#eyas mahariel

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From the Pride OC asks!

3) How did your oc discover themself? Did something cause them to question, or did they always know?

for ALL OF THEM (please? 😁)

*cracks knuckles* Okay ... let's do this!

Daren: answered here (everyone else is under the cut)

Gil: She was my late bloomer. Going back to the mention about Gil and demisexuality, she probably has the closest parallel to my own journey. When she was growing up, she definitely thought she was asexual because she had -100% interest in boys and 0 interest in girls. She has that intense Eldest Daughter Syndrome that most Hawkes tend to carry and that + her discomfort with male attention made it easier to just ignore anything that had to do with her own sexuality because it make her feel complicated messy things. She was an incredibly awkward and apologetic teenager, but when she's older (around 19/20) her feelings for other women started to really develop. She doesn't fully blossom though until she gets to Kirkwall, cuts off all her hair, and starts hanging out with a bunch of disaster bisexuals

Hallapan: She figured out she was a girl at a pretty young age (I'd say about 7 or 8), because I headcanon that's also when the gender roles in her clan would have started hitting. That's also about the same time that her magic manifested and I feel like those two things kind of run parallel in her mind ... the idea of suddenly becoming something else, something rare but a little strange. Clan Lavellan wasn't actually her birth clan, and when a few more mages manifested when she was a young teen, she was sent to them. It was a two edged sword - she was upset that she had to go, but also excited bc it meant that she could go train as a Keeper in another clan where they never knew her as a little boy. It was a fresh start and helped her anxiety about puberty and social transition a ton.

Magnus: Oh Maggie ... my dear angry macho bisexual. Out of all my characters he is the one who struggles the most with his internalized homophobia and toxic masculinity. I headcanon that the further north you go, the more rigid things like gender and sexuality tend to be. In his case, Magnus was from a small town in the free Marches with a very strict father who joined the army the second he had the chance and stayed there for over a decade. Those two things gave him a kind of skewed view of masculinity and male-attraction. He's honestly something of a frat boy, so his own feelings for other men were a thing he could explain away through, like, the rituals of male-bonding. Definitely a guy who would say, "Of course I've fucked dudes. I was in the army wasn't I?" Meanwhile, Daren and Donnie would be staring at him like "......... bro." It takes until he's about 30 to get really comfortable with his own queerness (he has such a huge crush on Cullen, it's insane) and honestly his friendship with Dorian is so healing. Just finally having another queer male friend to talk to, and one with such a different but equally repressive upbringing ... yeah ... I think they're real neat.

Brosca: The female Brosca origin is so goddamn Gender to me! Unlike the canon, Brosca is actually older than Rica (about 33) and experienced a ton on gendered violence, starting from their mother. She grew up under a constant tirade of "Everything would have been better if you were a boy, you useless failure" (her father was merchant class). After Rica's father leaves for the surface and their mother falls into depressive alcoholism, Brosca is the one who has to shoulder everything - she becomes the breadwinner the only way she can (breaking heads for Beraht) and does everything she can to protect Rica (usually by making herself the wall or the target). Orzammar being so aggressively heteronormative forces her to carve out a sexless space for herself in order to survive. She's not a woman like her sister (pretty, painted, artistic, kept) and she's not a man like Leske (desperate, letcherous, envious, possesive). She's a knife and if you touch her for ANY reason, you're going to get cut. Going to the surface changes her life in so many ways, but I think one of the most powerful is hearing gender-neutral Ser for the first time. She never truly unpacks her own feelings about sex and gender, because she doesn't have the reason or language to do so, but even though she continues to use she/her for the rest of her life as a convenience, she really grows to think of her own gender as Warden. And that finally feels right.

