he's y'know *oghren* #but i'll go on the record and say there's more to oghren that gets overlooked and overshadowed by his glaring flaws #and i don't wanna talk about leliana... she makes me too sad like ever since my last playthrough where i accidentally triggered her romance #while i was deep in alistair's romance i have a really hard time not reading into the things she says to tabris #in my last playthrough i dunno what i did but she confessed to tabris even though she was fully aware that tabris and alistair were togethe #and it was a *mess* okay like it really felt like we killed marjolaine and leliana was in a vulnerable position yet was hardened enough #to be like 'i know she and alistair are together but i'll take my shot anyway and attempt to break them up' like.... noooooo leliana D: #and the rest of the game it felt like she was bitter and still in love with tabris and i felt *horrible* #i just said i don't wanna talk about it but hhhnnngggg i'm taking extra precautions to not have a repeat of that this time #excuse my tag ramblings i'm just very passionate about dao and the companions okay #also want to note that this is my interpretation of morrigan's motivations based on how i play the game and my warden #so others might view this reaction and the warden/romanced alistair/morrigan dynamic differently and in that case #i would be interested to hear that different interpretations because those are always fun to read

[cassynite]

OC Tag Game

I was tagged by @dujour13 and @spyridonya for this, thank you both for thinking of me!!

Favorite

PWOTR

This one is so hard...like choosing your favorite child...and also it just tends to be who I'm thinking of the most at that particular moment.

I guess the one I love the most is always going to be my Knight-Commander, Sparrow--captured and sold into slavery at a young age, she became a body double and guard for a Cheliaxian family and goes to Kenabres to try and find escape and freedom.

She is a deeply reserved and quiet individual, keeping her feelings and thoughts close to her chest, and cautious to a fault. But underneath that is someone with deep feeling and passion, an incredibly warm and loving person who is desperately lonely and just wants to find someone who won't leave her, as every person who she has loved has done in the past. She romances Daeran Arendae and they both work through their shit together <3

Newest

The Wayhaven Chronicles

The newest OC is technically still cooking, but he's my latest detective in the IF The Wayhaven Chronicles! His name is Bastian Roche, a nervy little man who would just like everyone to get along, please, and who has a tendency to fail upwards, much to his chagrin. He loves his little town and loves his mama, and is very upset at the recent murders going on and then the supernatural bullshit that ends up crawling out of the woodwork as a consequence.

He's gonna romance Felix and I'm pretty sure is going to be the only detective I've played who doesn't become friends with Adam or Mason by the end of book 2 because he has a spine made of wet tissue paper.

Oldest

Dragon Age: Origins

I might have had older OCs but I don't remember them--the one that still exists in any form would be Dannia Tabris, my canon warden in DAO. She's a daggers rogue, duelist and assassin specialties.

She's the first real Specialist Little Snowflake I ever made, but like in the worst way--I made her as I played the game and headcanoned that while not a mage, she was born a little "closer" to the Fade than others, and because of that she can see the future. This was to accommodate the fact that I always had a game guide open because I hadn't learned that you can't really play an RPG wrong by that point.

Dannia puts up a good front and tends to present herself as funny, warm, and cavalier in front of friends and family, but inside she's a melancholic, vicious, calculating person who is desperate to ensure the safety of people she loves by relying on her frequent visions for guidance.

She lost her mother by ignoring her visions and she refuses to lose anyone else, so of course in the process she does lose everyone--she becomes a Warden and is permanently separated from her family, a vision showing Alistair's execution makes her put him on the throne which he does not want and which ultimately causes the end of their relationship, and she sabotages basically all of her friendships and relationships in general because she sees visions of herself dying to slay the Archdemon.

Then Morrigan comes along, offers the Dark Ritual, and she takes it out of blind hope...and survives. And has to try and live on past her own self-imposed expiration date, now knowing her visions can be false and that her sacrifices up to this point might have been for nothing.

Meanest

PWOTR

I don't really do mean OCs honestly lol. But I'd have to say that the one who is most willing to say mean shit is going to be Kallesto "Vonzi" Voness, my mercenary OC for PWOTR!

Vonzi is an oracle whose patron has given her powers over extreme cold--and, more significantly, powers over time. Vonzi has the ability to time travel, but with a major caveat: jumping back in time forces her to "hold on" to the timeline she creates by changing things, something that takes her very life force. She can either let go, undoing the changes she has made, or die in that time, cementing it as the new reality.

In-game, her main quests revolve around the fact that she is suffering from going back in time to save her family. The KC must either let her die, convince her to let go of the timeline and allow her family to die again, or a Secret Third Thing.

Despite all the shit she goes through, Vonzi is a very confident, very cavalier person. She does not suffer fools lightly and isn't afraid to speak her mind even if it means rocking the boat, and she will tell people what she thinks of them regardless of how unflattering it is. If she likes you, she might be more circumspect, but especially in game she doesn't have the time or energy to be nice. Despite her being a genuinely good person and good friend she puts a lot of people off wit her abrasive attitude.

Softest

Dragon Age Inquisition

Softest OC would have to be Phaedre Lavellan, my canon inquisitor from DAI! Phi is a mage, though not a very well-trained one; when she tells people she was the clan's first, she's lying.

Phaedre like so many other OCs suffered tragedy when she was younger, with her childhood friend and intended--the clan's First at the time--dying to maleficar when Phi, desperate to prove she was grown up enough for vallaslin, goes out on the honorary hunt to earn it and gets in way over her head. The event deeply traumatized her, as it was her fault Ghandriel was out there to begin with. It causes her to retreat from any and all responsibility. Her clan enables this, as she's always been seen as a bit of a baby, and the tragedy causes them to close ranks in an effort to protect her. By 9:40 Dragon, Phaedre is 25 years old and has still not gotten her vallaslin.

News of the Conclave and the spies clan Lavellan plans to send is the last jolt needed from a long-growing feeling of guilt and stasis Phaedre has been in. Sneaking away ahead of the actual spies, Phaedre gets sloppy fake vallaslin from a city elf and joins the Conclave in an effort to prove to herself that she can be useful to her clan and an adult in her own right. And then the Conclave explodes and suddenly she needs to grow up real fast.

Phaedre tends to try to be bubbly and optimistic. She's a little naive but tends to appear even more so because her conflict-averse nature makes her avoid giving out her opinions on anything, which makes it seem like she just doesn't know a whole lot. She's deeply empathetic and emotional, laughs when she's nervous, and wants everyone to be her friend--and it's hard not to be, even when she starts gaining confidence and making decisions that cause disapproval. Phaedre romances Sera.

Most aloof/standoffish

PWOTR

Another non-KC OC, Ophenia Thwait, is going to fit this bill! She's a dhampir that's going to enter her second century soon, and she lost everyone she ever cared about already, including her entire family and her first wife, who she loved more than anything. She wrote books with them as characters to deal with her grief, those books took off, and she spent the next several decades establishing herself as a varied and talented author in several genres. She's currently made a name for herself writing pulp novels of the romance and adventure variety, earning her wild fame and derision in equal measure.

