#da worldstate

[itsyasyall]

What's your canon world state for dragon age?

Hello🏃🏾! So, my Da world state is like a personal mess in my brain, because my first warden was my Mahariel and i consider it canon, but i full played Surana recently and it's also canon for me, like a branch in the timeline that became bigger than i thought, so I'll put Mahariel as an honorable mention:

DaO: Thaer Surana, circle elf, arcane warrior/blood/battlemage, 22yo, kind, a bit prideful and determined to survive. Saved the circle, *saved Connor, helped the werewolves and elves, Bhelen as a King, helped Jowan escape every time, didn't destroyed the Urn, didn't kill Flemeth, did the dark ritual because she trusted Morrigan (and is a scholar too), Anora and Alistair rule together, Loghain is alive, saved Amaranthine and the Keep, let the Architect alive and romanced Leliana.

(* for game reasons Surana makes a deal with Desire, but in my HC it's with Pride (after the Redcliff events), the same from the Harrowing)

Da2 (current playthrough): Inara Hawke, self taught mage who dabs into a bit of everything, 25yo, pretty straightforward and a mediator (blue and a bit of red), never felt at home in Kirkwall and is burdened by the loss of their family. Carver becomes a warden, killed the Arishok, Merrill's clan is alive, Isabela returned the tome, helped the mages, let Anders go and romanced Fenris.

DaI: Tharell Lavellan, Knight Enchanter and almost First Keeper of his clan. 40yo, serious looking and a bit of a bastard with a heart of gold (under all his pipe's smoke), didn't wanted to be there at all. Sided with the mages, let the wardens stay in Ferelden, Bull's Chargers alive, Celene dies and Brialla rules through Gaspard, Divine Leliana (softened), Hawke left in the fade, not drank from the well, disbanded the inquisition and romanced Blackwall.

NOW, the honorable mention of Mirthir Mahariel worldstate:

DaO: Mirthir Mahariel, Berserker/Warrior (and hunter alongside Tamlen) in the clan. 22yo and bright like the sun. Saved the circle, saved Connor, helped the werewolves and elves, Bhelen as a King, Killed Flemeth, Anora rules alone and Alistair is a warden, Loghain is dead. Loved Tamlen, romanced Alistair for a bit, then Zevran until the end. Did the ultimate sacrifice.

(I have a second Hawke (Tibalt) in my sketches and my first inquisition (Vena) Adaar so maybe this could become a future secondary worldstate!!)

[persephoneggsy]

saw this template a while ago and the Dreadwolf announcement got me to finally finish filling it out for my canon worldstate heroes: Fiora (archer rogue), Marian (healer mage), and Hildegarde (rift mage). Leaning towards a warrior for Dreadwolf, just so I can have one, but we’ll see.

and just a fun little bonus, i made one for my Inquisitor Sebastian Vael AU:

[mermianar]

she's the coolest (and most tired) mom friend

glendimar lavellan belongs to @valtianan

[spainkitty]

I've been holding on to all my extra kissing picrews and I'm finally gonna a post them @merrybandofmurderers 😉

Here's my feral DA2 polycule w/MageHawke + some Solavellan/Solurana (for you @sillyliterature and your sneaky Solasmancing agenda)

For It Is Fleeting AU WorldState Kisses

Tabriana

DA2 Polycule

Solurana or Cullurana??? (undecided/place your bets and votes 🤣🤣🤣)

[wildmelon]

it's fucking DRAGON AGE SUMMER BITCHES i'm so gd excited

[rivilu]

Okay but faith is not a virtue and spirits of Faith are only considered virtuous because of the prevalent andrastian culture (and usefulness to the seeker order) while in reality Faith is no less an abstract neutral concept as Command, in this essay I will-

[hceinart]

would da wilte be qunari?? #skinny qunari rights. or just pink elf with horns? runs around in a cricle i cant believe you like da as well

His skinny ass is a tal-vashoth 💅I think if bioware wants me to believe that female qunari can be (i refuse to accept it is the norm) this small then male qunari have the right to be twinks occasionally

