#Flemeth’ shut

[nimthirielrinon]

When I grow up, I want to be Flemeth.

“Such manners! Always in the last place you look. Like stockings!”

[ayrennaranaaldmeri]

bioware stop spoiling your fucking game oh my god

[rosykims]

DAO FINISHED <3 ELSPETH COULSAND TAKEN OUT BACK AND SHOT </3

[ziracona]

Yo! I saw the long post about Vivienne and you mentioned your own take and headcanons on Solas and I was hoping you could rant about them please?

Sure man.

If I remember the post right, in it I was talking about canon Solas vs how I would have done him, so that’s what I’ll answer. Apologies if I’m misremembering.

When I played DAI, I had known some spoilers, but mostly without any detail. IE I knew he was Fen’Harel, and there’s some confrontation at the end with him because of it. I knew Flemeth was Mythal. I knew he had set elves free from the other elven gods who practiced slavery. That was about it.

I (wrongly) assumed they were on opposite sides, which honestly would have been funny as hell to watch since neither wants to be publicly outed.

Until Trespasser put his characterization through a wood chipper (and their established canon), he was pretty consistent, and I’d have kept him that way. He claims in Trespasser that he didn’t even see other people as people because of how short lived they are, and he’s got no interest in improving the existing world because he’s going to magic nuke it for restoration (why??? Love that even the devs didn’t know by the end of tresspasser lmao and had to say ‘uhm good question. Next?’). His character in-game before then is explicitly super different and contrary to that. Like, he sure gave a shit about me delivering flowers for a widower and human mage rights for someone who doesn’t see them as people at the time. 🤔

Anyway. My hcs would be how I saw him pre-tresspasser, and how I thought things would go. I wouldn’t have retconned the elven gods being gods (one it’s super racist).

I loved the idea of how he seems. I played all the games back to back in order, and you get these fragments. The wolf statues outside Dalish camps because he’s not exactly welcome in, but he’s honored. He’s seen as a traitor and a trickster because he trapped the gods. But you know there’s more there. You get the Fang of Fen’Harel as a weapon in my origin. And you hear about the war of dales, and how it’s said the warriors fighting for their last homes were each accompanied by a wolf.

You’ve got these thousands of years of history. Of a people group who used to live forever, and lost it to humanity. Who then humans did settler colonialism apartheid to, and stole from, and killed, and enslaved, and tried to erase the culture and history and territory and lives of. And they’ve been fighting. They fought to stay, they fought to keep their reservations in the war of the dales, and the roaming tribes still fight now.

And you’ve got Fen’Harel. You’ve got Solas, who has been alive for so long. Who fought for his people against the other gods, to set them free, from slavery. Who chose mortals over his own. And he did it. He did the impossible and shut out the sky. He saved everyone. By himself. Him alone.

And because of it, elves were conquered by humans. They die faster, they were sold, they were murdered. Decimated.

And he for all his fighting, takes in myth the fall as a traitor to the good gods. No one knows the truth.

And he’s alone now, but he’s still fighting for them. He’s the wolf beside every warrior, dying again and again, but even a god on the battlefield isn’t enough, and they lose, again.

They are beaten back, again. Even their shitty ‘gifted’ lands from their conquerors are whittled at. They paint the sign of their enslavement to other gods on their face, not knowing the past, and he’s the bad guy in stories.

By the time you reach DAI, you’ve got someone who has been utterly alone, fighting in the trenches, for centuries. He says he doesn’t fit in with the Dalish, which makes no sense for a ‘canon’ ‘I was awake 2 years and decided to nuke the world was the only way’ Solas, but makes 100% sense for an old god who is living in the wreckage, again and again, of all his good intentions. There is no one like him. And his suggestions for things to try get him shut out of communities.

It’s someone very desperate, with almost nothing left to lose, and all out of hope. He’s tried the ‘better’ way 1000 times.

And it never matters. It never changes anything, it never saves anyone, it never even changes how he is remembered.

He gave everything and obliterated his species, the gods, for a people he still failed, after everything, to save. And yet he’s still trying.

You get the events of DAI, and this incredibly lonely person, who kind of knows from before day 1 what he’s going to have to do. And this group that all manages to include each other, despite their hatreds and pasts, except him. Notably, Varric /only/ leaves Solas out of the party event. Only him. The only people who spend any time with him are Cole, who knows, and determinately, the Inquisitor, who doesn’t. Assuming you play a good inquisitor, and you’re nice to him, he gets one person. Same species, or enemy species, or if a Qunari like mine, a species that could not be more different. But still. One person, willing to listen and shift blame away from the elves, who are demonized for everything. To support mages, imprisoned from birth. Who is trying to make the world good, and young enough to believe it can be done. And he gets a friend, for this brief time. For the first time in more than a thousand years.