Ophenia keeps all of life at arm's length, looking at it with the clinical mind of a writer that's trying to put together a plot for her next story--because she is. Any character read in an Ophenia Thwait book is based on someone she has met. She considers it the greatest compliment to write using another person, immortalizing them in a story while they age and wither and die. They will at least live forever in her books and the minds of those who read them, but it gives her a tendency to think of people as little more than props for a story that's brewing in her mind, and she will do awful things on purpose just to see what the reaction ends up being or what the consequences are. Gotta get more inspiration, and keep her stories interesting.

Dumbest

PWOTR

Dumbest OC award has to go to Evaethi Arvanxi, Sparrow's "original copy"--the young woman she acted as a body double for! Evaethi means well, mostly, but has learned through a painful childhood that the only real thing she's good at is horses and, later, fighting on them. She fled her noble life of luxury and duty the first real chance she gets, leaving the far more impressive and competent (in her eyes) Sparrow to deal with the aftermath, and joins the Pathfinders, where she will hopefully get some wakeup calls about the way she lives her life. No matter what though, she will never gain the common sense that god gave a goldfish.

Smartest

PWOTR

Isore "Crow" Cygnarus, Sparrow's biological brother who maybe-probably dies in her canon when she was young. I can't even describe how smart he is because "waaaay smarter than me" is about as good as I can get, but he was a savant, a child genius who excelled in mathematics and engineering, who rose to prominence at an astonishingly young age in Alkenstar as an architect and artificer.

He had a lot of ideas, many of which he hoped to spread and see implemented throughout the world--ideas about how society should be run to ensure as little waste, pain, and chaos would be generated, ways that he felt the ills of the world could truly be solved. But before he could do any of that, he had his younger sister with him, who needed to be raised, and he recognized that wandering the world and focusing on your own ambitions was insufficient for rearing a young child. So he settled in the idyllic country of Dehrukani, helping them improve their crystal towers and develop new and interesting ways to store magical energy, and waited for her to grow up right to the point where he is murdered by slavers.

Crow's personality was whatever he needed it to be to get the most out of the people around him--Sparrow remembers him as a kind, patient, perfect older brother, because that's the mask he put on around her. In reality, he was an extremely distant, cold, and ambitious individual. His brilliance came from his natural ability to see things broken down into parts working together as systems, and ultimately that's how he saw people--as parts within the system of society. The closest he ever came to love was the mix of responsibility and interest he had in his little sister.

OC you’d be best friends with IRL

I feel like I would be intimidated by most of my OCs lol. I think I'd get along with Evaethi but would find her self-absorbed nature incredibly grating and honestly she'd be tiring to be around.

The person I'd be best friends with is Vonzi! I'd find her funny and her confidence inspiring.

#tag game #sorry this took like a week and change to get to lol #oc: sparrow #oc: vonzi #oc: ophenia #oc: evaethi #oc: crow #the rest are mainly on my DA sideblog lmao. #dunno if bas is gonna be around enough that i'll talk about him much

[crowsent]

a fuckton of things i want in da4

a few words censored bc tumblr will swallow this in the void if i dont. long ass fuck list ahead

a romanceable dwarf

more romanceable elves/qunari

more elf/qunari/dwarf companions

consistent writing for once

more nb representation

good hair. please just give me good hair options. give me long hair. give me luxurious flowing locks. give me braids. give me good fucking hair options

let me shittalk the chantry

dalish elf npcs that impact the plot in unique ways

dalish elf companions that are proud of being dalish

if it is set in tevinter maybe uh. maybe address the issue of systemic oppression (and slavery) of elves???????

a return of the friendship/rivalry system in da2 but improved. maybe instead of a friendship rivalry sliding scale its friendship/rivalry/animosity sliding scale. bc rivalry is more like. two people pushing each other to be better than they were before. friendly competition. hes an idiot but hes my idiot kind of deal. animosity would be just regular disapproval. i liked the crisis cutscenes in dai so high animosity would be the same as low approval and might make the companion leave still, but theres more variety with high approval. high approval “friendship” would be the “were best friends and we share many opinions and agree on almost everything” while high approval “rivalry” being “we disagree on almost everything but goddamn it youre my friend and ill follow you into the fade if i have to” so you can have a high approval with someone instead of being a kissass

actions and choices having consequences again

multiple endings again (epilogue slideshows dont count)

dialogue wheels with descriptions that match what you actually say

characters from rivain, antiva, anderfels, etc

gifts. bring back the gifts. i want to give my companions gifts

maybe. maybe a focus of non-andrastian religion for once?

let me shittalk the chantry

i know its a stretch, but maybe. diverse skin colours. please?

nd characters that are written respectfully and treated w dignity

please bring back the talent wheel from dao and da2

more bi romance options

more wlw romance options

more mlm romance options

ace romance options

nb romance options

background romances

let me shittalk the chantry

far fetched but maybe a polycule?

i lowkey LOVED the fast-paced feel of da2s combat so maybe bring that back in some form? maybe improved to mesh with the tactics of dai to give players absolute freedom of playstyle whether they want to be like me and rush into every encounter or play more strategically

companions with unique companion abilities

would be nice to explore cities

would be nice if the open world were a little smaller so it doesnt feel empty all the gd time

more mage spells. mages felt like just another class of fighter to me in dai. they dont really have any awe-inducing wow factor like in dao or even da2. if the narrative wants me to believe that mages are powerful and dangerous and that it takes multiple templars to hunt down an apostate, maybe show that? give me strong mages

remove the jump ability. its pointless

a narrative that addresses the oppression that the chantry and templars perpetuated please

bring back the attributes

make the choices in dai matter. mages governing themselves? i wanna see that

let me shittalk the chantry

please bring back the healing magic for fucks sakes

multi-class system between rogues and warriors?