[s1ithers]

finished da:o at last. thinking about my assortment of half-developed warden ocs who never quite gelled the way hawke did and i feel like it's partly that i never hit on a sequence of endgame choices that really felt like a payoff. da:o is a such a great build-your-own-blorbo kit, you get such juicy character concepts out of the origin choice & reactivity but i'd always get an oc to mid-late game and feel like they were a bit dressed up with nowhere to go bc the ending just doesn't... really cap their arc in a way that feels satisfying

there's some good crunchy episodic drama contained within the treaty quests but in terms of the overall structure, the warden hits their lowest point at the beginning and you spend the game powering up until you win, pretty straightforwardly depending on your choices. like yeah the dark ritual is edgy sexist bullshit but you need it, you need something there.

like the first 2/3 are a great arc. hero leaves home in exile, goes around finding friends & adventure, returns home changed by said adventures, confronts their past, wrenching emotional ordeal etc, moves on as their new actualized self to take on the big bad. which is great except everything pretty much comes up warden from there on out. you need some kind of climax crunch to test that actualized self, another pain point at the end

which they tried to do, it just falls a bit flat for me. i've heard the 'grey warden must die' twist criticized as feeling sprung out of nowhere but i don't mind that so much. between the whole 'in death, sacrifice' thing, duncan & jory, sophia dryden, etc, i think it's pretty well set up that this is an organization with dark secrets that their two bumbling junior recruits know way too little about. i do think it's a bit stock. 'will you die to save the world?' just isn't that interesting, there's a plain right answer both ethics & genre are pointing you to, which more importantly is not really tied to your character at all.

like say what you will about da2 but the ending pays the hell off bc it forces hawke to show who they are. a person could justify making either decision, so who your hawke is matters. every bit of character development is leading up to how they'll jump in that moment

and then after dropping the warden sacrifice on you, dao immediately offers you an escape hatch, which, unless your warden is really fussed about blood magic or whatever, of course you're gonna take. structurally i think this decision is leeched of a lot of potential by the fact that both options are coming as new information.

new guy we just met: wait! there's a problem! morrigan: don't worry i fixed it! okay! on we go then! thanks morrigan

(could've been cool if alistair knew a warden had to die from the start, so you're struggling to go on with this journey, knowing how it ends, really get some time to stew on that before morrigan drops her bomb. the full relief of a stay of execution, plus 'you're only telling me this now?!' gives the warden a somewhat more sympathetic reason to feel betrayed than like, self-centered dickishness)

but more than that, the options the game gives you to object don't acknowledge what's really so awful about it. like you get 1) dark magic scary. part of a pattern in how i think this franchise tends to (mis)apply blood magic etc as a narrative device, but, like, good option to have for roleplay. 2) is oldgodbaby a bad idea? valid question but doesn't really go anywhere (and is more or less locked into being an anticlimax, can't be world-shaking as a choice-dependent outcome)

but like that post that was going around. what it means for morrigan is so wrenching. is it what she wants for herself or is she still acting out her mother's will? can the warden know, or believe they know? if they ask her to go through with it, are they complicit in flemeth's abuse? or are they overriding morrigan's agency if they refuse out of concern for her? how does your warden's origin & personality frame how they see this - what they're entitled to, what they owe, what they believe about duty & autonomy & respect, they're relationship with morrigan, & with magic, & their own impending death.

these people who are so young & so traumatized flailing around hurting each other in their good intentions. the dark ritual as this awful act of desperation & mixed motivations & regret that tears this hard-won friend group apart (especially if alistair is involved). saving the world as a good clean victory over evil in the grand scope, at the cost of this cataclysmic sacrifice on the personal level - so intimate, so devastating, so small. THAT'S drama.

[ammoniteflesh]

god help me I've created another Dragon Age OC

[vigilskeep]

SIGH. i probably should have started this first full run of dai with my trevelyan instead and i don’t know what to do about that now

[kirkwallguy]

like this is an INSANE way to speak about someone you loved and killed. i couldn't hold his leash tight enough. i could only put him down like a dog who had bitten the wrong person after years of being kicked.