He cares, and he’s smart. He routinely likes being nice to the little people. He also likes smart plans, and he’s extremely self confident. He wears a great mask, too. He really does. Easily one of the funniest times all game was watching that slip twice after the ball because he had such a fantastic time he forgot he was pretending to be some rando and beefed it three times in a row in convo.

And the world gets a little better, if you play your cards right, thanks to Anders and the mage rebellion, and Brialla, and the Inquisitor. To a lot of things.

But the world hasn’t changed for elves. The world doesn’t change in a day, and no power in history has ever stopped oppressing a minority only because they asked nicely and protested in peace. So to him, the Inquisition is a vacation almost. Or a last meal. It’s being good and alive and liked, and having at least a tiny community of two or three, for an instant.

I think that makes dying harder.

You see in the fade that being alone is what he’s afraid of, and how can it not be? He’s been abandoned by justice and the world and his kind and his people. He has been abandoned by everything. He has nothing.

But that’s never stopped him before. I think he’s a very ‘Freedom or death.’ And if I was making it, I’d have just done a Code Geass again I mean 1–they’ve ripped it off twice already, and 2–if it slaps it slaps. They’re under-utilized plot setups anyway. There’s no way the elves will get their freedom and land back peacefully from the Chantry, and humans in general. He’s got thousands of years of heartbreak and concrete proof. So he’ll do what he’s always done. Play the villain. It doesn’t matter if the result is worth it. Save his people, no matter the cost, and be remembered forever as the bad guy. Go as hard as he can, as far as he can, and as alone as he can. Seize power, and take over. Decimate human lands and places of power, so his can take back what is theirs. Not with the help of elves, but with the artifacts he’s found, with the fade, with himself. Be intentionally so awful the elves team up with the rest of Thedas to fight him, which will help their reputation when this is over. Give them a common enemy, while destroying the system that couldn’t be changed, until it /cannot/ come back. Destroy what the humans have built until it /can’t/ go back to the way it was, with them as conquerors, and let everyone hate him for how far he’s willing to go, and how many he’s willing to kill on the way. And once he’s got enough to have truly changed things, let them hunt him down together and kill the dread wolf to sate their hate and usher in a new era of peace, heroes, where it’s the elves who have the most left to rebuild from. The systems of military might and political power of all those who tormented the elves are burned and salted to the ground. And everyone has been forced to work together.

It makes him refusing even an elven inquisitor’s help make sense. You can’t come, when the plan is to play the villain, and die it. You’re the only person he had.

Which would leave an inquisitor who knows Solas, in the awful position of helping him, and that choice being used as evidence of the evilness of their species by everyone (if they aren’t human), as well as evidence against all the good causes they’ve supported or been able to establish; or, fight him, knowing he’s being the villain so no one else has to, and let him die alone, knowing it’s his biggest fear, after a lifetime of giving everything he’s got and being remembered as a monster.

[green-ray-blog1]

The Prince

It's 1-1, now, between Harrowmont and Bhelen and hardcore supporters of both are now jumping Darrian and his party in the streets of Orzammar. For his next errand, Harrowmont wants Branka found. Oh, right, the paragon who invented smokeless coal (which sounds straight up magical), then took her house to the Deep Roads, and didn’t come back. Well, if Darrian found the Urn of Sacred Ashes, he can probably find Branka, or what’s left of her. But now, Bhelen wants to talk face to face, since we did his dirty work, and oh he is one slimy bastard. It's like he can’t even be bothered to put up appearances. And that’s the guy who’s gonna help the casteless ? He wants Branka found, too, but he only wants her back if she supports him. The guy definitely murdered his dad. Well Darrian’s not doing the killing political opponents (wait, did the Carta count ?), so he’ll improvise when he’ll get there, and, again, Branka might be dead already.

First, though, Alistair and Wynne apparently have a lot to ask Morrigan about her love life. Several things : First, Darrian is right there, so it’s a bit hurtful when you guys are talking like he’s just Morrigan’s thrall, now. Second, looks like neither of you have seen how much of a dork she is, and thus how funny that makes you sound. Now, to be fair, Darrian did agree to kill Flemeth for Morrigan, and it is possible she might have been lying about the whole body-jacking thing, but honestly, it’d be a really good act. Ah, whatever, you know what, this is fine, it’s all part of the plan. See, when Darrian has retired in the Korcari wilds, and he goes grocery shopping in nearby villages, there’s bound to be some dumbass shems that’ll be all like “Hey fuck you knife-ears !”, but then their buddy will be like “Dude, shut up, that’s the Wicked Witch of the Wild’s boyfriend ! You wanna get turned into a spider ?” It's perfect.