multiple specialisations that feel like specialisations and not just skill tree+

player-only skill trees

hardening

companion quests that affect their abilities and further dialogue

actual morally grey choices instead of this stupid mage freedom vs templar oppression narrative that is in no way morally grey but is presented as such and thus leaves the conflicts and narratives set up by dao and da2 to be fucking meaningless

bring back the tactics

would be nice to have an origins-esque prologue again. maybe one that would determine future events in game just to give your character better narrative cohesion with the plot

an approval/disapproval system but for companions with other companions. bringing certain companions together may bring them closer or make them pissed off with each other which affects banter maybe quests maybe combat

give me a fucking mabari bioware. give me back my fucking mabari

day/night cycle

a nightmare mode where you have to finish the main quest on a time limit. it is absurd that dai expects me to believe that i have all this time to do wartable missions that can take literal real life DAYS to finish and still thwart corypheus’ plans in time. bullshit

that said. no more wartable missions. waiting for a countdown to finish isnt very fun

let me shittalk the chantry

kal-sharok. ive been hearing about it since dao let me fucking see kal-sharok

dwarven politics

politics in general. my fav dao quest was the succession crisis plotline in orzammar/the landsmeet and wewh in dai

npcs i can talk to. even with generic dialogue like in dao. makes the world more alive

using the environment to your advantage. far fetched but i would love to be able to pull down boulders if were in the mountains or freeze water to get to places as a mage

home base customisation but the customisation choices you make actually. mean something. and do something. or at the very least give more companion dialogue/banter/approval change

laconic and ergonomic codexes. like. sorted by what kind of codex it is, etc etc but then you just get a brief summary of the codex and the option to read more about it so i dont spend eternity scrolling through cards looking for a specific codex entry. cool aesthetic dont get me wrong but real irritating to deal with. also. maybe. the pc making comments about the codex if you do read more about it? like a dalish elf saying “they got it all wrong” when reading a codex about dalish elves written by a human??? that would a) give character to the pc b) incentivise people to actually read the codex to see what was so wrong about it c) summarise the codex for people who want to learn the lore but dont want to spent the entire game reading text

maybe have the merchants in your home base close to crafting stations so you dont have to take a fucking hike if you miscounted the amount of elfroot you need?

let me shittalk the chantry

avvar companion maybe??? interesting lore right there

bring back stat requirements for weapons and remove the class restriction for most shit. obviously a dagger would be better for a rogue than a longsword and a mage would do better with a staff than a sword and shield but its not about efficiency. its about the roleplay. its about the options. give me the option to make a mage with wildly inappropriate stat distribution

bring back sustained mode abilities

traps. bring back traps. bring back the option to stealth into an area, trap the fuck out of it, and go from there

have the three available classes in kind of a rock paper scissors scenario. warriors do real well against rogues who do real well against mages who do real well against warriors. so you can plan your party depending on who/what youll face AND how much their approval will change during the quest you take them on

let me shittalk the chantry

actually resolve the plot points introduced in dai

a more threatening villain. the inquisitor thwarted every attempt made by corypheus in dai. he was not threatening at all

queer characters. background, companions, etc. queer characters

mounts were meh in dai. maybe. make them faster? or less cumbersome? or have your companions on mounts too so theres still banter?

i liked the armour tinting. let me have armour tinting from the beginning

i would really like mages to move and attack at the same time bc lowkey standing in one spot is uhhhhhhh kinda boring

let me check companions friendship/rivalry levels

would be nice if the narrative acknowledged that elves suffered greatly at the hands of the chantry and stopped victim-blaming them

more taverns. specifically like tapsters in dao where theres a dwarf just reciting something in a language i cant understand and if you look its a ballad/poet about dwarven culture and that was a real nice touch let me have that

dalish elf clan. dalish elf clan that does not get murdered please and thank you

meaningful quests. more cinematic dialogue

make found gear / quest reward gear more valuable than crafted gear

game modifiers like in dai were real nice. i want more

let me shittalk the chantry

quests that can be resolved in multiple ways. like connors fate in dao. and for those ways to impact further quests

companions with varying moral alignments

companions that are mutually exclusive (like alistair and loghain) but are both good companions so itd really make you think

a pc that IS NOT a “chosen one” vanilla da2 is my fav dragon age game for one reason and one reason only and that is because hawke is just some random refugee who escaped lothering. no chosen one magic at all. just an ordinary person who is a real good fighter. and that appealed to me more than this “you are the only one who can do it” narrative

let me meet more elvhen gods

if the setting is in tevinter, GIVE ME FUCKING ARCHITECTURE. give me the high spires, the archways, the buttresses, give me statues lining city gates and magic infused into the buildings. tevinter is a land ruled by MAGES give me magical architecture. give me floating buildings. give me fire floating as orbs above the streets like lamps. GIVE ME ARCHITECTURE

SHALE

let me shittalk the chantry

PIERCINGS GIVE ME FUCKING PIERCINGS BIOWARE

more main quests, longer main quests

if it is set in tevinter maybe. maybe address the fact that tevinter has been at war with the qunari for a while? on and off war is still war. and maybe give us the option to influence the outcome of that war?

more voice options. instead of just american voice or british voice, do the thing in dao again where there are multiple voices of different tones to further cement the pcs personality

more armour designs

biased but uh. can. can taliesen jaffe va a character?

i already said qunari companions but specifically saarebas companions

blood magic

FINISHING MOVE ANIMATIONS

please do not let it be as long as inquisition. inquisition was a SLOG in later playthroughs

body sliders. what if i want a tall but lanky qunari? what if i want a buff as shit elf? body sliders

more eye options

let me call out companions

btw bioware. if you really wanted cullen to be a good guy. maybe handle his fucking redemption arc a little better instead of retconning all the terrible and creepy shit hes done in the past k thx

can female walk/run animations not have. so much swaying hips? no one moves like that

personality dialogue that affects future dialogue like in da2 but meshed with the wider range of emotions introduced by dai

keep the race/s*x lock on romance candidates like in dai. keep the fact that some characters can only be romanced by certain races or s*xes

nb and genderqueer options for the pc

cutscenes of companions interacting

ngl i lowkey liked the random encounters of dao so maybe bring that back

my fav quest in dao is the landsmeet / orzammar succession crisis questline but you know whats my second favourite? the rescue mission if the warden gets captured and you have to play as your party members. give me that again

more creepy/dark shit. dai was too lighthearted for me esp after da2 and dao

let me shittalk the chantry

broodmothers. in hd.

red lyrium broodmothers. in hd

companions with different backgrounds. different faiths. different statuses. different families. etc

maybe make the pcs appearance make an impact on the story? like how bull says he likes redheads, but even if you are a redhead, he says nothing about it????? maybe keep track of which slider the player picks so that can affect the story?

i love my inquisitors but maybe. dont. bring the inquisitor in as anything more than an advisor/npc in this game? let me fall in love with a new pc???

if theres gonna be a homebase like skyhold where youre not in armor. maybe give us better clothing?

a kind of gear skin mechanic similar to ac:odyssey where you can change how the gear looks but keep the stats. so you can equip that higher level armour and keep the look and aesthetic of your old armour and you unlock the skins/looks of the armours you discover/make so you can be both powerful AND aesthetic

i enjoyed the nobility/underworld/arcane/etc knowledge in dai unlocking more dialogue options so maybe keep/expand on that but make it more accessible by side missions or companions or something that isnt the abysmal perk system in dai

let me shittalk the chantry

customisable walking animations. does the pc walk straightbacked? slouched? with a swagger? please

since there will undoubtedly be an obligatory fade sequence, maybe have an option for nightmare demons that ARENT spiders. thank you

slap on subtitles and conlang some languages. i want to hear elvish. i want to hear tevene. give me the languages

more dragons. esp if they look vastly different

more bard songs

i am completely biased here, but i would like to hear laura bailey as a va for a character. preferably a voice option for the pc

hey maybe have the true ending actually included in the base game and not in a dlc (tresppasser cough cough)

better val royeaux

please remove the had to do it to em idle animation tis distracting

on that note, more idle animations. maybe some unique to companions?