Eyas: Eyas is a very reserved and introspective person, so I feel like he figured out that he was both gay and aromantic in his mid-teens. It was always a kind of perfunctory thing: clans are very interconnected groups and as a result, I don't think things like nudity, sexual interest, or gender really ... matter as much? Because everything is so interpersonal. When he leaves the clan, however, he doesn't handle it very well. He becomes even more withdrawn, and the only person who he even slightly warms up to is Zevran. Unfortunately, Zev interprets this change in behavior as romantic interest, and when he offers sex to Eyas, he panics. It takes a long, complicated, and shockingly emotional (for him) conversation until he finally admits how badly he's hurting, how little he wants sex, and how afraid he is of losing the closest thing he has to a clan brother because he can't feel the same desire. Zevran is absolutely understanding and helps him talk through his feelings about sex and romance (generally) and specifically (pining for Alistair), and gives him reassurance that what he feels is natural and understandable. They become even closer after that - a literal lifeline for Eyas in many ways - with a tinge of that homoerotic non-tension that really good queer friends always have. His actual "awakening" doesn't happen until Awakening (if he makes it that far) ... the second he lays eyes on Nathaniel Howe.

Donnie: The only character I've ever made who Gets The Goddamn Therapy and Support They Deserve! Aside from the background radiation of "Mild Homophobia and Sexism That Permeates Military Life Even In The Future" he doesn't have any hangups about his sexual orientation. I think, like most bisexual nerds, his awakening was Star Wars (which might be two centuries old, but he will defend with his dying breath). Like Daren, he gets a kick out of people assuming he's straight but he's never shy about mentioning ex-boyfriends. He's primarily attracted to women and a lot of the bros-to-lovers arc he has with Kaidan revolves around them both talking about hot women over beer and then dropping a quick reference to hot men ... no homo tho ... haha ... unless.

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oc questions:

eyas: Who, if anyone, would they trust with their deepest secrets?

The closest thing Eyas has to a genuine confidant once he joins the Wardens is Zevran. He's the person he can be the most honest with (Morrigan comes close, but only about some things), but even there he keeps a lot of things to himself. I think the biggest secret he tells Zevran is about his feelings for Alistair, but Zev also definitely intuits his passive suicidal tendencies ... they just never discuss it because it's too personal for both of them.

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Last week I *finally* finished my Canon run with my very first DA OC and TODAY I am going to redesign the first Warden I ever played ... it just feels right somehow 😚

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From the Pride OC asks!

14) Do you have ocs on the aro or ace spectrum?

Here's a funny piece of behind the scenes lore ... originally, Daren! Which is so ironic in retrospect because so much of his character depth and motivation now is irrevocably tied to romantic and sexual desire, but his first playthrough was intended to be romance free and then end with an Ace4Ace marriage to Anora. Instead, they get to be pansexual/asexual solidarity and I love that even more!

The No Romo banner, however, was picked up by Eyas, who in addition to being gay is both aromantic and demisexual. (I've also been going back and forth about Gil being demisexual... watch this page for further developments!)

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OC Tag Game

Thanks to @mxanigel for the tag! I’m tagging @mango-mage and @gayassdbz ... I wanna hear about your babies @_@

favorite oc - It’s Daren, no question and no surprise!

newest oc - Solona Amell is the most recent “canonized” character (with a save file and everything), but she’s been around as a side character for years, so I’ll say Donnie Shepard.

oldest oc - depending how you count it, either Eyas Mahariel or Magnus "not Trevelyan”. Mags was my original Inquisitor and a proto-Daren in a lot of ways, and Eyas was my very first attempt at playing any DA game (way back in 2015 ish) but I never ever finished the origin.

meanest oc - Mmmm, gotta be Brosca. She’s good, not nice (as opposed to Solona, who is nice but terrible).

softest oc - easy, Gil Hawke!

most aloof/standoffish oc - Eyas, definitely.

dumbest (affectionate) oc - Magnus! He is *notably* dumber than both Daren and Donnie ... which is not easy.

smartest oc - Solona, and by a *wide* margin.

horniest oc - oOOOOOh ... my first instinct was Daren, but I think I have to give it to Hallapan Lavellan.

oc you'd bang - Gil ... with her kind, hazel eyes and big strong mage arms 🥺👉👈

oc you'd be best friends with irl - Daren and Hallapan!

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I'm so excited, y'all. @galfrey and I finally settled on all the canon OCs for our 'verse. Kallian Tabris got yeeted and my girl Solona got a promotion! So the way it breaks down is:

Canon Heroes

Heulwen Surana

Daren or Maeve Cousland

Warden Recruits

Eyas and Talfryn Mahariel

Brosca

Non Wardens

Sidrin Aeducan

Garadin Tabris

Solona Amell

All of them are technically Warden OCs and have their own playthrough/worldstate, but usually whatever OCs aren't recruited simply die during their origin. Daren and Maeve are quantum locked, so only one can survive the siege: if neither survive, Maeve tried and failed to raise the alarm and Daren died defending the door, praying someone would come to save their parents.