[phillipsgraves]

how do you keep going when the worst thing has happened?

[ vet, aerie, hilda, addie, rosie, and cress belong to @jendoe! ] [ template by @marivenah! ]

[telumendils]

THE HEROES OF THEDAS ↳ Warden-Commander Elspeth Cousland (Eleanor Tomlinson) Champion Amalia Hawke (Tessa Thompson) Inquisitor Rosalind Trevelyan (Summer Bishil)

[howyouducan]

I'm fond of this screenshot. Morrigan is sauntering about, monologuing; and behind her, Lady Aeducan is just like, "Do any of you guys know who this woman is?? No? No explanations for the dwarf? Great."

[v-arbellanaris]

would you guys still love me if it turns out i started my joan playthrough instead of finishing my damon or mal one.

[kingvamps]

[ID: fullbody sketches of rinha surana, fionn hawke, and kasataash adaar, with their heights written next to them and color coded as blue, red, and green, respectively. rin is an elven woman who is 157cm tall, and wearing a long coat. fionn is a 185cm tall human, wearing the mantle of the champion, with mixed elements from all three class versions. kasa is a 208cm tall qunari wearing a version of “The Skin That Stalks”. behind them lies a red square going from the floor to kasa’s height. End ID.]

a very quick and dirty height chart + updated worldstate decisions beneath the cut

Dragon Age: Origins

Hero of Ferelden: Rinha Surana (Arcane warrior, Shapeshifter, Blood Mage) (She/They)

Romanced Morrigan

Mabari named Revas

All companions recruited except Loghain + All companions alive

Hardened Leliana and Alistair + did all companion quests except Wynne’s

Saved Redcliffe + Isolde sacrificed + Connor saved

Brokered peace between Dalish and Werewolves

Saved mages

Bhelen ruler of Orzammar + Anvil destroyed

Urn of Sacred Ashes wasn’t poisoned + killed Genetivi

Killed slavers + saved alienage elves

Loghain killed + Alistair and Anora marry

Rin did the ritual with Morrigan and killed the Archdemon

Saved Amaranthine and Vigil’s Keep + Allowed Architect to live

Dragon Age: II

Champion of Kirkwall: Fionn Hawke (Rogue / Spirit Warrior, Assassin) (He/They/Any)

Red

Romanced No one

Mabari named Vinsomer

Recruited all companions + All companions alive

Rivaled Aveline + Befriended all other companions

Bethany went to the Circle

Bartrand lived + Varric did not keep the lyrium idol

Dueled The Arishok for Isabela

Merrill did not destroy the Eluvian + Merrill’s clan survived

Killed Danarius + Varania lived

Aveline did not marry Donnic

Sent Feynriel to the Dalish + Tevinter

Didn’t side with Petrice

Met/let go Zevran

Rescued Nathaniel

Sided with Orsino

Approved of Anders destroying the Chantry

Sided with mages

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Inquisitor: Kasataash Adaar (Rift Mage) (She/He)

Romanced Iron Bull

Sharp-Tail Dracolisk named Vurasaara

All companions recruited

Dorian remained estranged from his father

Blackwall’s identity revealed + Blackwall did not become a Grey Warden

Iron Bull saved Chargers + became Tal Vashoth

Sera killed Harmond with Inquisitor’s encouragement

Cole made more spirit

Gave Vivienne snowy wyvern heart

Cassandra did not remake the Seekers

Saved Solas’ friend + Activated the Elvhen Artifacts

Leliana steeled + became Divine

Montilyets can trade in Orlais again

Cullen did not take lyrium

Destroyed Samson’s armour

Alliance with mages

Rescued the Valo-Kas

Negotiated a truce between Briala, Celene, Gaspard

Sacrificed Hawke + Rebuilt Grey Wardens

Allied with Temple of Mythal guardians + Morrigan drank from the Well of Sorrows

Conscripting Judge

Told everyone he was not the Herald of Andraste

Disbanded the Inquisition + Will stop Solas at any cost

Turned Skyhold into a school