Then we meet Oghren, Branka’s husband, left behind when she took the rest of the house. He really wants to come along and, uh, well, sure. He seems pretty on edge about the whole thing, which is fair. Shale is also here. Their mage had mentioned finding them in a place related to dwarves, so maybe we’ll see something interesting. Now, it’s off to the Deep Roads

***Bonus content!!!***

Hi my name is Darrian Tabris and I have short black hair and pointy ears and a lot of people tell me I look like Shianni (AN: if u don't know who she is get da hell out of here!). I'm not related to Zevran, but I wish I was cause he's a major fucking hottie. I'm a grey warden, but that’s just until the Blight is over. I’m also a rogue and I got Isabela to teach me how to duel. I’m an elf (in case you couldn’t tell), and I wear mostly light armor. I love Wade’s Emporium and I buy all my clothes from there. For example, today, I was wearing the felon’s coat. I was walking outside the Alienage. It was like everywhere in Ferelden, smelling like wet dog, which I was very happy about. A lot of city guards stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them.

[ladyofsnark]

Inquisitor: I physically entered the Fade, fought one of the first Magisters, and met the Dread Wolf.

Hawke: I survived the Blight and stopped a horde of rampaging Qunari and a crazy templar.

Warden: I survived the massacre of Fereldan’s wardens, discovered the ashes of fantasy lady Jesus, defeated a hundreds year old cult and spoke to the spirit manifestations of saints, gathered an army, killed a high dragon, killed an arch demon, killed a dragon made of fucking lightning and had a legendary sword crafted from its bones, killed Flemeth who was also a dragon, formed an alliance with an intelligent darkspawn that’s probably actually one of the First Magisters, met two Paragons, killed them--

Hawke and Inquisitor: SHUT UP

[dragonageheap]

Hi!!! For the OC asks, any and/or all OCs :)

break: What would cause your OC to break down completely? What do they look like when that happens? Has anyone ever seen them at their lowest?

ohh this is such a fun yet hard question, I've been thinking about this since I saw the ask

answer underneath the cut because this turned out to be Long

Faolan Surana: He was a little hard to think of, mostly because for the longest time in his life he didn't really.. care about much? The Circle was dull and so most of his free time he spent reading and learning, because there wasn't really much else to do. During this time the only thing I can think of that would cause him to break down completely would be if it was decided to make him tranquil, but, well. He wouldn't be distraught for long if that was the case.

However, after the events of Origins? If something happened to Morrigan or Kieran. That's his family, something he never thought he'd have. He hates being apart from them, knows he can't protect them, but he also trusts Morrigan to keep Kieran and herself safe. Needless to say though when he hears about what happens in Inquisition (both Flemeth taking Urthemial's soul and the whole Morrigan and Well of Sorrows deal since I'm pretty sure she'll be the one drinking from it) he is Not happy and is probably the closest he's come to breaking down.

For the most part it'd look like Faolan shutting down. He isn't good at communicating in general, nonetheless when it comes to his emotions and how he's feeling, so he bottles all of it up. When he's with Morrigan and Kieran it also shows as him being Extra attentive to them. Morrigan isn't a fan of doting, he knows this, so instead he makes sure to keep an eye on her and to try and predict what she'll need before she does it herself. He totally dotes on Kieran though regardless of Morrigan's thoughts on it.

As for anyone seeing him at their lowest, really only Morrigan and Kieran after the events of Inquisition. However there was another, more minor, time though, and it was Zevran after defeating the Fifth Blight. The two traveled for a time before Faolan was sent to help rebuild and establish Vigil's Keep. During their travels Zevran saw Faolan pretty low and swore that he'd never speak a word of it.

Callum Hawke: This one was easy, mostly because I've had the same Hawke in mind since I first played Dragon Age 2 years ago. The most important thing to Callum is his family, and so the thing that'd cause him to break down completely would be losing his family.

At first glance Callum doesn't really show his emotions, instead hyper focusing on the family still alive. He puts on a brave face to make sure everyone else is okay, and only when the sun sets and everyone's passed out from crying all day does Callum properly, truly, break. His sobs are silent, he doesn't want to wake anyone, but they're so violent that his entire body looks like its spasming. It's rough, and when he's done he does the same as everyone else and falls asleep. He wakes up before everyone else to make sure they won't be able to tell, and then pretends it never happened.

The only person who saw him at his lowest was Anders, after Leandra died. When Anders came in to comfort Callum he broke. It was rough, Callum likes to act like he's infallible, to be the rock for his friends and family, but this one time he needed a rock of his own.