very trivial but. unique stair climbing/descending animation

bring back talking to companions on the road. maybe with some dialogue that can only be said on the road???

if banter is interrupted, make like rdr2 and pick up where the banter left off

more vallaslin designs please?

if theres another formal scene like dai maybe. give us. decent clothing. or better yet, decen clothing OPTIONS. i wanna decide how i look in a ball full of haughty orlesians

mage vs templar conflict resolved and addressed please. it is NOT resolved in dai. what we got was sequel bait and a slideshow. resolve it please

let me shittalk the chantry

a pro-mage anti-circle circle mage companion like anders

religious person who doesnt victim-blame elves in the codex or in game or anywhere please

characters more like leliana who question the chantry and acknowledge its corruption and greed

unapologetically sapphic companion

idc if its tevinter i dont want to fucking see queer people being disrespected

a true tal-vashoth companion, one who escaped from the qun

have quest decisions affect whether or not a companion will turn hostile to you or not

if IF solas will be redeemed, please do the redemption arc right

more horn options for qunari

an apostate mage who doesnt use me for their personal agenda whilst hiding something from me (morrigan, anders, solas) thanks

i really dig the whole “leader of an army” thing dai was trying to go for. but you didnt actually. lead. anything. would be nice to have that option. command soldiers. send them places that affect further quests. would even use the wartable for its intended purpose. planning wars. battles. like. you get sent word that there are bandits harassing villagers. you can set up an ambush with your soldiers or confront them headon, and theres a new mini-location on the map like the manor you meet vivienne in where you can go deal with the bandits and depending on your choices, there are actually soldiers with you in a field, or traps in a narrow pass, or even in a city. id rather the wartable shit dont return but if they have to, at least this way youre not just waiting real life time for a bunch of text to appear

i am real fucking excited for the possibility that da4 companions can just fucking die on you. good shit. give me that angst

missions that certain companions would refuse to go with you to. you know. so you actually have to use other members of your party instead of the same 3 (three) people all the goddamn time

disabled characters (i want a character who suffers from the same chronic bad leg disease as i do is that too much to ask)

kinda touched on by the da2 combat point but let me do close combat damage with the staff

no multiplayer. and if there is a multiplayer, dont tie it with achievements

let me fucking explore weisshaupt

(i dont think solas will be the endgame villain of da and i dont think da4 will be the last da game but still) again. for emphasis. resolve the plot points dai brought up

full-body scars and tattoo options

companions and npcs changing their opinions about things over time. eg: a pro-circle mage wanting instead for circles to be abolished after a specific side mission or a main quest decision etc

keep the multiple companion quests. and maybe change what kinds of companion quests are available further down depending on choices made in previous companion quests

please for fucks sake give us more characters of colour

let me shittalk the chantry

#dragon age #dragon age 4 #da4 #long post #its 3 am and i am once again putting on my clown wig bc bioware will fucking disappoint me again

[felassan]

Hii MJ. I was wondering what you think of the possibilities of Zevran being in DA4? Ik bioware has brought back a character from the dead (Leliana), so Idk if I’m delusional for ignoring that zev can die. But considering he (used to?) be associated with the crows and they seem to be a big part of the next game, do you think it might be possible that he could have a conditional advisor like role? Or since he isn’t a crow, he definitely won’t be?

Hi Nonnie! Some thoughts on this. This became long so it’s under a cut. TN spoilers under cut.

Initially on seeing the BtS vid I wondered if one of the Crow figures could be Zevran (gut response). I don’t think it is anymore. That figure’s outfit resembles Zevran’s “Black Shadow” attire from WoT, but lots of characters in the concept art are wearing various types of Crow uniform: the other character in that picture is also wearing Crow clothes, and so are figures here, here (Matt Rhodes’ Art Station upload of this one says that “Crow” is the title of that piece) and here. Assassin-y figures are also present in the lineup shot. I think what it means given the ‘concept art is mood-setting’ stuff is that the Crows as a faction will have a significant role to play in the upcoming game. This makes sense given the prominence of Crows in TN - no less than 3 stories, one of which introduces in-depth a new significant-feeling Crow character (Lucanis, who is currently active in Tevinter, who pinged ‘companion flags’ to me [this is subjective tho], and whose short story ends with in unresolved “unfinished business” Tevinter-heavy hook) and one of which expands at length on known Crow lore as well as being like “here’s what’s been happening with Crow leadership and here’s some setup for what’s going on with the Crows soon due to the Antaam invasion”. 

They did bring back Leliana if she was killed in DAO (demon pope!). I might be misremembering, but I seem to remember some tweets or other dev comment somewhere where they said that they’d try to avoid bringing back player-killed characters like this in the future (could def be remembering this wrong though). I also think I remember PW saying that when writing Trespasser, the Bull dying if you sided with the Qun in his DAI mission thing was something they struggled with a lot over whether to have happen or not - because having that happen would mean that in those universes, Bull is dead-dead and that could potentially have knock-on impacts if the writers ever wanted to use him again in the future. There are other cases where dead characters resurface, like Anders in DA2 (but his potential death in the expansion was an epilogue slide, and the epilogues are framed more as rumors and many chunks of them have been retconned in subsequent games) or in the extended media (e.g. Wynne popping up in Asunder if she died in DAO, but we know that the stories in the books and novels aren’t canon-canon, that being a limitation of the media-type where it’s not like you can enter or make choices, but that they are events that fit in BW’s ‘default’ canon, and that the events described therein unfolded in a different way in different universes like in ones where Alistair isn’t King).  

The explanation for Leliana’s survival was a highly specific, rare set of circumstances - the devout Andrastian woman who died in a magic mountain full of lyrium which does kooky things, who believes maybe the Maker brought her back. How many lyrium ghost spirit-imitations of dead chars are walking around Thedas, or should be implied to be? The writers can always handwave, retcon, or explain around anything that they choose to, and if they want to bring him back in all universes they will, but I lean towards preferring “player-killed characters stay dead” because of choice and consequence and enjoying that choices have weight and impact. I also think “surprise, they lived” can become overdone as a gimmick if writers aren’t careful (generally speaking, not a DA-specific comment). For me - what would be the explanation for his survival? He can also die at more than one point in DAO. I know he’s beloved and can also be still alive, but possible deaths aside, when it comes to characters returning in this franchise, especially former companions, I also always lean towards “less old, more new” and towards “a few cameos only, not lots, and such cameos should be plot-relevant, not random”. There are a couple reasons for that which I won’t really get into here as that’s a separate topic, but it’s partially due to feelings like - Thedas is a big big place with heaps of people in it, I prefer it when the world doesn’t feel small, DA is the story of the setting rather than any one PC or group, I’d rather meet and encounter mostly-new people, etc. 

