aleyothorncrow

[aleyothorncrow]

i like to imagine she always has a dagger strapped to her thigh. and not necessarily for self defense

[aleyothorncrow]

It says a lot about Cullen that he argues with people a lot more in inquisition than he does any of the other games and it signifies a lot of his growth. In all the other games, passivity is one of his big flaws. You can argue its anger, and you'd be right, too, but his passivity to what happens to the mages and his reluctance to argue when he knows its wrong is a defining trait in DA2 (and to a lesser extent in DAO, when his argument for annulling the circle is mostly ignored unless the player character intervenes & agrees).

In Inquisition, the fact that he's arguing with people is a huge step for his character development, even if we may not agree with what he says or why he says it. Because he doesn't have this conversation quietly, he speaks up to the other advisors, to the Inquisitor themselves, and that's good. Questioning someone in authority is kinda important. Forcing them to justify their decisions is important, too. You may say these are things people should be doign anyway, but... :shrug: I'm talking about Cullen and his lack of arguing with Meredith and the growth it shows that he knows to do so now.

[aleyothorncrow]

my warden amell thought the circle was a totally flawless and good institution til her journey (ie her new friend morrigan) taught her otherwise

(commission info // tip jar!)

[aleyothorncrow]

The Inquisitor's Quarters

[aleyothorncrow]

God fucking christ anora and loghain's relationship makes me nauseous (positive). She is his only child. He would give her the world if she asked, but she won't, because she's perfectly capable of getting it herself. He knows that. He wants to protect her from the burden of making bad decisions as a ruler by making them in her stead himself. "She sounds like a terror" -> "it's the peculiar joy of parents to be terrorized by their children". They know each other better than anyone else alive. The only time her mask of composure shatters is when she sees her father about to be executed. He's fully ready to die as a warden because he trusts her ability to "turn [his death] to her political advantage". She wants nothing more than for him to live. Once he realizes ferelden can be saved without him he fully thinks her life would be better off without him and his mistakes looming over her. She rejects all her future suitors because "all of them fall far short of the bar she measures them against: that of her father". He knows she loves him despite the mistakes he's committed and would forgive him no matter what. He wishes she wouldn't.

[aleyothorncrow]

“What were you like before the Anchor? Has it affected you? Changed you in any way? Your mind, your morals, your… spirit?”

[aleyothorncrow]

"I am dying of something worse than death... Betrayal."

Hespith's tragedy still haunts me to this day.

[aleyothorncrow]

The Witch’s Son

I like to think that Kieran grows into a wily Witch of the Wilds as Morrigan’s son and protege. Just with the Warden’s penchant for finding trouble, much to her disapproval. 

detail shot

[aleyothorncrow]

Re-playing DA:I…

:/

[aleyothorncrow]

Art teaser? Sure, why not, Ive been working on this for several hours now. Just a further completed version of a very rough sketch I shared a few weeks ago. Not tagging as WIP Wednesday since I don't count it as the next day until I sleep. XD

Gonna tag a few folks in case they care to see. @hyperions-light @biowaredisasterbisexual @thedissonantverses @athreehundredthirtythree

[aleyothorncrow]

"I miss you, my commander.. my friend.. my love.."

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Vivienne

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Tarasyl'an te'las

I thought of earth’s magnetic field and the aurora in comparison to the Veil so i imagined how creating it from skyhold could have looked like

[aleyothorncrow]

One of my pieces for the @daflowerzine.

ON BLIGHTED TONGUE; or, the last words of a dying Red Templar Behemoth. In-Game Plant: Felicidus Aria

Transcription under the cut. Wonderful spot art from the zine done by @prosodi.

-

When I was a girl my mother grew a garden out back behind the house. Pumpkins in autumn. Melons in summer. She used to warn me not to eat the seeds of melons and to pick all the kernels of corn out between my teeth or else they’d take root there, and one morning I’d wake up with a stem growing right out my mouth, right between my lips.

The garden was so we would have something to eat in the lean months when she couldn’t find work. But the year the Blight came to our village she knew there was no point anymore; so she planted flowers. Embrium, dragonthorn, even crystal grace, which took months to coax into bloom. I remember that she cried the first time she saw those delicate blue cups open. Much later, as the Knight-Commander handed me my daily ration of lyrium, the blue glow would remind me of my mother’s crystal grace.

When the red lyrium first touches your tongue you lose all real hunger. The red is all you care about, the burn down your throat, the heat of it on your breath. Your body starves itself to feed the lyrium cracking through your skin.

We were marching past Lothering, a wasteland after the Blight. The scent of aria was so strong I could smell it through the red. It was so familiar, and yet I could not place it until I remembered how I mixed my mother’s ashes into the soil of her garden, the place she loved best. The village was so Blighted we almost starved that year, which was when I went to the Chantry and made my vows as a Templar. 

A flower bloomed in that garden the night I left for the Order. The sweet felicidus aria, the rose of the desolate Ander steppe, the only plant in this world that grows on blighted land. A hardy and unlovely flower, but a flower nonetheless. My mother’s last gasp in this realm, struggling its way into this world just to say, I was here. I was alive. I will be remembered.

I can’t use my hands anymore, not for something as fine as picking flowers. So when I recognized it, you tucked it under my lip, against my gums. So I could taste sweet ambrosia.

Felicidus aria feeds on grief like the red lyrium feeds on me. I am more red than woman, now. Maybe this is why it took root under my tongue, down my throat, like a melon seed. Thought the lyrium would kill me, or the bright hand of the Inquisitor. Instead I’m here choking on stem and leaf and bulb. 

No, no. Leave it, Maddox. Let it bloom. 