[zombiebcit]

norman reedus. 50. cis man. he / him. ― i see you meet WILLIAM "WILL" GRIMES, huh? they are around for… well, it will be 1 AND A HALF YEAR, now. time flies when you are busy and as part of THE MILITIA, they are. if you want to meet them, they live in B1A2A, i think. people say they are ADAPTABLE + PROTECTIVE, but don’t piss them off, okay? because they can be also UNTRUSTING + UNREPENTANT, so be safe.

BASIC INFO

⸻ FULL NAME: William Daniel Grimes

⸻ AGE: 50

⸻ GENDER: cis man

⸻ PRONOUNS: he / him

⸻ ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: biromantic

⸻ SEXUAL ORIENTATION: bisexual

⸻ SCARS / TATTOOS: many scars & tattos along whole body ;

⸻ OCCUPATION: before: many things ; now: militia ;

⸻ FAMILY: tba grimes ( child, wc ) ;

⸻ PLAYLIST: apologize by grandson ; i come with knives by iamx ; f.w.t.b by yonaka ( grandson remix ) ; 20 precent cooler by ken ashcorp ; devil by shinedown ; play dirty by kevin mcallister + [sebell] ; kill our way to heaven by michl ; devil's backbone by the civil wars ; follow you by bring me the horizon ; no one but you by every avenue ; ;

⸻ INSPO: carol peletier ( the walking dead ) , michonne ( the walking dead ) , ada wong ( resident evil ) , chris redfield ( resident evil ) , tess servopoulos ( the last of us ) , morrigan ( dragon age ) , flemeth ( dragon age ) , zaeed massani ( mass effect 2 ) , urdnot wrex  ( mass effect ) ;

STORY tw: child neglect, drugs, alcohol, discussion of abortion, mention of starvation, allusions to prostitution ;

will's parents didn't cared where he is or what he is doing at all. thye might not have raise their hands, but they didn't loved him either ;

it wasn't a surprise when will got caught up in the wrong crowd and everything that follows one - wild parties with poping whatever was there to just shut his mind off ;

and then, it happened. barely out of the magical line of finally legal age, will's one-night stand, a nice girl from good family who just wanted to have a go at the bad boy came to him with a positive pregnancy test ;

the easy way, the ' right ' way for them would be to go and end it. damn, will even said that to her face and sadi he will pay for it & drive her there.

and he did, but siting there, waiting and see her flinching at every little sound... looking at her stomach and thinking ' there could my kid grow ' made him feel weird.

so will blur out quick ' wait, just wait ' and they had a long and heavy talk about this all ;

she didn't wanted to get rid of kid, but didn't want to be a mother too, having to care about child when she just "started" her life and will... will wanted it now ;

so for the next months, he did everything to get clean, to get better, to find job, any job, and save a little for his kid ;

and then he hold his child in his arms for the first time and that was it. he was a parent.

it wasn't easy, even with the money the girl shoved in his hands few days after brith, with a quick ' just tell them i died. ' ;

he did his best to be a good father, remember what his own father did and did the opposite - care about his kid, telling them he loves them often, showing interest in any littlie thing they showed him ;

he was jumping from job to job, going hungry more often than not just to make sure his kid wasn't, that they had anything they needed ;

working as bartender, he began getting offerts and at some point, he started to accept them. a quick bj there and there was enough to put the food at the table and while he wasn't proud of it, he wasn't ashamed either ;

and then will meet him ;

will know the name man give him was false, he was too clean, tooo charming to be honest ;

but the job offer was too good to pass on, the money could get them out of the shoebox apartament and put his kid in college if will would be smart about spending ;

so he took it and then it was 'take this packcage there', ' keep this person save for evening ' , ' make this person talk ' ;

will did thing, clean out whatever was on his hands - blood more often than not - and go back to being loving father ;

he never told his kid what he did, now or before, just made sure they are as happy as they could ;

he was so proud of them, watching them groing into young adult and starting their own adventure in life ;

and then, the fucking apocalypse happened. at the start, he tried to call, desperate to get in contact with his kid, then he traveled to them just to find them gone ;

rationally, he knows they might be dead, but refuse to acknowledge it ;

it was hard for will to get used to safety of the domus spei, still is. but anytime he is out there, he is still looking ;

WANTED CONNECTIONS

⸻ 01. ' 𝚂𝙾 𝙵𝚄𝙲𝙺𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝚄𝙳 𝙾𝙵 𝚈𝙾𝚄, 𝙺𝙸𝙳𝙳𝙾 '

child. ( main wc ) open. will had them very young, a result of one-night stand when he was 18-20yo, and he raised them alone. at the time when apocalypse happened, they were separated & will spend years looking for them without success. i would say they had pretty good relation but i am open to suggestions. this muse would be here for max 1-2 weeks.

