#ailill mahariel

[ruushes]

dancing lessons! have to pass the time at camp somehow 💃

[fergus-cousland]

round 4326784236482 of Awakening with Gwydion complete. somehow, during the final battle with the Mother, there were dozens of childer grubs that kept escaping AOE spells and it was just like that time griffin mcelroy summoned 30 dragons in skyrim except it was completely different

[maplegrania]

Whoop, look at those attempts at backgrounds.

[ruushes]

not dead not alive but a secret third thing

[ruushes]

*creaking of untold centuries’ rust and decay falling away as the trapdoor opens and i slide these out* have some wips...

[ruushes]

tagged by @demandthedoodles for Wip "Wednesday" thank you sm for the tag!!! a billion hours ago i thought it would be fun to try a painting with campfire lighting. it was a simpler time

[ruushes]

thank you @ghostwise for tagging me for wip thursday!!!! working on a lot of stuff but most of it is sketchy lines rn, have this image of a guy going through whatever the opposite of a glow up is

tagging @s1ithers and @demandthedoodles and @planarbindings but only if you want to, no pressure! 😊

[ruushes]

it took me like two months to come up with a morrigan dance pose that worked... some rejected concepts

[ruushes]

top 5 poor little meow meows??

a lot more difficult than i thought it would be!!

my own ocs (ailill mahariel saddest wettest man in thedosian history)(nox ‘literal child of the murder god' absolved of all crimes by permanent 🥺 face)

grimmjow jaegerjaquez (close race w ulquiorra but grimmjow is stupider and needs me more)(and has soft paw feeties)

edelgard von hresvelg and hubert von vestra (bonded pair)(gaslight gatekeep girlboss and mansplain manipulate manslaughter)

harrowhark nonagesimus (im not as into locked tomb as many friends and mutuals but she’s DEEPLY deranged and pathetic and i consider her a meow meow in law)

astarion now i guess 🙄😑

[fergus-cousland]

the question is. do i pick a Gwydion save. my Mahariel. or Ailill.

[fergus-cousland]

i love Ailill, I am kissing his little forehead, and switching my Mahariel to dual-wielding is fun but at the same time, playing as a non-mage in DAO makes me miss Gwydion

[fergus-cousland]

What voice do you imagine for your warden, since they don't have a voice actor? For my stern and mean mahariel, I always imagined Laura Bailey as Kaine from Nier specifically (not as much cursing AT ALL but that voice, yeah)

I don't really have a specific voice claim for Gwydion because I'm not really good with voices. He has the Wise voice set in-game so the closest he has is that because it does suit him but in my head (and heart) he has a Welsh accent.

I also don't have one for Ailill but his voice set doesn't really match his face (hi Gideon Emery)

[ruushes]

👀 can you tell us more about your wardens??

OH BOY CAN I !!!

i mean i have many wardens (one for every origin lol) but my most fully developed and realized are my tabris, mahariel and surana!! they also co-exist in a multiple-wardens au so it’s easiest to talk about them together. heres them looking variably uncomfortable in their fancy warden outfits (diana tabris, ailill mahariel, and renata surana, from left to right and in descending magnitude of fancy warden outfit discomfort), and im going to put some old sketches and a BUNCH of oc rambling under the cut for u!!

mahariel was my first ever dragon age oc! they’re quiet, compassionate, level-headed, sad, soft, anxious. they’re not naturally a leader, but they wind up making a lot of the major decisions as diana and renata disagree about almost everything.

literally all they wanted out of life was to marry their best friend tamlen and support their other best friend and future keeper merrill and help raise the clan children - losing tamlen and being torn away from clan sabrae was hugely traumatic for them. they felt that they should have died instead of tamlen and spend most of dao deeply depressed - that they survive the joining and the battle at ostagar and are forced to continue a life they no longer want or enjoy while so many others die is almost unbearable to them.

their emotional arc in dao is learning to find new meaning in their life and to enjoy living again. the friendships they make help with this - they’re particularly close with leliana and morrigan - as does their romance with zevran - they understand each other’s guilt and regret and help each other learn to live with their pasts. by the final battle they no longer have any desire to die and gratefully accept morrigan’s ritual, on the condition that she’ll love and protect the child in their absence - they’d always wanted children, and the idea of having a child they’ll never meet breaks their heart a bit.

