#dragon age leliana's song

[blightmage]

Doing some achievement hunting since I rebought the games from Steam, and Sketch and Tug are some of my favorite minor characters. I am kind of holding out hope that we;ll get to see Sketch again in DA4 due to him being mentioned in a DAI Base game or Trespasser Codex (can't remember which one off the top of my head) entry and being imply to have been working for Solas since Leliana knew him (predating ~9:20/21 Dragon).

Leliana's Song is probably my favorite DLC. Along side Mark of the Assassin.

[larena]

Fiona 🤝 Marjolaine   Fuck the Divine

[hergreywarden]

Oh, I watch my soul it floats above me It's like every cell is hitting light speed Got a new step movin' with momentum Add it up, double it, take it and then some

Crystal clear like diamond Waist deep in my thoughts Found the silver lining Buried in a box Universal timing What if we got lost? Somewhere we fit right in

-Fell Asleep At The Beach by Glades

[lelianasbong]

Playing Leliana's Song and that moment when she confronts Raleigh, when he knows he's about to get got and resorts to taunting her about the week he spent torturing her in his dungeon -

Raleigh: I still remember that scared little girl in my cell!

Leliana: I remember her too. This is for her.

And then she KICKS THAT MAN OFF A CLIFF

[jemandthesingalongs]

insaneeee insaneeeeee that for leliana meeting adaia was essentially a footnote in what is her lowest point in her life, a blip on the radar, not really even going out of her way to save her or anything, just happened to be in the direction she was going only for this chance crossing paths to lead to someone else having one of the lowest points in their life

and she can meet them and fall in love

[a-soul-with-no-king]

Chase the morning light till all of this ends

[invinciblerodent]

Oh yeah, the Veilguard trailer does look excellent, I sure love that deeply charming, yet unromanceable dwarf man voiced by Brian Bloom!

(something something weird that it happened three times)

[v-arbellanaris]

on divine justinia

Justinia V will be remembered as one of the most progressive Divines in the history of the Chantry. Before her untimely death at the Temple of Sacred Ashes, she made strides to break down barriers for both mages and elves, as well as encouraging free thought among the Maker’s many children. For her views, she won as many enemies as she did supporters.

-- World of Thedas Vol 2.

PART ONE of a series, exploring Divine Justinia’s political stance. Was she really as progressive as people claimed?

Firstly, before we even dive into any analysis, we should define the word ‘progressive’. In the most base of definitions, it implies progress -- a gradual betterment. As a widely accepted definition, someone whose politics advocate for social reform. 

PART ONE - LELIANA'S SONG. / PART TWO - DRAGON AGE II. / PART THREE - THE MASKED EMPIRE.

Leliana’s Song DLC

This is where we first meet the future Divine Justinia V. We first meet her as Revered Mother Dorothea; she appears literally as a salvation to Leliana in her darkest hour, after Marjolaine has betrayed her, after Raleigh has tortured and beaten her. To make the metaphor even more glaringly obvious, we don’t even see her face at first, we hear her voice and see her as a glowing light coming down from a ceiling in a blank room. She’s clearly being painted as a ray of hope for Leliana, some sense of salvation -- (I’m very much getting the Maker helps those who helps themselves vibe from it) -- and when Leliana finally “gets” to her, she tells Leliana she’s safe. 

It’s important to keep in mind that this is what Dorothea means to Leliana. This is what Leliana sees and thinks about when she’s talking to and interacting with Dorothea. To Leliana, Dorothea is hope and safety, sympathy and compassion, and ultimately, a path to salvation. 

And though she may be those things to Leliana on a personal level, these traits have little impact on Dorothea's politics, which are influenced by the Grand Game and specifically how well a person can play it. This is made especially salient in the next scene.

Dorothea tells Leliana that she came to Ferelden without permission in order to fix her mistakes. The mistake she’s referring to is giving Marjolaine the papers containing Orlesian intel, which were then used to frame and implicate Leliana. It’s implied that this was the result of a seduction on Marjolaine’s part.