⸻ more tba.

[vakarians-babe]

Chapter 39: Onward, Ever Onward

“Anything interesting?” This time, Morrigan doesn’t snap Flemeth’s grimoire shut immediately. Instead, when Talvinder stretches out on the ground next to her, the witch keeps the book open on her lap. This time, she answers Tali’s question.

“That depends on what you would call interesting.” It doesn’t escape Tali’s notice that the witch smiles ever so slightly. In fact, it makes Tali smile, too. In the days since they’ve left the Wilds, since they began travelling vaguely northward again, the air has become lighter, tensions smoothed over. If it weren’t for the Blight and the imminent risk of civil war and the death of the king, Tali might even think that things could pass for peaceful. She doesn’t think that, but she might.

“I don’t know a thing about magic,” she says, settling her arms underneath her head and looking toward the sky. A last burst of summer warmth fights against oncoming autumn, and the air is warm under the cloudless starry expanse of nighttime. “Everything about it is interesting to me.” Morrigan snorts at that. She’s in a fine mood not just because of Flemeth’s…handling, as it were, but also because this is the second night they’ve dined on the remnants of real food, recovered from a safely sealed cellar in an abandoned house. This is, coincidentally, also the second night Alistair has not been in charge of cooking. It’s enough to make a stone sentinel smile, having salt and bread again, mixed in the correct quantities, not burned.

Read More.

[blind-alchemists]

i'm still a bit mad da:o is Actually Good because i vividly remember how i reacted to that broodmother scene when i saw it in a let's play years ago and i really don't look forward to playing it myself

anyway, some revelations from by playthrough so far:

actually not mad i broke my rule of "first playthrough is a female dw rogue" for this because it's fun

but: This Game Is Bugged

i love the variety in the entropy tree

mages are as op as they say, to the point where i have essentially solo'd entire enemy groups (incl. that surprise revenant and the desire demon with the charmed templars in the Broken Circle)

... after i got damaging spells. yeah, you need damaging spells. and you need healing spells.

the origins are really cool. i see why people want them back.

i also understand why people want a mabari. the dog's hilarious.

Morrigan. i love her.

she's so mean but she also tells you the first time you're in camp that she doesn't understand a lot of social rules, cues, or traditions, much less is able to keep up with human society and finds it overwhelming. plus she was raised by Flemeth/Mythal, the worst mother figure in all of history.

so why's her romance male-only? and why does it always have to be a rare ship i fall for? :(

tbh i would have loved an option for a mage!Warden to shut down Morrigan at the Broken Circle (along the lines, "I was also a mage of this Circle, and they do not deserve your scorn because they never had a choice - because I never had a choice") without either killing Wynne or being mean to Morrigan :(

Morrigan has an incredibly funny camp-conversation with the dog about how he put a half-eaten hare into her (clean) underwear and when the warden says, "you hurt his feelings," she says something like, "no, i didn't. look, he's just manipulating you. i can tell because i do the same thing!"

Sten's also incredibly funny for the same reason that Morrigan is: Leliana is very well adjusted to society, and Alistair can at least read social cues and has some emotional intelligence, and then you have two people who know fuck all about any of that

i'm kinda neutral about both Leliana and Alistair, and Sten's alright i guess, so i'm really hoping Zevran and Shale are interesting to me. Oghren's ... gotta wait until i have done literally anything but Orzammar.

[giraffefeather]

PopSugar Reading Challenge #47 (or Advanced Prompt #2) - A Book With 24 Letters in the Title

"Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne" by David Gaider

What an absolute stroke of luck this book has exactly 24 letters in the title! I've been meaning to read all the Dragon Age books this year (starting with a reread of the first two) and couldn't possibly hope to cram any of them into this challenge. And yet... here we are!

As before, I love this book. Probably because of my ongoing Dragon Age obsession, and the obvious link to the first game, Dragon Age Origins. I had completely forgotten how funny the book was! A rebel prince who has a habit of falling off his horse - it's a thing he does. Snarky banter from all sides. Flemeth being... well, herself.

And I have always claimed my favorite Dragon Age characters is a dwarf named Nalthur, who makes a lovely cameo here (and really almost no where else in the franchise... Unless you count his stuff appearing in Inquisition DLC). Now I really want a book about the Legion of the Dead...