they never get over their hatred and resentment towards the wardens for disrupting their life, and as soon as the dust settles post-game they desert and go off wandering with zev. i really love the hc someone came up with (i’ll dig up the post for u if you’d like) of zevran and the warden rescuing children from the crows and raising them. i also like to think they meet up with morrigan and renata at some point and get to have a relationship with kieran as well. of they three, they’re also the one spearheading the whole ‘lets cure the blight’ idea bc theyve decided 21-year-old passively suicidal mahariel was a fool and they want to live to be a hundred and twenty

diana tabris and renata surana are half sisters, both daughters of adaia. i hc that adaia was a crow, and when she became pregnant with renata she left antiva (and her lover, who wouldn’t leave with her) to escape a life she hated and save her daughters from being raised in violence. her wish was for them to live in peace and not have to fight for their lives, but after renata was captured and taken to the circle she trains diana to protect herself.

di isn’t content to keep her abilities to herself though - losing her big sister, her role model and protector, was very difficult for her, and she dealt with it by becoming sort of a big sister and protector to the alienage. diana is idealistic, passionate, hot-headed, quick-witted, a shoot first and ask questions later type.

di’s emotional arc in dao is about learning to nourish her softer side and to channel her rage and pain into creating positive change. she doesn’t regret slaughtering vaughn and all his men, or howe or loghain or anyone who threatens her family, but she hates the way living under constant threat has made her hardened, angry, untrusting. her relationship with leliana helps her let go of some of that hardness - they help each other believe in the goodness of the world in spite of everything they’ve been through.

diana’s deepest wish was that she and her family could’ve had the peaceful, loving life that adaia dreamed of - since that was impossible for her, she instead dedicates her life to changing the world so that people like her will be able to live that dream in the future. she becomes the warden commander of fereldan and arlessa of amaranthine, and together with shianni as bann in denerim and alistair and anora as allies on the throne works on deconstructing alienage segregation in fereldan and opening up titles and positions of responsibility to elves. after leliana becomes divine they marry and diana takes on the role of the right hand - they eventually retire and both live to be old, old ladies with hundreds of schmooples jr jr jrs running around and di finally gets the peaceful life she always wanted

renata surana is about two years older than diana, and she was taken from adaia and diana in her early teens. they were very close before ren was captured, and as soon as diana is recruited she immediately demands that they go to the circle and rescue her sister. they’ve both changed a lot since being separated - diana is very emotionally driven, and renata is very logical and pragmatic, so they disagree a lot - but they’re still absolutely devoted to each other and thrilled to be reunited.

renata is brilliant, charming, practical, curious, very guarded. in the circle she learns to hide her true self and be whatever people want her to be as a means of survival. to her peers she’s trustworthy, warm, smart but not so skilled as to be intimidating; to the templars she’s ditsy and pretty and unthreatening; to her mentors she’s reliable, loyal, a quick and attentive study. she doesn’t realize until she’s freed from the tower how much this strategy has eroded her sense of herself and her ability to relate honestly to other people.

her emotional arc in dao is relearning how to be her true self and to let herself be vulnerable in relationships again. she and morrigan learn together to let down their barriers and be authentic about their feelings for one another. morrigan initially offers the ritual to renata, but ren feels deeply betrayed and fears that morrigan only ever pretended to care for her out of this ulterior motive - she refuses, but gets to live since mahariel accepts. eventually she decides she can’t leave their relationship unresolved and tracks morrigan down.

after a lot of difficult lesbian processing emotional honesty they begin traveling together again and raise kieran together. after that they’re inseparable and spend the rest of their lives together - eventually they settle in their own little secluded hovel in a bog somewhere and legends proliferate in the nearby towns about a pair of old crone witches who steal children (as if they had nothing better to do)

[ruushes]

hi i love this ask so much. i have three wardens and yes they are all gay hahaha i love that like. u didnt even really have to ask lmao but i was so thrilled that u asked about my wardens i dropped everything to draw you this handy infographic/awkward family photo

diana and renata are half-sisters, and since im a big believer in multiple warden au they sort of adopt mahariel as their sad and awkward big brother. ive played thru all the origins but these are the three i like best and have spent the most time on. i ..... like elves. and rogues. and elves who are rogues.