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What a boy! What a good good boy!! Ahu showing off a pretty gold harness for his hubby~ and some lovely stocking~

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One of my favorite additions to the Sea Phantoms idea is that Bull heard about them or switch happen once. He hasn't got any idea that Ahu and Ellie are actually sea Dalish (since the clan is set restive enough that like, all but nothing is known about them). Imagine the group all around a campfire one night, Ahu having become Inquisitor, and everyone is telling spooky stories. And Bull thinks he's gonna outdo everyone by telling about that time he survived an encounter with the Sea Phantoms. Ahu and Ellie just kinda... Look at each other and can't help themselves. They aren't on the water, so the mist isn't as thick, but it creeps into the camp, just surrounding the circle they're in. And the wind dies down so the fire isn't shifting back and forth anymore and instead it's just standing straight up. And Bull is so preoccupied he almost doesn't catch it, but the moment he does he just goes kinda pale because FUCK this is exactly what happened out on the water, and he just looks so spooked out. He's even more convinced these Sea Phantoms are spirits. And then imagine when Ahu and Ellie finally explain it was them. Just think about the NOISE Bull makes at that connection XD

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I've been neglecting this blog for some reason even though Ahu is VERY DEAR TO MY HEART so here are some quick shots of a sketch I have been working on- I DESPERATELY needed to do a proper card for sea-Dalish Ahumai, and then I watched Moana w my boyfriend and inevitably... This is in-process of being colored as well, and WHOAH BOY, it's a beast, but also coming along so so well- I broke into the chalk pastels for some soft textural details and that was the BEST CHOICE. I'm particularly happy to finally get to draw Ahu with a paddle-staff! It's not shown here cause I hadn't decided it at the time but, the paddle has a bird pattern on it, because Ahu can shapeshift into one. He prefers different shapes depending on the AU, and even in this one he's eventually able to take aquatic shapes as well (shark Ahu!!), but primarily he does bird shapes.

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A few other Sea Dalish thoughts I meant to add: The sea Dalish eat a lot of seafood. It's really 90% of their diet. Not just fish. They dive and bring up anything and everything edible. Squid, oysters, limpets, clams, snails, edible seaweed and kelp, crabs, urchins, all of it. They can hold their breath a long time, doing these dives so often. And most of it they eat fresh and raw. Halla don't do well on boats, and it's strange for Dalish not to have them. Instead they bond with pods of dolphins. Swim and play with them, some even ride them. The best part is that sometimes, they have the dolphins help them fish. Dolphins are smart...and they know the Dalish always share their catch with them, so they're eager to help. It's a good relationship. They also really don't give a shit about nudity. Warm weather and warm waters and lots of diving, half the time it's just easier not to wear anything, or at least very little. They save the most covering clothes for when they have to go ashore. Just in case. Land dwellers always seem to have an issue with nudity.

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I've been thinking a lot about the sea Dalish, a lot of world building with them. Especially been thinking about their magic and them being called 'phantoms' by so many other sailors (humans and qunari), and gosh... It's not just the sailing, but their use of magic to get the heck away if they need to. They have a LOT of mages, and a LOT of their magic is water and wind related. Imagine being on a boat and the wind just goes right out of your sails. Just dies. And the sea goes glass smooth. And then this thick mist/fog rolls in. Maybe there are mage lights floating in the distance ahead, barely visible, shifting, bellow and above the water, maybe higher than your boat. Maybe there's the sound of distant drums, or conch shell horns, or vocal calling in a language none of your ship mates know (it sounds maybe elven, but not quite) echoing out over the water. Imagine being a young Qunari and you've heard sailors talk about these phantoms. It sounds like ghost stories and tall tales. Sailors always embellish their stories anyway. It's rare, they say, to come across The Sea Phantoms, but it happens sometimes. Imagine taking your first trip out on a big ship out of Seheron and all of that happenings. Imagine how terrifying that has to be. They'd rather not fight, so it works as a good tactic. Mist to obscure their escape, still water and no wind and odd lights and sounds to spook anyone out too much to go near it. And if they so investigate, they're already gone, mage light fading into the mist and leaving any sailor unsure what exactly they really SAW

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Between Pokemon's new Alola region, and seeing Moana today (it was amazing, I may go see it again, 1000% recommend if you haven't seen it yet), and because my mind wants to relate everything to Ahumai and therefore to Dragon Age, please consider this: After the Exalted March, after the theft and destruction of the Dales, imagine a few elves who just say, 'fuck this shit' and take to the waves. An entire clan of sea faring elves. The aravels already look like sailing ships. It's not a big leap. Imagine an entire floating village of aravels. The largest for the Keeper, the lead ship, smaller ones for the clan to live in, family ships, and smaller individual boats darting between them, for fishing, scouting, or just getting between their boats. Sometimes they lash them together on calm seas, but quickly separating if they need to, to navigate somewhere else, or scatter if they get wind of human or Qunari ships. And they can always find each other later. Magic helps with that. Because it's a clan FULL of mages. Templars don't usually hunt the waves. They don't have to fear being assaulted or hunted for staying too close to a human village. Sometimes they do come ashore. A few non mages take a small boat to port now and then if they need to trade. Never stay long. Sometimes they come to small islands they know, just big enough for wild gardens to grow, too small to build or colonize. Good places to gather food or herbs to supplement the supply of fish they usually eat. A lot of them have never been on land though. Born on the waves and living their entire lives there. Sure, humans and Qunari build boats and ships all the time, shipping boats and fishing boats, big warships. People who make their living sailing, and they may be talented...but it doesn't compare to what this clan can do, cutting through the waves so well that sometimes they get called phantoms or ghosts.... I just...I love this...I love this idea...