Aside from that stuff, aside from Antiva, he hasn’t been positioned recently as being in the north or having ongoing plot-stuff there (this isn’t a requirement for him to come back, and it happening for a character doesn’t mean they’re a shoe-in, but compare that with Fenris in Blue Wraith, who is now in Tevinter and working with Inquisition agents). He’s appeared in 2 games already and been referenced in all 4. I really enjoy what I’ll call his ‘romanced epilogue’ as an ending to his story too - unlike the other 3 DAO LIs, he accompanied his love on their quest to the west in search of a cure for the Calling. I love that, it’s so faithful and romantic. He’s still at their side and they’re still together after all this time. He journeyed far into the dangerous unknown with them looking for a needle in a haystack so that his partner doesn’t have to die a horrible early death, as faithful in his actions as his sentiments that he’d storm the Black City at the Hero’s side if he had to implied. The last time we heard from the Hero and romanced Zevran, they were together, and they were well. Y’know? I also tend to assume, due to Lelimancing Wardens returning in the Trespasser epilogues, that all Heroes who survived DAO return from their quest. I don’t want that to be jeopardized, and those references are enough for me.

And as much as I love Zevran (and I really do), I don’t personally feel a need for him to return either, neither in terms of his arc, ‘exploredness’ as a character, or in the overarching plot. As you say, in some universes he’s not a Crow anymore. There was a cool post I saw on this recently which I’m struggling to find the link to, but the jist of it was that the Crows are a pretty shit organization in terms of their ‘recruitment’ and training practises, how they operate and everything. They abused him during his life and he has now freed himself through his experiences during the Fifth Blight with the Warden, and in this new life he’s been on a years-long endeavor to kill Crows. For Zevran’s future, I think I’d like it if it didn’t always have to involve Crow involvement or a Crow focus? Like, that he’s more than a Crow, than a former Crow, than a Crow-hunter/opposer. Separate to that, there are also other, active Antivan Crows operating in the north that we’ve not yet spent time with in a game or ever gotten to know as a PC. It’s a big if, but if a character like Lucanis or Teia etc is prominent in the game, as a companion or advisor or contact etc, it might be a bit redundant to have another. This example is flipped around, but like, we had Cullen as an advisor, and he was “the templar/former templar guy”. We didn’t then also have a templar companion. So if we had Lucanis or whoever as a companion, I’m not sure that we’d then have a Crow/former Crow in an advisor-type role too?

It’s not delusional to want to see a fav or loved character again though. :) I’m not one of the people that wants to see my favs in every new entry, I’m largely happy for them to be let be off-screen, see a reference to them here and there (like the War Table, an allusion to or a dialogue line about them), but I understand the wish and get the feeling behind it. And it’s especially not delusional given the context which is that the writers have brought back player-killed characters before!

I doubt they’d have an advisor or advisor-like person be conditional (imagine playing DAI without Leliana and Cullen if they died or had unretconned bad endings prior to the game, it wouldn’t work without Padok Wiks-style stand-ins or a lot of logistical work on the devs’ part to structure the writing around their absences in those instances). A conditional cameo of some description though I could see (something comparable to his DA2 cameo or Nate’s conditional appearance in DA2 for example). Can’t say how likely this is though, especially given that Crow business-stuff could be repped by other newer chars. Maybe if there’s an option to dismantle, sabotage or oppose the Crows he could crop up. I’d imagine any appearance in relation to the Crows would be anti-Crow or “informer on the Crows due to past experience”, not pro-Crow or “the Crow perspective guy”, in universes where he didn’t go back to them anyway. And I’m not saying Zevran was a Talon or that he’s still a Crow or that it’s him, but just while I’m on this subject it brought a semi-related thought to mind, which is that post-TN and the surviving Talons having contacting the heirs to the other houses’ Talon roles, I do wonder who the new head of House Arainai is. 

(I include the info on the ‘where I lean’ stuff because I’m sure it colors or biases my responses sometimes).

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #dragon age #bioware #mj replies #anonymous #video games #tevinter nights spoilers #tevinter nights spoiler #tevinter nights #spoilers #spoiler #fenris #the Fenaissance #mass effect #abuse mention #cw abuse #abuse cw #abuse for ts

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Dragon Age: Inquisition, day 1.

You know, I actually did start the game yesterday evening. I was making good progress in the Hinterlands and was just about to leave for a jaunt to Val Royeaux when a conversation with Varric revealed that I had the wrong worldstate loaded—Anders, alive? Bethany, alive? And what's this in the codex about Alistair marrying Bryce Cousland’s daughter? *headdesk* Welp, that’s me starting over.

So, meet Avasis Adaar, dual-dagger rogue and, apparently, a good, sweet boy who wants to help. By sneaking into places and stabbing stuff. He’s good at that!

I went in with absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with this character; the Internet told me I should romance Dorian because cute, but other than that, Daiwen and Pavey were the real point of this run, Avasis is just along for the ride because I have to do something with this timeline in DAI, right? So he’s just going to have to reveal himself to me as I go.

What I got from last night’s session is that he’s quite young—my first feeling was 18ish, but I revised that to 21ish to make the romance with 30-year-old Dorian more to my taste—and that Varric is his new dad now. Congratulations, Varric. I’m sure you always wanted a son twice your height who could snap you in half with his neck. Put that in your next letter to Pavey, I’m sure she’ll have some interesting comments.

Huh, I completely missed the sequence with the fearlings chasing the Inquisitor towards Glowy Justinia in the Fade last time.

Is it just me, or is melee combat in this game absolutely horrible? Turns out the “if you right-click on something out of range, we’ll automatically walk you over to it and then do the interaction” function of DAO and DA2 was load-bearing, at least for me. Archer wasn’t really an option because there are already two of those in the party and I like Varric too much to deprive him of attention, but dear Maker do I miss my mage right now.

That said, I have now discovered the joys of using the F key rather than my extremely fiddly right mouse button for interacting with stuff, which is very nice indeed.

The Shokra-taar is the best armor available in the early game by 20 points or so. Also, Qunari are rather large. Ergo, Avasis will be spending his time at Haven pointing his nipples right into the eyes of the human and elven inhabitants. Enjoy, everyone.

“Pointing” being the appropriate term for it, as Haven is cold.

Solas is cutting quite a figure in the shibari bikini Antaam-saar, too.

What’s this in the codex about Adaar’s parents being Tal-Vashoth who left the Qun? Man, now I’m going to have a whole pile of second-generation feels. A very large pile of them.

Shut up, Roderick.

Whew, definitely got the right worldstate now. Threnn is talking about how Anora sent her to the Inquisition as a kindness to a supporter of her father, and I have the option to respond with “Loghain is a Grey Warden now.” (She referenced King Alistair last time, who exists in both timelines, hence me not catching on.)

Hello, Cullen. Hey, it’s someone whose job Avasis properly understands, rather than chalking it up to “does some magic and somewhere along the line that gets translated into a job for me to do”.

