#origpost

[greet-the-bloodless-dawn]

shadowheart talks a lot of shit but in her first romance scene, she is so shy about wanting to get kissed that the pc has to make a passive insight check. and she disapproves by 5 if they don't get it. she's so funny i adore her

[kirbymybeloved]

I can't believe my dislike for romantic gestures was just aromanticism the whole time

[rackartyg]

snippet someday

tagged by @atsadi-shenanigans and DAMN idk if i can match that but let's give it a try

“Better?” you intoned in a low voice. “Oh, excellent.” He shifted his hips, a minuscule bit of friction, staring up at you so soft and open and pleased. “Full to bursting with blood, reclining in a hoard of pillows, a handsome person in my lap with my cock warm and snug inside them? It’s almost as if we’re somewhere civilised.” You began to slowly rock your hips. Within a couple of repetitions, he caught and joined the rhythm, his knees pulling up behind you. “Your standards are in the gutter,” you told him affectionately, rubbing your nose against his. Before you could withdraw, he stole a kiss. “You, of all—ah—all people do not get to tell me that.” Both of your breathing was growing rougher, so loud in the dark, breath-warm little space between you. His eyelids were fluttery; a darling furrow had appeared between his brows, a sweetly pained twist to his mouth. He felt good. You were making him feel good. “Hmm,” you mused. “I ought to pamper you properly sometime, then. So we can both see what it is like.” A light sparked in Astarion’s eyes. Hands sliding up your sides, he purred, “You do.” Your heart was going to burst into your mouth and onto your tongue. You were going to spit it up onto him like a cat with a hairball, or a dead mouse. You pressed your forehead to his, increasing the pace of your hips. If only you could merge with him! Crack open your chest and bid him curl up within your wet heat, close your ribs around him like armour. You wanted to wrap yourself around him until both of you forgot there was anything else to the world. You had to settle for this: your blood on the inside, your body on the outside; your cunt around his cock, your arms around his neck, your legs around his hips. Double layers of you to keep him safe and shielded, warm and nurtured. He kissed you, you kissed him. Lips and tongue and teeth on the mouth, cheeks, ears—neck, collarbones, chest. Both of you were warm and flushed with your blood, damp with your sweat. You leaned your faces together and passed the same air back and forth in gasps and moans and filthy nothings. One of his hands dropped to your arse, kneading and caressing, ushering your movements. The other wandered up into your shaggy hair. Your hips rolled over his and his rolled under yours, an undulating, infinite wave. You were so full. On each stroke, your clit ground into the warm skin and soft fat of his pubic mound, warm little licks of pleasure. This wasn't going to make you come, but gods, you wanted to stay here forever.

tagging @gorgongorgeous & @spectrumcore & @gostak for fandoms/pairings of ur choices mwah

[the-air-itself-rent-asunder]

i don't think all of fen'harel's poor reputation is propaganda. consider how opaquely he structured his faction: "you have already divided your group's membership. that is wise. no one cell can betray all your secrets." he tells an inquisitor who accuses him of having given up, "you do not win a war by fighting to the death in every battle. pick the fights you can win, remember your goals, and do nothing that does not further them."

"fen'harel is said to have never been particularly fond of the elven people, only interacting with them for sport and imparting dark wisdom as the whim took him."

even sans propaganda, i'll bet that's exactly how a desperately outmatched, secretive, burnt-out, big picture revolutionary, said to be a god, comes across to the common man.

[ottosuwuen]

[warpolomewdarkmatter]

i have done a soul crushingly miniscule amount of arts in the last few months but i did sketch a couple of warp heads that i liked quite a lot

[lexicalizer]

Formerly @combat-epistemologist; my account was deactivated for no reason apparent to me after more years on here than I’d care to admit. Feel free to follow for literally any reason but particularly if we were previously mutuals. I will also be remaking my gardening shitposting sideblog, @meta-sequoia, as @object-level-sequoia.

Hopefully this is temporary and I can get my former account back, particularly since I assume @staff would like to continue to accept my money, in the format of my presumably-also-discontinued Tumblr Premium. (Pretty funny, actually. In Soviet Russia, subscription cancels you!)