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DORIAN = RAFA RECH o(^ 灬 ^)o

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I did a little colored pencil practice w Ahu

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Reblogged since I posted this at like...2 in the morning xD

Some reference sketches for Ahumai is SU-esque style.

(Lord, I had to watch a play-through of the Shepherding Wolves quest from DA2 to get a reference on the control rod, and that quest still makes me sad and sick to my stomach sob)

In any storyline where Ahu is able to make off with his control rod, he eventually has it made into his staff- his way of saying, he will never be controlled by it again, he is the only one in control of himself.

I’ll get some ink and color on this maybe in the next few days. (We’ll see, I got a ROUGH week coming up)

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Some reference sketches for Ahumai is SU-esque style. (Lord, I had to watch a play-through of the Shepherding Wolves quest from DA2 to get a reference on the control rod, and that quest still makes me sad and sick to my stomach sob) In any storyline where Ahu is able to make off with his control rod, he eventually has it made into his staff- his way of saying, he will never be controlled by it again, he is the only one in control of himself. I'll get some ink and color on this maybe in the next few days. (We'll see, I got a ROUGH week coming up)

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I fucking love Anders so much

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Thinking about Ahu using sign and just...what if he was mostly non-verbal? Before Ellie gets to Haven, no one... particularly knows how to deal with him. Ellie is not happy at all about it at all. He has a go at all of them about it- they've probably been treating him like he's not quite there. But Ahu is smart, clever, he just doesn't TALK they way they do. (He does talk, some, but only to a few people who he's very comfortable with). Varric nicknames him Chatterbox. (Which is fitting, because he does talk a lot. Just not with his voice) Dorian takes to him best I think- Dorian being the nerd he is, he's eager to learn new ways to communicate, new languages. It's an opportunity to learn and he's just so excited- it makes Ahu and Ellie excited to, to have someone so happy and WANTING to share the language with him. I think Sera takes to it pretty well too. She's...a little more scattered, and she has a hard time learning the more complex signs, but she takes the time to try and learn the basics- she more than anyone can see Ahu has a lot set against him. Anyway. Yeah. I kinda love the idea of non-verbal Ahu.

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In most cases, Ahumai and Ellie don't get along with Solas like...at ALL... Really, the AU where one of them is a spirit is the only one where they do, because he's the first to trust them and offer them kindness and who they don't have to hide it from. But every other version of them? Solas is just too preachy, and his backhanded compliments and outright racism do NOT fly. He has opinions on the Dalish, and why Ahu would choose that, and GOODNESS 'its remarkable that your clan took in someone like that,' and gosh, isn't Ahu so gentle for someone of his kind, what a good surprise. Ahu has a hard time dealing with it, he doesn't know what to say, especially because a lot of what Solas says comes out sounding like compliments. Ellie though... Ellie is sharp and tired of bullshit like that from shem, and he's not gonna deal with it here. "Do you think we would have abandoned him? He was hurt, and scared, and helpless, he would have died. You think because we drive shem away from the areas our clans live in, to keep out families safe, that we're heartless? You do, don't you, you think so little of us that we could never stop to help someone who wasn't an elf.' Ahu tells him, when he's more sure of himself and Solas wonders how he could really be Dalish, 'they took me in. Never asked for anything back for it. Cared for me when I struggled to even care about myself. Eldrin and our Keeper were the first to tell me, my magic wasn't a curse, my magic didn't mean I had to be controlled like an animal, my magic didn't have to hurt anyone. Showed me it was a gift. Showed me I could help people with it. The Qun bound me. What I've seen of the Chantry would do the same. But the Dalish took me in and took my bindings off and said I was more than that, so yes, I call myself Dalish, and yes, I believe in the customs and gods that mean I'm treated as a person and not a threat, or a weapon." He doesn't know the history of what those gods really are, not yet, and it hurts like hell when he does, but maybe it makes Solas see, maybe the Dalish don't have it ALL wrong. This is Ahu's community, his family, he won't listen to someone telling him he made the wrong choice. He doesn't like hearing Solas pick at the Qun either. For everything he's said and been through, Solas thinks, Ahu can agree with him on that, but even then... 'Your haven't lived under the Qun. You don't, you can't know what it was like. What it is like. It's flawed and broken but there are good parts too. And for some people it works. For some people it's purpose and direction and support, and until my magic came, it was for me too...' there are things out of the Qun that still make sense to him, that he still puts weight in even now, but, 'don't talk to me about the Qun being broken. You see it from the outside and you only see the bad parts and you think it needs to break completely. You've never lived it, you don't know about it, and you can't preach to me, to Bull, what YOU think needs to happen to it.' It makes Ellie grin to see Ahu stand up for himself like that...he knows he has complicated feelings about the Qun, even now, but, no one, especially not Solas, is going to talk down to him or to either of them about their heritage or their beliefs.

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Post-trespasser sad boy...it's hard to sign with only one hand...and I can only imagine how it translates in his shapeshifting :(

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Steven Universe style is good cause it makes me break from small details Also Ahu and Ellie look super cute in it

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The Exalted Plains, also known as Dirthavaren (“the promise”) in elvish, is a region of the Dales in Orlais. The Exalted Plains is a grassland region with a myriad of abandoned forts.

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500px / Photo “Misty forest” by Xavier Jamonet on We Heart It. http://weheartit.com/entry/30340111