– Last words of a Red Templar behemoth, as recorded by a Tranquil

[aleyothorncrow]

wynne and vivienne's philosophies are really fun to dissect like that in that they're just so dramatically different to what we usually see in pro-circle rhetoric among mages in the games. like most of the time mages who defend the circles are either outright ignorant to it because they were among the lucky ones that didnt end up in the Really bad circles, or they've been so thoroughly indoctrinated by chantry dogma that they genuinely believe their magic is a curse and that it's too dangerous to let them out into the world.

but vivienne and wynne are both mages who are not only aware of the abuses, but they actually pride in their magic, yet they still believe in the necessity of the circles anyway. it's just their specific ideologies are like on two different sides of the same coin, with the latter (from one of the nicer circles) arguing that peaceful compromise and a civil demonstration of obedience is what earns them respect, whereas the former (whose circle suffered from a massive class division AND has been vaguely alluded to being targeted by a rite of annulment) believes that life in the circle is a test of survival and power can, should and MUST be seized by force, you just can't be too direct about it—and if you fail or don't play the game well, well. that's just how it goes.

i didnt have a point to this i just fucking love looking at the character politics in this universe idk.

[aleyothorncrow]

the thing that gets me about vivienne's rigidness when it comes to the mage rebellion is that this is the only thing she isn't fluid on when it comes to her allegiances. gaspard or celene as ruler? she's made steps to secure her position either way, no matter the outcome. bastien is dying and his death risks her standing in court becoming more vulnerable than it already was? she uses her connection to the inquisitor to try and save his life, ensuring that both she and the inquisitor are regarded well by bastien's remaining family— his son, who is the new duke and took his father's place as head of the council of heralds, and his younger sister, who is one of the only surviving grand clerics and was a candidate considered for the divine. celene starting to show what vivienne perceives to be favoritism towards morrigan? vivienne gets ahead of the idea that she will be replaced and is already putting barriers up as prematurely. the chantry going to absolute shit after the conclave is destroyed and the remaining circle mages now being even more at risk than before? she turns to the inquisition to form an alliance and to ensure that, whatever comes next, she WILL have a part in it.

and it's just,,, idk. i think there is potential there for there to be Some sort of change depending on where the inquisitor aligns themself and what moves the inquisition is making regarding the mages. whether the inquisitor is pro-templar, pro-mage, or takes a more neutral stance, i think it's interesting to play around with at least.

[aleyothorncrow]

harker hello I'm wondering if you have thoughts about the circle fraternities if you haven't already shared and I've missed it (replaying origins as a circle mage and its soo interesting what ive read so far)

hi!!! love the fraternities. would love if there was content for them.

um uhhh some thoughts. i’m really fascinated by the concept of the lucrosians, who are a fraternity who think the circle should focus on making money.

so there’s this paradox of the circle where from the perspective of your average thedas peasant, these are superficially quite privileged people: they’re highly educated and dress expensively, they have beds and baths and books, they don’t work for their food and they travel in carriages. but that wealth stems directly from their oppression, as only the tranquil are capable of producing, and permitted to sell, the enchanted items on which the circle funds itself. the chantry does not provide the circle its funds, it merely genially permits the circle mage leadership to manage the money earned directly from the violence it does to their people. the circle having this money also does the chantry the further services of a) creating presentable & attractive circle mages to provide for the entertainment and assistance of royalty, b) keeping the mages fairly compliant by affording them petty comforts, which will both decrease the appeal of apostate life and appease any powerful family members, and c) further alienating mages from the public by having them appear a wealthy and distant other with no right to complain. all while actually costing the chantry nothing. in fact it seems unlikely that the chantry doesn’t receive a tithe from the profits

so, what does it mean to be a lucrosian in that context? world of thedas vol 2 has a retired templar knight-commander describe that “many mages—particularly lucrosians—are from good families, used to entertainments and the finer things in life...”* when quelling a younger templar’s complaints about circle mages indulging in a dinner with musicians and dancers. so are these lucrosians mages who appreciate the privileges the circle is afforded and seek to further the system, pushing the creation of more tranquil and more enchanted produce, caring nothing for their fellows? or are these mages who seek alternative methods for the circle to earn money, who wish for mages to be paid for services instead of offered out on the chantry’s whim, and for mages to be able to interface with clients/customers as the tranquil do? do they think greater wealth will gain them greater freedom and power as well as privilege? we don’t know! but wealth is just so interesting in this context. when wynne justifies her loyalty to the circle, she clings to the fairytale magnificence of the tower as she first saw it with a hungry orphan’s eyes. irving has his position as first enchanter not because of his passion for magic but because of his passion for administration. vivienne uses the appearance of wealth as the appearance of power to exert control, and you can overhear gossip about her “arrogance” for daring to present herself as a noble might. the college of magi in cumberland is a majestic palace, but one that was gifted to the chantry for the use of the mages, not to a mage or to a circle directly. is a mage even permitted to own money and property personally, or does everything belong to their circle? when the right of annulment is called, where does the money go?

*as an aside, super interesting that many mages are from good families. that does check out with amell and trevelyan. i suppose it’s because noble families are so publicly visible that it makes mage children difficult to hide, implying a greater proportion of poorer mages are able to exist under the radar? though it may also be that having some education already and the appearance of class gets you better treatment and a better shot once in the circle. i wonder if anyone ever tries to spin the number of noble mage children as the maker’s punishment for noble greed

sorry i got distracted by the lucrosians and this is already such a long response. some other thoughts: i think isolationist philosophy is so interesting i would kill for a significant character with genuine isolationist beliefs. it’s such a boring cop-out that vivienne doesn’t belong to any fraternity and it says more about inquisition’s grating “people caring too much about politics is the REAL problem” stance than it does about vivienne herself. adrian from the asunder novel who is a libertarian was right about everything except her crush on rhys and if she reads this i am free on thursday night and wonder if she would like to hang out on thursday night when i am free