[the-air-itself-rent-asunder]

here is another depiction of solas' ritual (joplin version), from a couple pages before the previous one. in this one, we've got the blight cube at the centre rather than an artefact, an eluvian at the back, and solas stabbing one of the evanuris rather than the floor.

another notable place the artefacts appear in the joplin section is as batteries collecting energy from people dying in battle for solas to use as fuel for his ritual.

honestly, my immediate interpretation was that the joplin ritual took place in the black city. the only thing i can justify it with is that it just seems more practical than dragging around all seven (unconscious?) bodies plus the blight cube, finding a room perfectly constructed for this exact situation with seven raised beds around a central platform, and surely if the location is important to the ritual then the alternatives are skyhold or the black city.

there's art of ghilan'nain unlocking an eluvian called 'the black eluvian' which, and this is a lot of interpretation, but surely the black eluvian leads to the black city, and why would ghilan'nain want to go back there? well, for the blight cube, right?

looking at the pics in this post extra closely and um.... guys

this is joplin's version solas's ritual. first i thought oh how fun! the artifacts from inquisition were going to be relevant, heres a big one! and then i went. wait.

those headpieces look... familiar....

and then i counted the bodies around the table.

its 7, of course.

as he looks on in horror as the ritual goes wrong and it looks like... the blight interferes in some way? or just their spirits get released because rook interrupts?

so while ghilly and elgar'nan were always going to get released by solas's ritual, this literally shows solas using the evanuris bodies for the ritual. you can even see how the first is the most decayed and completely skeletal, while the 6th and 7th, edgar and ghilly, still have flesh.

so there was originally going to be some sort of explanation of what happened to the evanuris's bodies, and solas i guess was dragging them around to do blood magic on them. amazing. this is so much better than falling statues.

[greet-the-bloodless-dawn]

@y-rhywbeth2 in your personal (head)canon, how do you see shadowheart's cleric levels situation going after sparing the nightsong? or any other inflection point in her story (reuniting with/euthanising her parents; in the epilogue, solo adventuring shadowheart mentions having visisted the house of the moon)

[kirbymybeloved]

LOVE LOSES💔🙌💚🤍🩶🖤🙌💔

[rackartyg]

“Flowers? For the Dread Wolf?” Dorian said. “I’d imagine he'd demand blood. A good marrow bone, perhaps?”

Sulahnmi scoffed, but was gentle as she laid the flowers between the front paws of the statue. “According to shemlen tales, the Dalish make a human sacrifice to wake up in the morning and two to go to sleep at night.”

She got to her feet, took a step back, and bowed. Her voice turned wistful. “My clan also makes offerings of jerky, but I don’t have any to hand. We say the tough meat and fragrant spices keep his mouth busy and nose full, so he won’t come after us. But….

The same kind of spiced jerky is brought along by the hunters on long trips away from camp. They often leave some for the Dread Wolf’s statue as the last thing they do before they set off. Is that simply convenience, since we put up his statue at the very edge of camp, or is there something more to it? Sometimes I wonder. We place him there to not have him among us, but also because he keeps away evil spirits, we say.”

She looked up at the underside of Fen'Harel's stone muzzle, staring out over the valley. In tapestries, newer pieces, he was mangy and skinny, cackling or snarling, so twisted he hardly resembled a wolf at all—in stone, older pieces, he was fluffy and well-conditioned, like a hound that curled up each night in his master's lap to be brushed and plied with treats.

“The Emerald Knights fought alongside a wolf companion,” she mused. An impulse to lay a hand on Fen'Harel's shoulder flitted past, but she didn't dare. “And have you noticed how his statues here often flank doorways and such? Like a guardian, almost.”

Still looking up at him, tracing the soft curve of his cheek that someone once had shaped with such care, she said, “Wolves don’t want to be alone. Their packs are their families. In nature, a lone wolf is only on his own because he’s searching for a mate, a new family. Either he finds one, or he succumbs.”