To be completely honest, I was shocked at how well written the book is. On the one hand, Gaider was the lead writer of Dragon Age. On the other hand, who expects a well written book based on a video game? But some of the quotes made me jealous of his writing. "Deep down inside of him there was steel. He embraced it, tasted its bitter edge and let it shut out the whirlwind inside of him." I can't express how much I love that passage.

Look, I'm biased. I love this book. I love Maric. I hate Loghain (but only because he's so well written, and love that so many like him... he's well-rounded enough to be loved OR hated). I'm obsessed with Dragon Age. I will probably read this one for a third time someday. Absolutely gave it a 5 stars on Goodreads.

[tandoori-frost]

A quick little doodle for the kinda joke AU I made for @zarla-s handplates!Gaster. Poor guy gets pulled into the nonsense of Dragon Age Inquisition instead of leaving the Void back to his sons.

Will he get back, can he survive all these fucking humans as the inquisitor? Will he outright kill Dorian for implying he's a possessed corpse? Get back to me on that. I might have answers.

(Spoilers for DA:I below)

So the context here is that as he's trying to get out of the void he instead slips through the wrong way and lands right in front of Cor-piss-n-shit, and The Divine, out of sheer panic he *does* grab The Orb. (He lands here because of the way the ritual set up is affecting The Veil, and also because of Convient Plot Reasons, I'll blame Flemeth)

The Orb reacts weird to his Skeleton biology, and the fact that There's No Palm There, so you get that little lightshow.

He is not killed for being a walking skeleton for Convient Plot reasons, and the fact people saw The Divine/"Andraste" behind him, and the fact he is wearing well maintained clothes. Everyone feels kinda nuts until he wakes up and talks, and then they feel even more nuts but also justified.

My god is this man out of his depth, holy shit, someone help him.

....but also Gaster and Solas bonding over being the last of their kind, of doing horrible things for the betterment of their people, of being hated and feared (perhaps rightfully so), of trying to be *better*.

Cole being a sweet bby boy and also so so hurtful on accident, cause he just *keeps healing Gaster on accident*, his pure and kind intentions to help and to sooth keeps brushing against old pains and Cole doesn't mean to but its So Hard to interact with someone who exists as an extension of pure good intentions. Gaster is too traumatized for that kind of gentleness that early.

Dorian making the Worst Fucking Impression because he things Gaster is a summon, and holy shit that is the inquisitor walking away, fuck, god damn it, why cant he keep his mouth shut.

The Anchor eventually taking his arm and he literally just takes his arm off once it's not needed anymore and uses summoned hands to make up for the lack. (It wont fix the way the anchor is still connected to him, the way it still leaches from his SOUL, the way it already integrated itself, the fact that just taking a limb off doesn't mean it's truly GONE for a Skeleton, but no one else needs to know that. (After all, if it was going to take more than that one arm it would have taken all of him instantly, the connections so easy to make, and so little to block its progress)) (aka, Gaster gets a semi sentient magic leach that slowly wakes up and sassing him throughout the game, he starts speaking Elvhish @ Solas 8 months in because it got tired of not hearing it and everyone is spooked for *weeks*)

I could go on for so long cause I have so many ideas but like, gotta end the post somewhere, (Bull taking one look at Gaster and making the WORST dad jokes known to man, "Guess I know why the Chantry has a bone to pick with you" he says winking with his 1 good eye, and Gaster realizes that he has made a Mistake)

[first-talon]

WIP WEDNESDAY

Born Again In Blood

Chapter 9

Keep reading for the opening paragraphs of the newest chapter. Open tags for anyone else who wants to post their WIP. I was tagged by @fenharel-apologist94

“What do you mean the Grey Wardens are gone?” Mahanon asked as he tugged the sheets up over his chest in a vain attempt to cover his bandaged breasts. It had been one thing to awaken in an unfamiliar bed—another all entirely to be at his most vulnerable with an apostate looking on. Around his neck, the vial of blood still dangled.

“‘Tis as I said,” Morrigan replied gently, turning her head away at his apparent discomfort. “Mother was only able to save you and your fellow Warden from the crumbling tower. Your Teyrn quit the field. There is nothing left of the valley.”

Mahanon’s heartbeats were thunderous in his own ears. His blood boiled beneath his skin, burning and chasing the breath out of his lungs. He clutched the thin blankets closer to himself. “So Alistair is alive. How long have I been asleep?”

“A day at most,” Morrigan said. “Mother and I have tended to you to the best of our ability. I believe it is the taint in your blood that spared you from the full suffering of your wounds.” She paused. “Did you know that it…”

“Burns?” Mahanon finished for her. “Yes. The blood does burn.”