When Leliana questions whether Dorothea is trying to get her to steal the documents back, Dorothea denies it, just barely -- but then admits that there is “unfinished business” with Marjolaine, equating the documents she gave to Marjolaine with Leliana’s feelings of hurt and betrayal. She suggests that Leliana might want to get revenge for being “hurt so dearly” and offers to provide both Marjolaine and Raleigh’s location. She suggests that Leliana “help Orlais, and yourself”. At the same time, she claims that she doesn’t want Leliana to cause more harm to people, and yet, who was it that sends Leliana after Marjolaine in the first place? Who was it that sends Leliana to fetch the papers in the first place? With what Leliana just went through, Dorothea likely has no illusions about what Leliana is capable of -- or what she might want to do to Marjolaine, in the name of vengeance. In fact, Dorothea specifically addresses those feelings in order to convince Leliana to "help" both of them. Sending someone capable of murder -- with the motivation to kill -- after Marjolaine after tritely telling them that you don't want them to hurt more people...

Is she giving Leliana a chance do better or does she simply... not care what happens to Marjolaine as long as she gets the documents back?

This is the darkest moment of Leliana’s life. And though Dorothea shows great sympathy for Leliana’s feelings, despite her words, the actions she suggests essentially use Leliana against Marjolaine, all the while playing it off as though she doesn’t really need Leliana’s help, and this isn’t really about her at all, but it’s about Leliana’s emotions and struggles. But getting the papers back benefits Dorothea. The papers could be thrown into the sea or destroyed but Dorothea specifically pushes Leliana to retrieve them, in such a way that makes it look like that’s not what she’s asking for at all.

As Leliana, we get to quiz Dorothea and we get to see some insight into Dorothea herself. She calls the Ferelden rebellion “the Orlesian-Ferelden war” and states “Many on both sides have been reluctant to abandon the hatreds of that conflict.” 

The “conflict” she’s referring to is, of course, the Orlesian occupation of Ferelden and Ferelden fighting back against that occupation. Ferelden was colonised -- I struggle to understand how the violent occupation of a nation can be equated to resisting such oppression. But, I suppose that’s typical Chantry rhetoric that we see often; we see similar commentary about any state sanctioned/Chantry sanctioned violence against elves, such as the Exalted Marches, and, later, about the mage rebellion. Dorothea does inextricably link what’s bad for Orlais to what’s bad for the Chantry; unsurprising, considering the Andrastian Chantry is used to prop up Orlesian imperialism (read here for this thought provoking meta by mllemaenaed!).

Leliana asks what happens to all the people who followed her out of the dungeon. Dorothea says that some will be turned over to the city guard, presumably of Denerim where the story is set. Dorothea does state that some of them have more than paid for their petty crimes/ The "some of them" she's referring to specifically is Silas, who wants to join the Chantry. Ah yes, the sign of true repentance... and I suppose that everyone else just isn’t sorry enough? Or being tortured and/or sexually assaulted by Raleigh and his men somehow isn’t enough to pay for petty crimes? Hmm...

Conclusions, so far:

Her politics so far don't seem to be progressive -- the implications that Marjolaine seduced her (and thus, she has an active sex life) is perhaps a bit taboo for a priest, but her politics themselves don't necessarily seem progressive at this point.

She believes those who turn to the Chantry have truly repented, but others who do not, have not. She paints the Ferelden rebellion as a two-sided conflict, rather than an acknowledgement of Orlais as a hostile colonising force in Ferelden. None of these beliefs are progressive -- they're standard beliefs of Orlais and the Orlesian Chantry.

She's aware Leliana is a criminal here, but a criminal with uses, someone she can leverage against Marjolaine -- and she does, with devastating effect. Dorothea sends Leliana after Marjolaine fully aware that it could result in Marjolaine's death -- and is either naively hopeful about the result or entirely apathetic. She plays the Game and she plays it well -- well enough to survive having sold out Orlais, well enough to manipulate Leliana into working for her for the next ten years.