The expression on the statue's face—the long stare out into nothing, over the ruins the shemlen had made of Dirthavaren—struck her as sad, suddenly. She stepped forward and ran a hand down the side of his neck. The stone had been sanded smooth, once, but was rough from lichen, wind, and rain now. Pulse quickening, she pressed her palm flat against his chest, imagining the beat of a mighty heart there.

She took a breath and shook her head, turning away from the statue. She didn't look either of her hangers-on in the face, though. “Ir abelas. The last time I was in the Dales, it was with my clan, as a young child. I only saw the wonder. As an adult, it’s… making me melancholy.”

“A forgivable offence,” Solas offered quietly.

She glanced at him; he had both hands wrapped around his staff, leaning on it a little, and a carefully blank expression on his face. But he refused to be grateful for his lack of argumentation—she had not made him witness this. She picked up her staff from the ground and began to walk back to camp.

“You realise the flowers will simply wilt, and jerky be carried off by actual wolves?” Dorian said dryly, following after.

As she picked her way down the hill, she considered telling him that most sacrifices were like feasts: prayers would be spoken over the cooking by the Keeper, the meal dedicated to the gods, but eaten by the clan. The Creators were locked away, after all—the point was the sentiment. The Dread Wolf was free to come collect his offerings for himself if he wanted, but if his sacred animals got to it first, what was the difference?

But she didn't have it in her to defend herself right now. All she'd wanted was to take one measly little moment to herself, one measly little ritual, without unsympathetic voyeurs. It was too much to ask for, it seemed.

“What a poor god yours is,” she said, “and how miserly his worshippers, to give him only words.”

“We do build some excellent cathedrals for him,” Dorian said wistfully. “You should see the Argent Spire in Minrathous. More gilt than the Golden City in its prime, I'd bet.”

“How ironic, for a building called the Argent Spire,” Solas opined mildly.

“The outside is silver. The heart of it is gold, which, yes, you're absolutely right, over the centuries has been used in far too much, intolerably sycophantic poetry about the Divine.”

“Most of that silver,” Solas said, still mild, “was originally stripped from elven temples after the conquest of Arlathan.”

“Oh,” said Dorian.

Sulahnmi sighed.

[the-air-itself-rent-asunder]

people need to stop being wrong about cole's personal quest! he doesn't want to "become a person"!

cole, in general, wants to help. right in that moment, he wants to kill the templar. that's it. he doesn't have a preference for spirit/human, before or after the choice is made. he crossed the veil because the distress of real!cole was so incredibly moving to him that he did something impossible for a chance to help.

varric is wrong and his attitude is troubling! if you side with solas, varric says, sadly, "[cole] could've been a person." he does not regard spirits as equal in importance to mortals. to him, they are a lesser form of life, if he considers them to be alive at all. generally, theodosians don't! dorian calls them "amorphous constructs of the fade" and that's a rather rosy view compared to that of southern andrastianism, which greatly colours varric's worldview.

now, to a degree, solas has the opposite stance. but the degree to which solas strips modern mortals of moral significance is a great deal lesser than the degree to which varric strips spirits of theirs. solas talks to mortals and empathises with them and wants to help them, even in a low approval world state. he gives approval for even "silly" things, like bringing flowers to a grave dedicated to a god he hates--the only benefit here, as far as solas is concerned, is that it eases the emotional distress of the man who asks you to do it.

what's varric opinion of helping out the spirit of command in crestwood? nothing. he doesn't approve or disapprove. he doesn't care.

like, don't get me wrong. and solas is also biased, and i believe his attitude toward cole is greatly informed by how traumatic his own transition from spirit to body was! both quest outcomes are fine.

but varric is talking out of his ass. stop basing analysis on his ass-words!

[ottosuwuen]

[warpolomewdarkmatter]

one time high off watching blosc i sat down to imagine New Jokes for it bc i have a beautiful dream of an alt world where lightyear (2022)'s budget was given to Me 💅 and i could remake tab but longer and in hd. and this is one of my favourite jokes from there.

[greet-the-bloodless-dawn]

you have gotten other good answers already but i have Dark Urge Autism and can't resist an opportunity to vomit my dissertation at you.

important to note is that most information about any of the four chosen is hard to find and often contradictory, so it requires liberal waterproofing with headcanon. ITS NO WONDER YOURE CONFUSED. this information is scattered across texts you can find all over act 3 and you have to cross reference and scrutinise them to extract some kind of timeline.