…

“You! You’re alive!” Alistair gasped as Mahanon stumbled out of Flemeth’s hut. The door creaked to a shut behind him. The chittering of bugs and birdsong hummed in his ears along the humid air. Keeping his breathing steady despite the ache in his chest, Mahanon pushed forward to walk off of the narrow porch and to the edge of the lake alongside Alistair. “I thought you were dead for sure.”

Mahanon pressed his hand against the ache in his shoulder, beneath his armor. It had taken him ages to get dressed—longer due to Morrigan’s lingering. He hadn’t been able to look her in the eye since he woke up in her bed, his chest wrapped tightly in bandages. For a moment, beneath her critical gaze, he wished that he had died. Death might have been better than her knowing the truth. Then the thought passed, and reason won. As he stuttered to try and explain himself, Morrigan brushed him off. I care not what lies beneath your shirt, she had said to him. Far be it from me to criticize the reclamation of one’s body.

“It will take more than a few darkspawn to kill me,” Mahanon said grimly. It had been more than a few that hounded them within the Tower of Ishal, and judging by the wince on Alistair’s face, he knew it, too. He hadn’t intended for it to be a joke. He carved his way through an arl’s hold. Still, it fell flat. Flemeth, standing nearby, cleared her throat, prompting Mahanon to turn to her. “Oh. Thank you. Morrigan told me that… you rescued us.” She had told him enough, at least, muttering something of a dragon’s tale.

“Daveth was right about her,” Alistair said. “She is the Witch of the Wilds that the Chasind speak of.”

“And my magic has served you well,” she was quick to rebuke. “You both yet live, do you not?”

“Morrigan told me that others did not,” said Mahanon. “That the other Grey Wardens have fallen. Is that… true? Are we the only ones who survived? She said that Teyrn Loghain quit the battle.” He felt his lips draw into a frown; it was not as if that news truly surprised him. He had seen for himself the horde that had upset their flight up the tower; if it was anything like that down in the valley, it would be the wiser choice to flee rather than lose all of one’s forces. Surely there would be chance to regroup later.

“This much is true, yes,” Flemeth agreed. “There are others who live, but they are stragglers who wander the valley and will not get far before being picked off. Still, there is a larger matter at hand than the Teyrn’s strategy—the Blight. It has always been the duty of Grey Wardens to unite the land against the darkspawn. Or did that change when I wasn’t looking?”

“The Grey Wardens are dead,” Mahanon said. He didn’t look at Alistair, who flinched again at the harshness of his tone. He did not need to ask to know that Duncan must have perished also. Morrigan had already assured him of that much—that they were the only ones that Flemeth had rescued. He had bit back the urge to joke that Cailan would have won them a higher ransom. He would have time to ponder that later. “Do you really think that only two of us will be able to stop the Blight?”

“You don’t have a choice,” chuckled the old woman, “lest you are willing to leave the fate of Ferelden—nay, the world—to that chance that someone else will.”

“We still have the treaties,” Alistair interrupted quietly.

Catch up on Born Again in Blood below!

[inquisimer]

HAPPIEST of fridays to you, Mer. How does "Dapjeongneo (Korean): When somebody has already decided the answer they want to hear after asking a question, and are waiting for you to say that exact answer" sound for your Mahariel and Morrigan?

my brain is just keying in on old old prompts this week XD happy happy friday Ro and some morrigan & mahariel rivalry be upon ye💜