Wait, that’s an instrumental version of the Samson song playing over the cutscene of the Hinterlands being scouted.

I just saw Shokrakar’s first letter. BRB, dying.

That “Harding in Hightown” pun was pretty terrible, Varric.

Whee, the Hinterlands, fun fun fun.

I like Cullen and get ferociously protective of him for reasons I’ve gone into elsewhere, but all the same, unless there’s some supplementary material I missed, I’m not sure he’s fully reckoned with his role and degree of responsibility for events in Kirkwall. You can’t just skip that part and go straight to “I’ll just quietly be a better person now,” Cullen, it’ll just keep haunting you. I would know. (I’ll be aiming a similar lecture at Blackwall, don’t you worry, but I haven’t met him yet.)

Weird to think that Cullen has the same VA as Awakening!Anders. I can hear the similarity, but only just.

For Avasis’ part, he likes Cullen well enough, but he fell under Solas’ influence early on and will be going pro-mage.

While his predecessor rocked that beige outfit, Avasis looks frankly ridiculous in it. I’ll have to pick out something better for him when I can.

The Golden Nug is a beautiful, beautiful thing. The early game is much easier when you can use those inherited schematics to make sure you’re facing it with midgame-quality gear.

Hello, Sera. You seem fun and potentially useful. But you’re going to have to wait your turn to be in the party, because no way in hell are you coming along to Vivienne’s party.

Speaking of which, hello, Vivienne. You can handle the talking to fancy people stuff with Josephine, right?

Eeeee, got Iron Bull and Blackwall’s recruitment quests. Doing them will have to wait for tomorrow, though.

#dragon age #dragon age: inquisition #avasis adaar

[gingerbreton]

Dragon age questions

Tagged by @bitchesofostwick thank you my dear ❤️

01) favorite game of the series? Origins by far. I love the story and the characters and how we were introduced to the world. Followed by DA2, I love the dynamic with the companions and how different it is to the first game. It’s also an easy nip in do a mission if you’ve not got much time. You’re not going to be stuck in the fade for hours!

02) how did you discover Dragon Age? I bought it as a present for my hubby (then bf) when it came out in 2009. We already loved mass effect but fantasy was more my thing than sci-fi (don’t get me wrong, I do love sci-fi) so the idea of dragon age was just fantastic.

03) how many times you’ve played the games? The first two I have played quite a lot. Origins maybe 15..? DA2 maybe 7? I’ve only played Inquisition once. The first two I tend to always have playthrough on to the go, whether or not I’m regularly playing it.

04) favorite race to play as? Human (not that there is a choice in 2). I don’t know why, but I’m more likely to play as an elf in other games. Maybe my need for power means I just have to be able to rule Ferelden 😬

05) favorite class? Rogue! I’m all about the loot! I get way too frustrated in DAO if I’m not rogue and I can’t open shit until we pick up leliana. I have been known to shout ‘what is the point of you’ at Daveth. I’m more likely to go mage in DA2 because you pick up varric so early (plus force mage specialty is the best).

06) do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time?  I have to make a conscious decision to try and change my choices, otherwise I’ll slip into making the same ones over and over. Although to be honest, I love the story and still enjoy it even if I do make all the same choices. It’s your game, play the story you want to.

07) go-to adventuring group? DAO always Alistair, usually Morrigan, then either Lel/Zev (definitely if I’m non-rogue) or Wynne. DA2 always Anders and usually varric (swapping for Isabella for certain quests), I’ll take Carver in Act one and Aveline in 2-3. I can’t say I’ve played enough Inquisition to have a go-to group.

08) which of your characters did you put the most thought into? My warden, Ysabelle. She is far from DA canon though, her background is more like Daveth than Cousland. She does have a long fic in the process, featuring Aedan Cousland as well (my other properly formed warden oc), and she has taken over basically all my one shots and exists in multiple AUs now.

09) favorite romance? Alistair definitely but followed fairly closely by Anders.

10) have you read any of the comics/books? I’ve got the comics, the world of thedas books and the novels. I’ve read most of the 2 volumes of World of Thedas. It’s a fab reference and has some wonderful bits of history in there. I’ve just started Stolen Throne today and I’m loving it. The comics are a new addition to me, so I’ve had a flick through and they are beautiful but I haven’t read them properly yet.

11) if you read them, which was your favorite book? I don’t think I could chose! They are so different and they all add so much. I am in World of Thedas most often.

12) favorite DLCs? DAO Soldier’s Peak has an important significance for Izzy (plus you get a storage chest that levels things up!), but personally I love Return to Ostagar because I think Ostagar is my favourite location in all the games. I just think how breathtaking it would look with modern graphics. The idea and location were stunning enough back then. So yeah, any excuse to get back to Ostagar (plus fantastic weapons like Maric’s sword and Duncan’s).

13) things that annoy you. How slow combat is in DAO. It can feel like it takes 5 mins to get to a spot where it’ll let you stab someone, and by that point Morrigan has zapped them to death. In DAOA and DA2 being so restricted to when you can speak to your companions devastated me. I loved how much you could chat in DAO.

14) Orlais or Ferelden? Ferelden all the way!!

15) templars or mages? I am definitely a mage girl. No chantry sympathy here. Free the circles!

16) if you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one? Ysabelle and Aedan are in the same universe as wardens together. I haven’t decided on a canon Hawke for that universe yet though, let alone an inquisitor.

17) what did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc) Aedan’s mabari is The Bann. I can’t say I’m too inventive with naming with other names though.

18) have you installed any mods? Ugh I’m not sure I’m emotionally ready to talk about bloody mods. Got dragon age on pc for said purpose just this week and it’s been a nightmare of crashes and inexplicably disappearing npc hair. I’m very close to telling the pc to do one and go back to my vanilla Xbox gaming.

19) did your Warden want to become a Grey Warden? It would have been a dream for Aedan except for the circumstances it came about through. He resented Duncan for a long while. While Izzy would have been hanged for her repeated thievery in Denerim if she hadn’t ended up recruited (but like I say, she isn’t exactly a traditional DA origin).

20) hawke’s personality? Purple with the occasional blue flutter. My Hawkes are just plain sarcastic.

21) did you make matching armor for your companions in Inquisition?  Nope

22) if your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change? Aedan would have stopped Fergus and the men marching to Ostagar so Highever was properly protected. Izzy would have come clean about her family’s past warden association and avoided disruptive drama to the group. Selene Hawke might well have thrown herself in front of the ogre near Lothering in the hope of saving her family from suffering the loss of one of the twins. An event she sees as the beginning of the end of her family.

23) do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon? Ysabelle is 100% against canon! Outside of the long fic, Aedan’s OTP is actually with @magpiesandmabari ‘s warden Yana Surana. They are a very entertaining couple.

