#equipment tires

[avondaleautorepair12]

Tire service

[vigilskeep]

when you first start the cousland origin, you can have some conversations with arl howe, teyrn cousland, and duncan that shed some interesting light on the political situation in ferelden. it’s definitely the origin where you get the most context on the rebellion and on cailan and his father. while howe isn’t exactly the most trustworthy of sources, he is also one of the most openly critical of cailan that we have access to, which i think is worthy of interest

howe remembers maric with what the toolset describes as “genuine fondness”: “your father hasn’t spoken of our time with him? that man took care of his friends. as they say, he was large as life and twice as tall!” i think we should pay particular attention to that man took care of his friends.

what howe’s talking about is a really important aspect of kingship, where you win the consent and enthusiasm of the nobility for your rule by offering rewards like wealth, land, and prestige to the loyal. kingship is always less stable than it’s portrayed, and this is one of the ways that kings must essentially sell to the nobility that answering to them is worth their time, which would be especially important in ferelden given everything we know about its culture. fereldans believe someone only has power when it is given by the loyalty of those below them, who have the right to freely rescind that loyalty. the dao codex says that “the sight of [fereldan kings] asking for—and working to win—the support of ‘lesser’ men is a source of constant wonder to foreign ambassadors.”

i suspect howe is remembering a maric fresh from the victories of the rebellion, who was able to reward those who had followed him with the spoils of those victories. at the end of the stolen throne, we see that in the final days of the rebellion, maric was killing those who had betrayed his mother to the orlesians even when they arrived under truce to meet him on holy ground. in dao, we see no lingering orlesian nobility except for those who married in and continue to be met with marked hostility. i think we can safely surmise that maric elected to make no conciliatory measures and give everything to those who had followed him; with the orlesians on the run and his people out for blood, he was in a strong enough position to do so, and it certainly served to win the fond memories of men like howe.

by contrast, howe goes on to say, “it’s too bad cailan isn’t half that.” the toolset notes establish very clearly that it’s the same issue, elaborating on howe’s thoughts: “bitter turn, i don’t get as much from the current king”, and “disdainful, i have no use for him, he does me no favours”. this isn’t a minor character detail, if howe’s last words when killed by the player are anything to go by. “maker spit on you... i deserved... more...” whatever it is that howe feels he should have been given, by the crown or anyone else, it characterises his actions and his defining treachery.

it’s in these same conversations that we see another side of this demonstrated. there are two points where howe can openly criticise the king, and bryce immediately admonishes him for both. one even has the toolset note: “speaks sharply, as a lord to a lesser man, not a friend to an equal”. it definitely comes across that way; the way he tells howe “that’s enough” is not far off the voice he uses when the player, his child, displeases him. bryce can’t tolerate any criticism of cailan, as the couslands in dao are ardent supporters of the king. to venture some hc, i suspect that this is not merely royalist fervour, and that howe’s resentment for having been given less is matched by bryce’s awareness of the precariousness of having more.

over the centuries, the theirins have consolidated their power and eradicated almost all the teyrns (the noble rank that is second only to the king). with the only other lingering teyrn being loghain, who is essentially part and parcel of the royal family, the couslands stand alone as the only real rivals to theirin power within ferelden. there are rumours that bryce was once considered for king instead of the theirins; he too could have decided to believe he “deserved more”. but unlike howe, and perhaps understandably given his strong position and happy growing family, he is satisfied with what he has. he will not take the risk of even the slightest challenge being made within his hall

(i expect that bryce’s satisfaction with the current situation further spurred howe’s dissatisfaction to its heights, given the complicated cousland-howe history and the fact that he was expected to accept a friend he had fought beside as a superior for the rest of his life.)

i don’t think howe’s judgement on cailan is likely to be without basis. we don’t hear about any victories the young king has to his name, from which he could have passed around spoils. (to be fair, cailan had harder luck than maric in this regard. a king who raises a successful rebellion gets to bring glory and prestige to everyone who follows him, whereas a king trying to rebuild after that rebellion mostly gets to bring, uh, taxes probably. especially on wealthy centres of trade like howe’s amaranthine, one might assume.) cailan also takes a far more diplomatic approach to the question of orlais, which perhaps predictably did not win over many nobles of howe’s generation. it makes sense that cailan’s strongest supporters would instead be men like bryce who hope for things to simply continue, peacefully, as they are. perhaps in another world where cailan had won the battle of ostagar, he might have earned wider respect. (you could actually argue on this basis that there’s more sense and purpose to cailan’s glory-seeking than he usually gets credit for.) but howe already acts before ostagar, which can only demonstrate his certainty in cailan’s failings at this point: his belief that even if cailan could win, he would not be stable enough to pursue justice for the couslands

[skrrtscree]

burn my dread 💀💙

[redraw of sorts of official art, the og under the cut]

[studiousandrogynousfox-blog]

(almost) fully independent at clicky and zoomy stuff

this morning i received training to use an electron microscope independently! i'm now allowed to open and close a vacuum chamber on my own and play the video game of aligning everything to make the focus better! it's honestly mostly just clicking buttons in a software and carefully sliding a door open and close lol

in the afternoon after installing all the equipment i'll need in the vacuum chamber i was allowed to operate the microscope on my own and managed to measure two samples. the other seven i'll hopefully manage in the next two days :)

[anghraine]

You'd think the worst part of being immunocompromised would be catching All The Things, but honestly, the actual worst part is not being able to visit very sick loved ones because they're afraid of you catching the sickness :(

[mbebe-fc]

a mom and her mischievous kid

[gunsatthaphan]

so yes happy birthday to my bf of 4 years thanks for existing king 🥺🫶🏻

[mothscotch]

th the guys the silkys ive ment to draw them bjt forgot

tennis gjy belongs to @kirfff , the hockeyist be,ongs to @plumsliva and the goalie belongs to mee:3

[thebirdandhersong]

Counseling this coming week, starting tomorrow! Please pray for my co-counselor (whom I have yet to meet. 😭😭😭) and I and our girls :'))))

[squeakadeeks]

moodboard for this past week ❤️

[determinate-negation]

the numbers in ww1 history are so mind blowing like how did 30,000 guys die in one day how did 100,000 people get taken prisoner from a single attack

[ishouldgay]

The thing that annoys me the most about being in a BioWare fandom is that the fandom always wants me to like a boring man and hate the woman that they’ve decided to hate for whatever reason.

Like your dude is probably boring and that woman has done nothing wrong.

[not-equippedforthis]

georgie and rudyard s2e5

[gil-galado]

BRO WHAT IS THIS TALISMAN

[tea-cat-arts]

Aight, as someone who makes a lot of characters buffer when I draw them, I get why so many people in this fandom want to bulk up Xie Lian, but here's the thing:

The man doesn't eat. He's got a mortal body, and he canonically has wack eating habits (like, to the point I'm pretty sure Hua Cheng expresses concern about it book 5). How's the man supposed to be bulking up when he doesn't eat? (Also like... some people just don't get bulging muscles. Doesn't mean they're any less strong, it's just not immediately visible. Even during his first ascension, he was described as feminine looking to the point some people forgot he was a martial god, so I wouldn't be surprised if he fell into that category)

Anyways, unrelated, but I think it'd be nice if he got a slight tummy post canon. Let trash grandpa enjoy good food and retirement

[dopemonkshit]

i'm gonna need some people to just admit they are not fans of fantasy/sci fi and to stop watching/reviewing said genres