for @dadrunkwriting

~~~

Morrigan has not sat idle, these twelve months hence. Though it pains her to admit, her mother always has a purpose and the fact that she is here, has been here with this rough-and-tumble crew of alleged heroes at Flemeth’s behest has to mean something.

She has to believe it means something. Otherwise, she is at fault for remaining once they’d left Lothering behind.

She thanks the absent gods when they take refuge in an actual structure, rather than their flimsy canvas tent. The estate is no less full of tiresome nuisances than their usual campsite, but at least it has a fireplace and proper bedding. She ends up parked in a large bedroom, sharing a stilted silence with the qunari. It is oddly comforting, for she knows he does not expect conversation and is almost as confident that he is not thinking of her in any respect. Left to her own devices, she idly pages through Flemeth’s grimoire.

Nada’sariel does not take her on any of the ventures throughout the city. It is hardly surprising; even if their personalities did mesh, the elf likes to have a healer along and the Circle mage suits that role far better than Morrigan ever could. As it was, their personalities didn’t mesh, and if brought along Morrigan would have not only taken the spot of their healer, but been a chafing influence to boot.

It is of no matter to her. It is of no matter. She sits before the fire and puzzles through the ciphers and riddles in Flemeth’s cramped script and tries to decipher her mother’s purpose for putting here here.

She discerns it, of a sense. A deep, harsh regret grips her when she realizes that they’re too far on the journey for her to ask such a favor of Mahariel. She slams the book shut and narrowly restrains herself from flinging it into that lovely, convenient fire. Sten does not acknowledge her immature fit; she composes herself with a few deep, steady breaths and puts the grimoire on a shelf out of reach, determined to ignore it.

Her vow lasts only a day.

For the next afternoon, they rescue the elder Warden from his prison and he reveals the deepest secret: how the Wardens truly defeat the archdemon. Morrigan, with her ear pressed up against the door, cannot bring herself to be fully surprised. It is somehow fitting of an order so mired in darkness and half-truths.

With this revelation, she returns to Flemeth’s tome. There is a nagging in the back of her mind and it says that, somehow, her mother knew of the Wardens’ secret, and there will be something in her book about it.

And she is right.

It practically flies off the page, as though the fact that she is looking for is has made it appear within the binding. A ritual, an alternative, a solution—

And yet—she knows Nada’sariel will not agree.

She asks anyway. The Warden is displeased to be pulled off course; likely she was on her way to her lover’s room, but Morrigan is well used to garnering the elf’s ire by this point. She holds the tome up and explains what she knows, what she’s found, what she can do. How she can save her or, because she knows that to truly move Mahariel it needs to be about another, how she can be sure Alistair will survive.

It is as she expected.

“Riordan has already agreed to take the blow.” Nada’sariel purses her lips, looking into the fire rather than at Morrigan. “And if he falls—I can ensure Alistair’s continued safety without resorting to strange magic we have no reason to trust.”

Morrigan’s blood boils, but her face is a stone mask. She bites her tongue hard enough to draw blood and relishes in the iron taste of it.

“Can you?” She arches one cold eyebrow. “I hardly think a world without you in it is one Alistair would consider safe.”

“What would you know of it?” spits Nada’sariel, hackles raised. “Don’t presume to know us, witch. You’ve not felt even a fraction of what we have, and you cannot know what is best for either of us.”

She turns sharply and leaves. Morrigan stares down at the grimoire, a sinking feeling in her chest.

“But I can,” she murmurs to the absent Warden. “It is you who are blind.”

Her cloak is hanging by the fire and she pins it around her neck, relishing in the warmth. She tucks the grimoire and the handful of other possessions and useful supplies she’s acquired over the last year into her pack. There are secrets her mother wants her to discover, truths to be learned, lessons to seek.

There is no reason to stay.

So she goes.

[greypetrel]

For Alyra Mahariel and Aisling Lavellan, please?

🪤 MOUSE TRAP - what will always lure them into certain danger? a loved one in danger? a promise of something they are always searching for?

Have a lovely day ^^

Hello!

Of course! Ooooh this is an interesting one!!

Tis the prompt list!

🪤 MOUSE TRAP - what will always lure them into certain danger? a loved one in danger? a promise of something they are always searching for?

Alyra: She acts out of necessity. She is calculating and knows how to choose her battles... But she will jump into battles if there's a necessity for it. She needs to gain something out of it, whether it's the safety of a loved one (Flemeth. She would have accepted to let Flemeth go if Morrigan wasn't at stake and she hadn't a soft spot for her already. Fighting an unknown bog witch, mother and teacher of another bog witch you saw fighting... Eh, she didn't jump in joy. Spent the whole battle cursing loudly and bickering with Alistair. "I TOLD YOU I TOLD YOU!" "SHUT THE FUCK UP" *Zevran in the background looking at the camera like he's on the Office*). No gain? No pain, for her.

Aisling: A loved one in danger, or in possible danger, most definitely. She'll be absolutely immune to any monetary/power gain and instead react negatively towards it. But a loved one in danger? Oh no she's jumping. She didn't even question going with Dorian to a meeting with a mysterious envoy from Tevinter on their merry selves: her friend needed help, she jumped on her horse. By loved one I also mean "something that threatens anything culturally important for her". Shout out to the one time she charged a Giant on her own in the Emerald Graves, and had her femur smashed in pieces.

[the-technicolor-whiscash]

Objectively Flemeth is a terrible person but like she’s so funny I love characters who are old women who hate everyone and yet they will still help the player without question. Like she’s ready to kill Morrigan for her own gain and yet she’s like yeah sure I’ll help you Warden. Yeah I’ll heal your wounds what about it. Yeah Hawke I’ll get you to Kirkwall so long as your bitchy ass brother shuts the fuck up and you take this amulet somewhere for me. So what if I steal the bodies of my daughters you’re a pretty chill guy I’ll eat darkspawn for you.