24) are any of your character(s) based on someone? I suppose everybody’s ocs must have a bit of themselves in there. But I can’t say I’ve purposefully set out to create any character in someone’s image.

25) who did you leave in the Fade?  I will never leave Alistair Theirin in the fade. Anyone else is potentially fair game.

26) favorite mount? I don’t have one

Tagging: @magpiesandmabari @laurelsofhighever @weirdnproudofit @allisondraste and anyone who wants to. Just tag me, I’d love to see it!

#tag game #dragon age

[darlingrutherford]

C and G for OC ask! :D

Aaaah, thank you so much for the ask!!

C: Comfort

1. how do they sit in a chair? 

Sarya Lavellan - She’s a bit more relaxed when sitting. Josephine has had to clear her throat loudly on occasion because she’ll turn her head and see Sarya sitting cross-legged in her chair (Josephine does her best to try to get Sarya acting a bit more “proper” for sake of impressing noble allies, to little avail). She’s more likely to slouch when sitting for long periods of time, especially once she starts daydreaming (which happens often). 

Lana Surana - Very straight-backed. She doesn’t cross her ankles beneath the chair or anything super proper like that, but she was definitely barked at to sit up straight enough times as a kid to have it drilled into her. Sometimes, if she feels herself beginning to slouch, she can hear her mother’s voice in her head as a warning and immediately rights herself. 

2. in what position do they sleep?

Sarya Lavellan - Sarya’s all over the place. When sleeping by herself she usually starts out on her side, and will wake up sometimes halfway off her bedroll hugging her pillow. When sleeping with Cullen, she usually starts out curled in towards him or him in towards her with his face buried just below her neck. Cullen quickly learns to hold onto her tightly, lest he wants to wake up with her ass in his face (not that he’d mind). 

Lana Surana - When alone, very curled up, making herself small. She often starts out with a blanket over her head to fall asleep, and then straightens out in her sleep and ends up on her back much like how she constantly straightens herself while sitting. This doesn’t change much when she’s with Alistair, starting out curled out with her back to Alistair, though she’s happy to trade in the blanket over her head for his arms which he keeps tight around her to keep her safe. She still ends up straightened out at some point in the night, which Alistair takes advantage of and ends up sprawled across her with his face in her chest (his “favorite pillow” as he likes to put it). 

3. what is their ideal comfort day?

Sarya Lavellan - A day with her friends and loved ones where nothing goes wrong and everyone is happy. No Anchor flaring in her hand, no demons, no Great Game to play, just laughter and maybe good cakes to share. 

Lana Surana - Spending time somewhere quiet, away from civilization, just Alistair and herself. Comfort is something that’s difficult for her to find after everything she’s been through and the impact it’s had on her views of herself, but she’s always found comfort in solitude, and Alistair has a way of making her relax that’s uncanny to her. 

4. what is their major comfort food? why?

Sarya Lavellan - Tea; she was trained as an herbalist on top of being a mage, so she’s able to make a tea and enchant it to suit her needs. Cakes are always a comfort as well, although not always as readily available as tea. She loves cakes because they had very little access to sweets like that in a roaming Dalish clan that stayed away from human settlements for the most part, so it’s become a bit of a delicacy for her.

Lana Surana - Fruit, especially berries. Her father used to give her berries as a treat, and she’s reminded of him whenever she eats them. The memories are bittersweet, but she’d rather remember than not at all.

5. who is the best at comforting them when down?

Sarya Lavellan - Dorian. Don’t get me wrong, Cullen is great at soothing her and making her happy, but Dorian is her best friend and always has the best gossip to take her mind off of things. He’s also a fierce friend and is ready to throw the sass right back at any Orlesian mistaking Sarya for a servant (or, on occasion, try to convince them that she’s his servant and they can go toss themselves if they think they can just go and steal his elf. Always good when he wants to make people stare). 

Lana Surana - Alistair. He goes the extra mile to cheer her up when she’s down, and lucky for him she loves his sense of humor so it’s not difficult for him. He’s also very intuitive when it comes to her hiding her feelings, so he can catch her before she goes too far down into a dark hole. 

G: Gorgeous

1. what is their most attractive external feature?

(These were actually really hard for me to come up with from my perspective, which is immensely funny to me for some reason. So, I’m writing these from the perspective of their romance)

Sarya Lavellan - (From Cullen’s perspective): Maker’s breath, I have to choose just one? Then, I suppose… her mouth, specifically the way it curves when she smiles. The trio of freckles on the back of her left shoulder, the ones just below her neckline. Come now, you can’t possibly expect me to pick just one.

Lana Surana - (From Alistair’s perspective): What, her most attractive external feature? Liiike, her adorable little nose? But then, what about her gorgeous blue eyes? Oooor… her, ah, breasts, because… well, those are… ahem… very nice as well, you’ve… probably noticed. I mean, I have… Who wouldn’t? 

2. what is the most attractive part of their personality?

Sarya Lavellan - Probably her want to help others. She’s very genuine and wears her heart on her sleeve. She’s usually the first person to jump to their feet when someone is expressing any need, and will stay dutifully at a friend’s side when they’re ill or sad or just in general need someone. She chose Mythal’s markings for her vallaslin for a reason.

Lana Surana - Her fierce loyalty. Lana tries not to get too close to people, but she will defend them with all she has. She believes it’s her duty to protect people, and will especially go out of her way to protect those who have ever so much as smiled in her direction out of fear of them being hurt because of her. 

3. what benefits come with being their friend?

Sarya Lavellan - A friend of Sarya’s is always cared for. If she finds them to be dissatisfied, she will try to find a way to lift their spirits. If they are ill, she’ll nurse them back to health. Plus, being a close friend of the Inquisitor has its own perks for sure. 

Lana Surana - Someone who always has your back, who is quiet but loud when it comes to defending you. She’s easily amused, so your jokes are sure to get a laugh no matter how dorky. 

4. what parts of them do they like and dislike?

Sarya Lavellan - Sarya is proud of being a mage, of having abilities that allow her to help others in ways that not everyone can (this also extends to her herbalist abilities). She wishes she could be more outspoken and stand up for herself better around people she doesn’t know, and also wishes that she dealt with chaos better (and her life has been nothing but chaos since the Conclave).

Lana Surana - This one was difficult to answer for Lana because there’s a lot of self loathing because of her past. If she could pick something to like about herself, it would probably be her appreciation of solitude. She can go a long time without speaking to someone and feel at peace. She very much dislikes being a mage, and is convinced that if she had not come into magic then nothing would have happened the way it did. She sees being a mage as somewhat of a curse, and being a Grey Warden as her penance for everything bad that her magic has brought upon those she knew. 

5. what parts of others do they envy?

Sarya Lavellan - Sarya envies Vivienne’s confidence, Cullen’s willpower, and Josephine’s ability to make heads or tails of the Great Game.

Lana Surana - Other than not being a mage, Lana envies Alistair’s lighthearted nature in spite of everything that’s happened to him, Morrigan’s pride in being a mage, and Leliana’s knack for seeing every detail even in tricky situations. 