The exceptions are the last section: for example, most of the time Sid joins the Legion of the Dead and pops up during the Dead Trenches to briefly team up with the "real" Warden, Garadin dies saving Shianni (which prompts the alienage riots), and Solona is one of Uldred's people who dies during Broken Circle.

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OC Questions: Eyas Mahariel: 6. If they were badly injured, and for whatever reason couldn't go to a hospital, who would they go to for help?

Definitely his brother, Talfryn, though the irony there is that Eyas is definitely better at treating wounds than Tal lmao. If he was with the Wardens, first Zevran (for support), then Wynne (for assistance).

In Vigil's Keep, Velanna. She'd bitch the whole time ... about how he needed to pay more attention and did he walk the whole way back on a broken foot and why would he even make this her problem in the first place when he could go bother the actual healer ... and honestly that would feel as soothing as the magic

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Working my way through some tag games! I was tagged by @galfrey to do this picrew, and I made my alternate Wardens!

Commander Brosca and Eyas Mahariel, my beloveds

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Here they are at last ... my Wardens. I started working on this infographic/meme thing like 2 months ago and then I just ... forgot to finish it. And yes, Brosca genuinely does not have a first name, at least not one she uses.

Next up, I think I’ll make one for my TAZ-quisitors

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Decided to test our copies of DAO/DAA before mailing them to a friend, which just means I got an excuse to remake Eyas and go hangout with all my BFFs in Vigils Keep

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Our’s is the way of the bow, the arrow, and the forest. We do what must be done but no more. We walk in silence and strike true. In yielding, we find our strength. That is how the Dalish endure. - Eyas Mahariel

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OCs Ask Game: Eyas Mahariel - #11 In an alternate timeline where they are not the Warden, what would they like their mark on history to be? | #13 What do they do for fun? | #39 What does their happily ever after look like? | #46 How easily can they express emotions? How easily can they hide emotions? | #63 63. What is always guaranteed to make them smile?

11. In an alternate timeline where they are not the Warden, what would they like their mark on history to be?

Honestly, none. His brother Talfryn was always the center of attention and Eyas would have been perfectly content to spend the rest of his life completely unknown to anyone outside the Dalish.

13. What do they do for fun? and 46. How easily can they express emotions? How easily can they hide emotions?

I'm answering these together because I literally ... legitimately ... don't know what he does to unwind. Eyas is naturally reserved and it only gets worse after he becomes a Warden. Surrounded by strangers, he withdraws behind a polite facade to keep everyone at a distance. The only person who sees through it (at first) is Zevran, who goes out of his way from the start to engage the Warden. Eventually, he opens up to Morrigan as well (and develops a very unfortunate crush on Alistair), but even then he keeps a lot of things to himself. Eventually he confides in Zevran that he always liked listening to the stories Paivel told, but when Zev asks to hear one Eyas admits he always felt too self-conscious to be a storyteller himself.

39. What does their happily ever after look like?

All he wants is to go back to his clan, so he is my Warden that is most dedicated to finding the cure for the calling. He never wanted to join in the first place, and while he grows to have positive feelings and camaraderie in the Order, it never felt like home. The day he finally sees Clan Sabrae's aravels again - more than a decade after he left - is the best day of his life.

63. What is always guaranteed to make them smile?

Alistair making a fool out of himself ... so basically just ... Alistair.

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*cue justin mcelroy voice*

i gotta say I’m starting with a sweet boy

hey soft boy u good?

now THAT’S a boy I could get into

MY TWO SPECIAL BOYS

my sweet boy let me show you the world

my BOOOOOOOOOOY

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Ma’am ... I am a whole entire Dalish ... the fuck you think I’m here for?

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Well she finally done did it!

@thegreatfoxking finally cajoled me into actually playing Dragon Age Origin and I am having a blast! I can’t wait to introduce everyone to my nervous little rogue boy, Eyas Mahariel 🔪╰(*°▽°*)╯🔪