Gortash reaches out to the Dark Urge. He invites them to join him in stealing from the Hall of Wonders, which they do in order to (a) steal some Bhaalist items Gortash informs them are kept there, (b) evaluate his combat abilities.[^1]

what did gort get out of the heist, other than friendship? well the design for the steel watch is based on a hall of wonders project called 'auto-guard.'[^2] (the hall of wonders is a museum attached to the temple of gond in baldur's gate, the high house of wonders (not to be confused with the high hall, which is the parliament building)). a logical extrapolation is that this heist is where gort gets his hands on that design.

The Dark Urge and Gortash are named Chosen of their respective gods and commanded to ally with Ketheric.[^3]

this is contradicted by durge's journal entry from pre-hall of honders heist, where they already call gort bane's chosen.[^1] did enver lie to sound more impressive? is this another case of lack of cohesion behind the scenes at larian? idk you decide

Gortash and the Dark Urge plot to steal the Crown of Karsus, but have no one in particular in mind to wear it, only planning to "rule from the shadows."[^4]

Gortash and the Dark Urge make use of Helsik's services to enter the House of Hope, with the ultimate aim of having her get them into Mephistar. At the time, the Dark Urge is a known Bhaalist leader to the Guild.[^5]

The Helldusk Boots are found in Gortash's office in Wyrm's Rock, whereas all of the other pieces of the set are in the House of Hope: Gortash stole Raphael's shoes and hid them in a locked chest under his bed.[^6] This is not important to the timeline it's just funny to me. I wonder if he did it when he originally ran away or when he visited with the Dark Urge.

While visiting Moonrise Towers, Gortash learns of the illithid colony underneath and makes a plan to control the Elder Brain with the Crown of Karsus.[^3] The idea was to use the illithids as a conquering force, subservient to him, and weaponise mass ceremorphosis.[^7]

The Dark Urge and Gortash steal the Crown from Mephistar.[^3] In the same vault, Gortash finds an account of the Accelerated Grand Design and gets the idea for the Absolute hoax.[^8]

Sometime prior to 3 Nightal 1491, the alliance assaults the illithid colony and crowns the Elder Brain; while still down in the colony, Orin stabs and tadpoles the Dark Urge, leaving them where they fell.[^3][^9]

i have not looked into the timeline past this for anyone other than gortash however this post is already Very Long and it gets even vaguer and more speculative from here

Footnotes

[^1]: Test Mission with Gortash [^2]: Gondian Automaton Conversion [^3]: Memoir Notes with Recent Addenda [^4]: Scrapbook of Letters [^6]: Helldusk Boots [^7]: The Grand Design [^8]: To Take Control [^9]: Experiment on Cruor

Does anyone have, or would be willing to give me, a complete time-frame of the Absolution Conspiracy? Like, going from Gortash coming up with the idea. Meeting Durge...etc.

Like, did Gortash come up with the plan and THEN seek out one of the dead three's chosen? Did he seek out the chosen of Bhaal and then THEY came up with the plan? When did they rob Mephistopheles vault? When did they meet Ketheric, how? Why does Durge act like Moonrise was theirs? I know Durge was the first to be tadpoled, but was this WAY before they tadpoled others? Or did they get straight on it?

Maybe this is all fucking explained in game but...I'm confused on some details :/

[doctortwhohiddles]

Let the butthurt begin.

First we have Suejeffries telling the whole world her marriage sucks.

What kind of couple holds hand during a sporting event? A close-knit, loving couple. Ben and Sophie holding hands is proof that their relationship is fake, but when they aren't holding hands, it also proves it's fake. In short, no matter what they do, the sQeptics will complain. And look like fucking morons while they're at it.

Then there's Patty.

The origpost is nearly 6 years old. Never mind the obvious horrible photoshop attempt at erasing his wedding ring.

It's been over 10 years now since Benedict and Sophie announced their engagement. And the sQeptics still act like Gollum whenever they see Ben wearing his ring.