#schoute #oc meme #dragon age #sarya lavellan #lana surana #my ocs #fanfiction #dragon age inquisition #dragon age origins #writing reference

[maripr]

So. Your favourite Dragon Age character(s) and ships! And why you like them (if you want). :D

Thank you! /o/This may be long… or not. Depending on my language skills at the moment (it’s 1AM here tho I don’t really wanna go to bed)Let me preface this by saying: I love everyone. There’s probably no companion I truly dislike, even if I have some problems with a few of them (like Alistair. Sorry, Alistair)Anyway, in no particular order:The entire cast of Dragon Age 2. I’m serious. This game grew immensely on me and, though I may still not call it my favorite of the saga (I would say Origins is), it certainly has my favorite story and characters. I don’t know wheter to include Hawke or not, cause they can be characterized however the player wants, but as an archetipe? I fucking love Hawke. Because they embody the tragic Hero of ancient Greece. They’re destined to fail, no matter what they do, because Fate it’s a force not even Gods can’t oppose.Ahem, sorry, my inner classicist geek is getting over me. But, all in all, DA2 has the plot of a greek tragedy.Anyway, back on characters, I would say I love Fenris the most, not only out of DA2 but out of the whole franchise. Something about his story resonated deeply with me and I love his possible recovery, it’s a powerful tale of a man, who was broken in all the ways possible, finding a new place in life and also people to connect with (my personal fav character development for him is him fighting alongside Hawke to defend mages, but I’m biased because the mage ending is my favorite).I repeat I really love everyone in this game, but I should also name Merrill and Anders. Merrill because I find her to be extremely strong despite what everyone (even the fandom, sometimes, thinks of her) and honestly, the fact that she keeps wanting the best for the people who actively antagonize her (Fenris, Anders, I’m looking at you guys) is the kind of ideal I aspire to, in terms of spirituality but also practical life (because grudges only make me feel like shit, lol).And, after some details about blood magic (which I’m an apologist of, because that thing saved my party numerous times in DAO, lmao) and Eluvians in Inquisition, I love the irony that… well, it’s actually debatable on who you ask, but I really think Merrill was right about everything, lol.So I wanna see her back in DA4, so she can see that Eluvians actually work and maybe flip off everyone who ever thought of her like an irresponsible child (she would never flip someone off, because she’s too much of a cutie for that).Now, Anders. Effing Anders. I actually despides him in Awakening, thinking he was only a watered down clone of Alistair, and I was neutral on him in DA2. But then he made the Chantry explode. An action I actually condemn.But that action and his whole reasoning behind it made me fall in love with him because… damn, what a fucking masterpiece of tragic (and he too may be considered tragic as Greek tragedy Tragic now that I think of it) character he is.I’m not keen on the “Anders did nothing wrong” interpretation a big part of the fandom has of him, and I even reblogs some critical meta on him from time to time. But I truly find him grandiose as a character, in a “God, what a beautiful failure of a human being he is” kind on way (no offense to his fans).I just wish his rival romance was better written, orz.Moving on the other games.From Origins, I love Zevran the most. Second fav in the saga. What resonated with him is similar to what made me fall for Fenris, I guess I’m big on Former Slave Discovers Freedom (you’ll also see this with my third fave).Zevran also has this thing of hiding his feelings under a smiley façade that... uugh i really love.From Origins, I also Love Leliana, but I actually think I love her more in Inquisition, because I adore her as the scarred spymaster.Loghain is also a big fav of mine. Guess I love assholes who really believe, in their own fucked up way, they’re doing the right thing (for the record, I dont’ condemn him on his decision of leaving the battle at Ostagar. I am, however, really not ok with him selling elves as slaves).And then there’s Sten, the original husbando. I was so disappotinted when I learned I could not romance him, lmao.From Inquisition, the two that get me the most are Iron Bull and Solas.Iron Bull, I would say, is the third out of my absolute favorites, but Solas at this point may come right after him.Iron Bull was actually the first thing I knew about Dragon Age, so I’ve always been fond of him, lol. Then playing and romancing him made me fall hard. You know, Former Slave, and also a big softie and very inteligent and with hidden depths. I’m so interested in his background as a spy. You usually imagine spies as being small people that don’t realy look interestin, and here’s a giant, bombastic man with a huge pair of horns and an eyepatch. I love it.Solas. Here’s another Tragic character, and another asshole who actually thinks he’s doing the right thing. Bonus points for fixing a huge mistake by making an even bigger mistake. You go, Solas.And also, I’m in love with the fact he’s basically Loki. Love the trickster archetype. Super interesting.Now, this actually got super long. And tumblr is being an idiot and won’t let me do a read more. Apologies to you guys’ dashes. I’ll try to be brief with the ships.So, before Dragon Age, I wasn’t big on OC/Canon characters ships, but DA being a fantasy dating sim, they are a big part of what I ship now. For each OC/Canon Character, I have headcanons that may not fit with the vision some other fan has of that particulas ship, and that’s super interesting to me, I love reading different interpretations. But my headcanons are for another post. Maybe.Anyway, my favorite ships with OCs areZevran/Warden, Leliana/Warden, Loghain/Warden (unromanceable characters never bothered me anyway), Anders/rival!Hawke (I actually found the actual rivalmance a bit underwhelming in terms of writing, so my headcanons about are different), Fenris/friend!Hawke (bonus if Hawke’s a mage, because, again, I’m biased), Merrill/Hawke, Isabela/Hawke, Sebastian/Male!Hawke (also completely based on headcanons), Iron Bull/Inquisitor (bonus if Adaar but also Cadash), Solas/Lavellan (because I’m cliché) and Dorian/Inquisitor.

For NPC/NPC ships my favorite at the moment is Merrill/Fenris and I’m so alone in this, lmao. Everyone out there shipping fenders, which I can’t see at all (no offense) and here I am in my small boat, thinking that Fenris and Merrill are actually somewhat similar and if the huge, HUGE, wall of bloodmagic being the highest on Fenris’ list of triggers for very obious and very reasonable reasons, somehow becomes less evident, Merrill is the one mage outside of mage!Hawke who Fenris could actually trust (y’know, Merrill never once called him a beast - like Anders did). I want to write all the tings but nobody to tell *sob*.Also, Fenris/Isabela. Also, Merrill/Isabela. Also Fenris/Isabela/Merrill. Also, the three of them are my actual “canon” polyship with my main Hawke.Sebastian/Anders I like because of the twisted, and badwrong potential. So is Meredith/Orsino.Cassandra/Varric is another favorite, because I adore how their relationship develops and they would be absolutely the cutest.Then there’s Morrigan/Alistais as sitcom enemies.And last but not least, Krem/Cole. With potential OT3 with Maryden. Phew, I think it’s all of them. Thanks again for asking.

#einemelodieimwind #ask #long post #really fucking long post #ramblings