This is a master of the Grand Game.

Silas: What about you? Leliana: Me? Nobody cares what I want. Silas: You should.

[danielnelsen]

Awakening not included for balance reasons :)

[pulling-a-jowan]

Playing Leliana's Song for the first time and wow! I somehow hate Marjolaine even more!

[blightmage]

trying my best to recreate Adaia's morph, left is an unedited morph, right is my recreation. Also gave her some tucked hair. It's not prefect, but I'm pretty proud of how things are turning out. I still need to make some adjustments. Couldn't get the screenshots at the same angle though.

[angeltannis]

you can track how unwell I’m feeling about doomed female characters by how often I’m found listening to “The Path to Decay” by Sirenia

[ineedmyknightcommander]

Fic: for love nor money

In this, too, Flemeth had been wrong. DRAGON AGE | LELIANA/MORRIGAN | WORDS: 500 | RATED T. (AO3 LINK)

While Morrigan and Flemeth have had their differences, Morrigan's never forgotten what her mother had taught her: love is a weakness; love is a cancer; love makes people put others’ interests above their own welfare, and even their own lives. 

In this, too, Flemeth had been wrong. Or, at least, oblivious to the nuances.

For if there’s anything Morrigan has learnt over the past decade, it’s that there’s different types of love: the love Flemeth had spoken of most often was a love for the future, a hope and dream that one day, things would be better. It was a hopeless love, a foolish love, a maternal love.

No wonder Flemeth had derided it so. 

Morrigan will never know if the way Mother had regarded her daughters had borne any resemblance to the way Morrigan loves her son, but she supposes it does not matter now, for her life is now full of other loves, the type Flemeth had thought so meaningless, so trifling, that she had barely deigned to speak on them at all.

But Morrigan knows better.

Her love for Leliana isn’t the type bards sing about in tales, the all-consuming fire burning everything in its path. Nor is it even what Morrigan had long ago defined as love for herself: a passionate meeting of minds, of equals; that had been the closest she had ever come to understanding the phenomenon so many others had described.

Love is nothing like that at all.

‘Tis instead a source of warmth and comfort, the yearning to rest one’s head against another’s and whisper I am home now; it is a place one can always return to no matter how the years and countries between them might keep them apart.

It is also a process, slow and understated yet rapid and overwhelming. Loving another (truly loving another) is working towards making each other better as people, as part of this world, and inevitably, becoming a little more like one another in the process.

There is no question in Morrigan’s mind where the changes have occurred in her relationship with her beloved: before Leliana, she had never believed in the notion, thinking it a flight of fancy at best.

And yet, Leliana had never given up on love, on them, believing enough for them both.

Where Leliana has opened Morrigan’s eyes to the joy and beauty of the world, Morrigan in turn reminds her love to hold onto the ruthless pragmatism that had served them so well in the past. The world might be beautiful, but it is still full of horrors, full of those who might wish to see them suffer.

But Morrigan knows that no matter how far apart they are, no matter what horrors they face, they will be facing them down together. This is the type of love that whispers: today is worth fighting for, too.

And if it is weak to feel such a way, then so be it: at least she will not be weak alone.

[lelianasbong]

I looove the Leliana's Song dlc so much. Sometimes I play it just so I can coo over baby bard Leliana 🥹🥰🥰 Also I love seeing her at her prankiest, trolling people because she's young and it's fun and she doesn't yet have the weight of the world on her shoulders, just her own ghosts and Marjolaine whispering sweet nothings in her ear (emphasis on the nothing).

[catebees]

This little guy from a 2 hour long DLC owns my heart and soul

(Couldn't decide whether to use Skech's palette from Leliana's Song or from DA:II, so I did both)

Lineart under the cut!

[bumblewarden]

I was wrong! Adaia actually has slightly more than one line!

Plus at the start of combat: