#for the elves and specifically for Francesca

[stromuprisahat]

Slightly incoherent The Witcher S02 rant

(Finished and posted two years later with no Starbucks involved...)

They’re trying so hard to be The Next Game of Thrones, they’re erasing everything that makes The Witcher special. Things are changed unnecessarily, *new* *original* storylines added- much simpler and inferior to source material.

There’s a lack of ~variety~ of dangers. Different kinds, different degrees... It’s all life-threatening, fatal. The writers forgot some things can be dangerous only thanks to specific circumstances. Leshy in the woods can be just that- monster living in witchers’ keep’s backyard, not some weird parasite trying to murder or transform all the witchers.

Another trend I've noticed is "No rest for the heroes.". Characters aren't allowed to have a place and/or time to develop without preasure. The most peaceful part of Ciri's story got turned into parade of incompetent, inconsiderate idiots. It’s the same issue I had with first season of Shadow and Bone, where MC's studies and integration into new enviroment got struck out. Both were lacking "action". Both got cut short and re-written to be more "eventful". In both cases the story AND characters suffered. Characters aren’t developed, they become changed. Netflix seems to have a pattern, and- considering second season of S&B- doesn’t learn from its previous terrible results.

Another huge issue is pacing. The whole season feels like it happened in a week, when Blood of Elves took more than a season of the year.

“I know someone...” As it turned out, we all do.

When we’re at things I hate, there’s the trend of connecting EVERYTHING. You have a minor part to fill? Give it to one of already existing characters to make their path more eventful and memorable. What happened to random soldier, corpse no. 54 or anonymous inkeeper in shithole MC’s just passing through? You don't constantly cross ways with the same three people! Make the world real by houndreds of faces you'll never see again! It’s like the creators didn’t notice this is a TV show, not a video game, where you have to animate every different feature, so more NPC with the same faces are to be expected.

I also dislike the trend of giving some storylines to one-off side characters or making new things up just to make them important enough to keep them around (Istredd, Dara, Stregobor). Why can't you accept some people appear, fuck up your life and you never see them again? Are they pushed to keep some actors around?

The books are mostly following Geralt’s and Ciri’s story, but not exclusively. Show offers a chance to add more background politics, wider picture. Instead they bait us with well-known, already beloved characters that get reduced to something they’re not. I’ve made a separate post about Francesca Findababair, but they didn’t treat Philippa any better. Instead of a badass, crucial for the plot, the intelligence behind Redanian Intelligence, she’s just an owl. Dijkstra’s messanger to keep in touch with some sad little elf kid.

Voleth Mier disaster

There isn’t more genric evil creature in fantasy than “demon”. Then they call it “Mother of Evil”? She’s feeding on fear? I’m starting to suspect someone in the writing room has some serious mommy issues. ... and no imagination.

Apparently Blood of Elves without a final boss fight is too boring to adapt faithfully. There’s no time to increase the stakes gradually. Every season needs to end with a BANG!

Shared dreams? Why is there the need to connect everything even more to make it MORE important and SPECIAL and INTERESTING?

Vesemir and the rest of Kaer Morons

Why the fuck is Coën Wolf, not Griffin? Remember how I talked about unnecessary changes? Why bother keeping names, when everything else is different?

Eskel didn’t deserve this shit. The writers are counting on our pre-existing knowledge of his relationship with Geralt, so his death has at least some impact. Zero effort on their part, merely one (1) flashback. The Wolf funeral is plain stupid, while supposed to look "cool". a.) There isn't many witchers, they tend to die on the Path. b.) I'm sure the mutations just make the witchers tastier. No side effects. c.) Eskel was a fucking tree. Did the wolves just use him as a fancy chewing toy?

Lambs is a dick, but a dick, who loves his family. Not a bully picking on young traumatized girls.

Vesemir’s probably the second worst, considering the whole mischaracterization mess. They’ve changed friendly grandpa into "Let us use Ciri to make more witchers". Not OOC at all.

The writers also kinda missed the whole point of only four witchers living in the gigantic keep, but never mind that...

Why do they bother looking for new stories, when they just grind it into homogenic crap corresponding with The Pattern™?

Since when are witchers training in temples? (So much for neutrality...) And where's the chubby Slavic panímáma? Melitele's tample was about healing and herbs, not magic, that's Yennefer's storyline. Yes, it matters. It completely changes the perspective.

Since there’s no emotional build-up for anything, creators went for low-haging fruit. But Roach had to die for more reasons. Aside from the obvious (Horses aren’t immortal and we can’t kill the bard.), it’s the perfect way to get Geralt on gorgeous black Friesian. Y'no, because other horses are never so cool. And the Hero™ can't ride just some chestnut these days... Don't get me wrong, I love Friesians since I was a child, but this trend is beyond annoying.

Why change 14th of the hill? That’s Triss’ storyline and passing it on Yennefer served absolutely nothing.

Then we have Rience, who is for some reason super powerful- not only he doesn't have a problem drawing from fire, he can teleport to witcher's keep? Place full of magic, the very same one that's hard to find and he's never been to? Compare with game!plot, where Lambert’s dimetrium bombs messed with Yennefer’s magic enough for her not to be able to call someone.

There should be a list of banned words, or words and phrases that are often overused: power, protect, save, curse(d), fault, ~ needs you. ~I~ need you., Together. *meaningful pause*, You can fight this., glowy eyes = evil, suicidal self-sacrifice, not perfect but real, family, I beliiiiieve in you., force, darkness...

Sorry, but using a quote from one of the strongest moments of Blood of Elves in completely different situation will NOT give you extra points. Quite contrary. This is how you ruin one of he best parts of the books- by holding a sword to your SO's (who's been through some serious shit) neck.

Honorable mention of Emhyr var AnotherDumbVillain, for publicly proclaiming Ciri’s his daughter ...now the whole Nilfgaard knows what he wants. Stupid and the easiest way to let his enemies’ spies know just HOW much is she valuable.

Things I liked about this season: Tris and Ciri's meeting, Vereena, Yenneskíer chemistry

If there’s one thing second season of The Witcher taught me, it’s “Keep your expectations low, you’re gonna be let down anyway.”.

[mimsyaf]

I am watching The Witcher S3:

It is impossible (for me, ymmv) to give 2 shits about anyone in this fucking show except Yenn, that elf guy who Siri Ciri used to hang out with for a bit when she was fleeing Nilfgard in S1, Jaskier (but only because Joey Batey is marvelous), and Cahir because we stan one (1) deranged fanatic, and I guess also Fringilla because she seems as over it all as I am. Oh and Istredd my beloved, who so far has been in a total of 10 seconds of this season.

And you might say, well Mimsy, that’s a lot of people. To which I would reply that THERE ARE SO SO MANY FUCKING PEOPLE IN THIS and it is so confusing but not in a “keep up with the clever twists” kind of way but a what the fuck is ever happening at any given time kind of way. Like, everyone’s got at least 3 agendas and are double crossing each other all the time but I can’t keep track of ANY of it. And there are just too many existential threats. But anyway, despite the people I mentioned above that I do want to actually see, instead I am watching hours of footage of That Fire Dude, the king’s ambiguously rascally gay brother who I want to like but I seriously don’t have a clue what his deal is and also he needs to open his mouth more when he talks, Fucking Francesca and Filavandrel (I thought HE was supposed to be King of the Elves or whatever, but he just mopes around after her sorry ass), Fucking Francesca’s Brother Who Is At Least Now Dead, that other elf guy who talked like Bill Pullman and who was annoying but at least he also hated Francesca, Meanface Tissaia, That Very Hot Sorcerer Guy from S2 who I guess is sleeping with Tissaia and is leading the sorcerers or at least the AMAB ones (do THEY get turned into eels, or is that fate just reserved for girls), that guy who I think is supposed to be a dwarf but is mostly just Scottish. that Redanian king and his spymaster Dykstra or however he spells his name (actually I would climb that old man like a tree but I hate his stupid storyline also because I have no idea what he and bird lady are even trying to DO), The White Flame Who I Guess Used To Be The Hedgehog Guy but seriously the actor playing him is like 30, I guess he fathered Ciri when he was 16, Ciri Herself, Geralt’s offscreen-fridged mother, that Druid lady (I like her werewolf bf though), that fake version of Ciri who sometimes talks in a weird voice, and The Wild Hunt. Who I guess are supposed to be terrifying but who just remind me of Gwar tbh. Oh and maybe Simon Callow is in it, or was? Above all I do not give a flying fuck about Geralt, which is kind of a problem. He’s BORING. He’s so BORING. And he’s onscreen so much of the time.

I dunno, people’s fic about the video games made them sound fun, were those fun? This is decidedly more unfun with each season although it is kind of queer and has many many beautiful people to look at. It also has a lot of non-specific vibes and I guess I’m watching for that. But if one more person says “The Continent” again I am going to lose my shit.

[exhausted-archivist]

Gardens in the Circles

So, @shivunin brought up some wonderful speculation in the tags to the post about mage affinities. Which I actually have some things I'd like to add to!

#i do wonder if lack of access to plants in general for many Circle trained mages means that they may not develop plant/nature related skill

TLDR because I'm long winded and really love talking about these elements of worldbulding:

Circle mages don't actually lack access to plants. Most, especially in Orlais, Ferelden, and Rivain have frequent if not constant access to plants. Primary exposure due to ingredients and in circle gardens.

Its not just circle mages that lack affinity to plant magic. We don't see it manifest commonly in the Avvar, Chasind, Seheron (what we know of their magic), Tevinter, or Vashoth/Qun. We primarily see the manifestation in elves - more specifically the Dalish.

The worldbuilding so far seems to show there is a very real racial/genetic tie as well as a nurture/education element to what a mage can actually do.

So, long answer time. Let's start with the first point: Lack of access to plants for many Circle trained mages.

This one is addressed by point one mostly but also point two. But lets start with the access to plants a typical Circle mage has.

Outside of the variable of plant exposure prior to joining the circle, which unless their magic emerges on the younger end of the scale they've likely been exposed to plenty of plant life. But, after they enter the circles? Well, we know that mages not only regularly work with plants but multiple Circles have gardens. The two we have canonical mention of are Montsimmard and Kinloch.

There are multiple references of circles and mages having access to gardens in DAO, DAI, and the novels; such as from Vivienne that at the least Montsimmard circle had a garden, as well as reference to older female mages should have "stayed in the circle and focused on their gardening" through out the series.

Which would make sense, much like the Inquisition has some extent of an herbal garden, circles would need to grow their own plants for use in their studies, and manufacturing in alchemy, potion crafting, herbalism, and other magical practices.

We know that some mages even have a focus/specialty in botanical fields such as Ines Arancia; the author of most plant codices we read from da2 onward. You meet her in Awakening while she is out looking for northern prickle weed.

Coupling with that, the fact that in Orlais, mages have have significantly more traveling privileges and freedom than other circles we know of. A fact stated in both Masked Empire and Inquisition. We see this mentioned by Vivienne in Jaws of Hakkon, that mages do regularly go out and collect plants for alchemy or to study.

I think the only ones where that wouldn't be the case are Kirkwall, Starkhaven, and potentially the Anderfels (just due to the nature of the Anderfels). But I don't think the lack of affinity to plant magic is really exposure based.

Which brings us to the second point: Plant/nature magic doesn't manifest in cultures outside of the Circle.

We don't see those of the Avvar, Chasind, or Tevinter - except for one Tevinter character, Francesca Invidus, introduced in Desception comic - have any more affinity for plant magic than we do in the games. In fact, we only see mention of plants blooming, growing, or any manipulation under elven mages. There are exceptions; Malcolm Hawke, Francesca Invidus, the Warden when taking on the Keeper specialization, and Feynriel. It is much more common under those of the Dalish origin, or those who had a Dalish mentor.

Leading into the third point: The default of magic is racial/genetic, but exceptions can happen depending on how one is nurtured.

I do think, like most magic in Dragon Age, there seems to be a racial/genetic quality to it. Or rather more specifically how connected to the Fade/magic an individual is. Elves being the most of the known races and more inclined to nature and plant magic, vashoth being a rather unclear connection but seem to have an affinity to elemental magic, and humans being more of the general "jack-of-all-trades" sort where they have very few limitations except in the fields of certain magic that is designed by and for elves. Such as the crossroad magic, uthenera, and

But how a mage is raised, how their magical talent is nurtured can alter or redirect that. For instance, though mostly a game mechanic element, non-elven pcs can learn to be spirit warriors, knight-enchanters (a discipline developed by the Chantry based on elven practices), Keeper magic, and plant magic. Or how, Qun born mages might have an affinity for elemental magic due to their lack of formal or even any training.

[glwstic]

Rec List 8: The Witcher

-  Just a song of safety by LeWanderinGaal

'Some said the Sandpiper was so amazing he wasn't even a person, just a song of safety that carried on the wind. Said he could enchant guards with just a hum of tine. I've heard some say he's an elf mage in disguise, strong as a dragon and beautiful as Francesca. When we met him, sure he wasn't any of those things, but his songs were good and I can't but thank him for saving me and mother' Elven child's diary - Cintra 1264

or

Jaskier's face will forever be a memory of freedom for some, Sandpiper the name of the saivour of elves. And I wanted to explore how Jaskier's deeds deserve some more recognition and how him arguing with the deck guard seemed...wrong, especially if Jaskier had been helping elves for a while by the moment we see him. If other favourite concepts and headcanons for him made their way into this well...

Oneshot,  11,751 words

-  as every step I choose to take by restmyheadatnightcontent

The fire follows him.

He cannot seem to escape it - in moments of quiet he can still feel his fingers burning, with every mouthful of food that he eats, all he tastes is the horrid mixture of blood and smoke, and it takes everything he has to swallow it down and not empty his stomach, and he is constantly looking over his shoulder, catching glimpses for that lingering shadow, waiting for the moment when that black figure and that singular flame catch him again.

Most days, he has a handle on it.

Or at least, he does his best to convince everyone that he has a handle on it.

Oneshot, 1,492 words

- reconstruction by SparrowFlight246

Jaskier's burned hand gets infected in the aftermath of everything.

It complicates things, a bit.

Oneshot,  6,363 words

-  (I won’t) Scream Into the Night by Chaos_Breeds

Ciri didn’t react to that, looking into the distance again. “The thing is,” she whispered, voice raw and aching. The voice of a girl who had seen so much death and destruction, and was trying to brace herself for more. “I’m not really worried about you two.”

There was a long, blissful second where Geralt had no idea what she was referring to. And then suddenly, he heard far-off humming, snippets of ‘Toss a Coin’. His blood ran cold.

“Jaskier,” he realized.

———

Jaskier isn’t like the rest of them - the world is much, much more dangerous for a bard than for Witchers and witches and magical princesses. Ciri and Geralt try to deal with that knowledge. Jaskier helps.

Oneshot,  1,803 words

-  The Path Not Taken by sospes

Jaskier comes across an injured witcher in a backwoods town, months after the events of the dragon hunt. It all just sort of escalates from there.

5/5 Completed,  40,149 words

-  Advantage by sospes

"The drugs have been made specifically for you, to keep you docile. Didn’t want you snapping my neck mid-vengeance, did I?”

Vengeance? “I don’t even know you,” Geralt spits.

The lordling laughs. “Oh, the revenge wasn’t on you."

Jaskier made a mistake. Geralt suffers the consequences.

Oneshot,  10,448 words

-  like a flame that burns the candle by unseenbox

Yennefer lights a fire. Jaskier has some opinions to offer on the subject. Together, they find a way to cope.

Oneshot,  2,363 words

-  resurge infra terra by asweetepilogue

It seemed the alderman had been wrong when he said that the creature’s bite killed instantly. Shame Jaskier was only figuring that out now that he was several feet under.

Oneshot,  1,256 words

-  so hard to say (so easy to do) by asweetepilogue

Jaskier gets left behind, and Nilfgaard is not forgiving of his sacrifice.

Oneshot,  3,165 words

-  so hard to do (so easy to say) by asweetepilogue

They can’t get out of this. He knows it, Geralt knows it. Ciri is starting to, her eerie green eyes wide and frightened. Jaskier can hear them, men shouting off to their left and the sound of footsteps behind them. It’s over.

Nilfgaard closes in, and Geralt has to make a choice.

Oneshot,  698 words

[littlestsnicket]

francesca, and a female, elven mage, was persecuted by elves. her own people have been nearly as scared of her has stregabor is within her life time.

not that that justifies the things she has done (or will do) but it puts them in a specific context.

francesca is not trying to preserve elven culture but remake it. she has deliberately given herself the right to define what that culture is.

this makes her a really interesting ally and foil for phillipa.

[bloededhoine]

world building cause twn doesn't part 4: elves!

everyone loves elves! they're a fantasy genre mainstay, archery is so sexy, and they have those E A R S. plus, they play a pretty important part in the witcher universe!

series masterpost

colour code cause i fucking love colour codes - already happened/introduced, probably s2, important background info, stuff that might be in the prequel, extras

background

i'd recommend going through the last parts, or at least the tl;dr's first

elves arrived on the continent about 2000 years before humans, and are divided into 5 distinct cultures of varying importance: aen undod, aen elle, aen seidhe, black seidhe, and aen woedde

elves only came to the continent in one group, but not all of that group stayed. the different branches based on where they settled make up the different cultures

the main two languages in the witcher are common speech and elder speech (aka hen llinge), the former used by most humans and the latter used by the elder races

aen undod

the aen undod are the oldest elven culture, having existed years before the conjunction of spheres

their home world faced some huge catastrophe, so the aen undod left in search of new worlds, leaving their descendants to become all the future elven cultures.

the aen undod spoke the oldest dialect of elder speech, laith aen undod, or one speech

aen elle

the aen elle use a language derived from hen llinge called ellylon, in which their name means "of the alders"

they don't actually live on the continent, having abandoned it years ago for their own world.

however, when the aen elle arrived in this new world, it was already populated by humans and unicorns. unfortunately, these elves are notoriously ruthless and both the native species were eradicated.

the capital of the aen elle world is tir ná lia, and is described as stunningly beautiful, featuring open air buildings made of marble, alabaster, and malachite. here it is in the third witcher video game, by djkovrik on nexus. their screenshots are amazing btw.

[ID: screenshot from wild hunt showing tir ná lia. the city is built on cliffs above a sea, there are waterfalls falling from the cliffs and bridges connecting them. there are mountains in the background and the buildings are fairly small and out of focus, they seem to be in the gothic revival style with ornate windows and steeped roofs. end ID]

the ruler of the aen elle was auberon muircetach, king of the alders and aen saevherne (aen saevherne is the honorary title of an elven mage who has extensive knowledge of magic, geneology, history, and many other subjects). auberon was also ciri's 5 times great grandfather. this gwent card pretty much sums up his vibe: scary yet sexy.

[ID: illustration of elven man with long white hair on a brown horse. he has defined cheekbones and facial features and is wearing a gold crown and blue robes with a red sash, gold belt, and leather boots. he is holding a white unicorn head in one hand. the unicorn's horn is cut off, and is bloody around its neck and where its horn was. end ID]

auberon's consort was another aen elle named shiadhal, with whom he had one daughter, lara dorren. lara is so so so important for the witcher, as she is the beginning of the elder blood, or hen ichaer.

hen ichaer is a gene that carries incredibly powerful magic, and those who have it are usually sources. i talk more abt this in part 3.

for better or for worse, lara dorren fell in love with a human sorcerer, cregennan of lod, and left tir ná lia for him. auberon took this as cregennan "stealing" his daughter and therefore the hen ichaer, and developed a pretty hefty vengeance and dedication to "take back" what was his (yikes).

this also set a precedent of people "claiming" the lives of carriers of the hen ichaer

auberon also formed an elven cavalry known as the red riders or wild hunt (dearg ruadhri in ellylon) and he appointed eredin bréacc glas as their commander. the initial purpose of the wild hunt was to travel to different worlds and capture slaves for tir ná lia, although they later became auberon's tool to find and exploit carriers of hen ichaer.

the wild hunt also uses specially trained mages known as navigators to open portals to other worlds, the most notable of these navigators is caranthir ar-feiniel, who doubled as one of eredin's most trusted men.

the aen elle also live a pretty long time, average is around 650 years, so the timelines are kinda hard to keep track of.

notable aen elle include: auberon muircetach, shiadhal, lara dorren, eredin breácc glas, crevan espane aep caomhan macha (aka avallac'h, also an aen saevherne and lara dorren's ex), caranthir ar-feiniel (also avallac'h's foster son), ge'els (the viceroy of tir ná lia), and imlerith (general of the wild hunt)

aen seidhe

put simply, the aen seidhe are the elves that did not leave when the aen elle did

the aen seidhe don't really have a society like the aen elle, they're pretty dispersed across the world. but, there are certain areas the aen seidhe have claimed as their own.

one of these little civilizations is dol blathanna, also known as the valley of flowers. unfortunately, it's not an independent state, as it was conquered by aedirn in the 1150s. however, then-king baldwin thyssen did allow the elves to retain a lot of their cultural identity and live in peace.

dol blathanna includes the village posada and the capital silver towers, which is where filavandrel aén findháil is from. he's that sexy man right there

[ID: photo of white elf man with blonde hair going to his shoulders. he is wearing tattered green robes and is looking slightly to the side with his lips pursed. end ID]

not that anyone cares, but here's him in the hexer. it's not important to the lore or twn it's just fuckin funny

[ID: old man with white frizzy wig. he is wearing a headband that appears to be rocks on a string. he has what looks like a potato sack tied around his shoulders over a green tunic. he is scowling. end ID]

outside of dol blathanna, there aren't really any places where elves can live with minimal human interaction, although the blue mountains are home to a few incredibly powerful elves

side note: dol blathanna is technically part of the blue mountains, but is in the far southern foothills so they're usually treated as separate entities.

the blue mountains are also a natural border dividing the northern kingdoms from the far east, and where filavandrel went to live after he got fed up with dol blathanna.

they're also the home of ida emean aep sivney, who's also an aen saevherne and future member of the lodge of sorceresses.

next season, we're going to meet the beautiful elven sorceress francesca findabair, also known as enid an gleanna (hen llinge for daisy of the valley)

here she is with fringilla vigo (nilfgaardian sorceress) in twn season 2. note that enid is preggers! that's very odd and i will go into detail on it later

[ID: photo of two women walking side by side. the one on the left is black and has black hair in braids going over one shoulder. she is wearing a silver dress with a similarly coloured floor length coat. the one on the right is biracial and has strawberry blonde hair in a braided updo. she is wearing a floor length blue gown with gold embroidery and a metallic brown cloak. she is pregnant. end ID]

enid is crazy interesting and important for the story of the witcher (and confirmed for season two!), so i won't go too in depth about her now

as i mentioned in part 2, nilfgaard tends to favour elves, leading to a lot of militaristic forces allied with nilfgaard. most notably, the scoia'tael, or squirrels. the scoia'tael are an incredibly ruthless and effective nonhuman guerilla force, generally divided into commandos, units that patrol a given area and eliminate the northern (or simply human) threat.

there are a lot of scoia'tael, so i'll just give you the commanders for now: angus bri cri, coinneach dá reo, iorveth, isengrim faoiltiarna, riordain, and toruviel.

you might remember toruviel as this sexy angry lady from twn, and she is possibly going to get a much bigger role later... pay attention to toruviel.

[ID: young elf woman with white skin and red hair tied over her shoulder. she has a bloody nose and is wearing a light green top with a dark brown leather studded belt. her belt is also around an olive green coat. she looks quite angry. end ID]

the scoia'tael were very well organized, but also quite dispersed, so when nilfgaard needed more specific tasks done, they would assemble specific military units (usually led by some of our favourite squirrels)

the vrihedd brigade was the most important of these units. they were especially notorious for their cruelty in the second northern war, so i'm sure we'll meet at least a few members next season.

their leader was colonel isengrim faoiltiarna (aka the iron wolf), and his officers coinneach, iorveth, riordain, and angus.

francesca findabair is not directly involved with either the scoia'tael or the vrihedd brigade, but she does work quite closely with them very often.

also important to note that not all scoia'tael are aen seidhe elves, most (including all higher ranking commanders and officers) are, but there are a number of nonhumans including dwarves and halflings.

unfortunately, the aen seidhe are slowly going extinct, both from years of genocide from humans and their slow reproductive cycles (elves live a Long time, but can only have children towards the beginning of their lives)

that's why it's so surprising to me that enid is preggers! we don't exactly know her age, but by my calculations she was over 150 in twn (pretty far past the age elves can have children).

because of this, elves are pretty divided between fighting against human rule and seeking coexistence. there are arguments for both camps, mainly that humans are colonizers and should not be trusted for the former, and that elves are dying out already and need to live with humans to survive for the latter.

the most prominent stand for the fight was in the 1060s when an aen seidhe named aelireen led an uprising against humans. most of the elders told her that it wouldn't end well, but she didn't listen and led hundreds of young elves into battle. it was an utter massacre, and basically all elves who could have children died.

yikes

unfortunately, the movement for coexistence was just as unsuccessful. it was led by our man cregennan of lod, lara dorren's husband. the poor simp just wanted to live in peace with his wife, but a lot of humans thought he was a traitor because he married an elf, and he and lara were murdered in 1137 in redania.

the last real push for independence was with the formation of the scoia'tael in the 1260s. I say 1260s because the very beginnings of the scoia'tael were right around 1262-1236 (the start of ciri's timeline) but they became majorly important around 1267. although, even the scoia'tael realized they needed humans to survive and began working with nilfgaard.

however, some scoia'tael are less keen on being nilfgaard's attack dogs, leading to further division amongst the aen seidhe.

black seidhe

remember the elves i talked about in part 2 as being the ancestors of the albans? this is them!

the black seidhe are native to the south, more particularly the valley around the alba river. they are practically extinct, but the nilfgaardians carry a lot of their cultural identity in the nilfgaardian language, a variation of hen llinge.

aen woedde

the wood elves, or aen woedde, is the elven culture we know the least about, they primarily live in the areas around nilfgaardian forests and speak hen llinge.

the only notable wood elf is aenyeweddien, or iskra, a member of the rats, a gang of semi violent youths in the northern realms. we'll learn more about the rats in future seasons.

tl;dr: elves, especially the aen seidhe and aen elle cultures, make up a large part of witcher lore. they are most notable for their long lifespans, magical and historical knowledge, and militaristic alliances with nilfgaard.

[felassan]

Thoughts on Dark Fortress #2

(This post is under a cut due to spoilers.)

So late with this one! some stuff irl was keeping me really busy and hyper-distracting me lately, but it’s finally over now so I’m back on my bioware bullshit. :D

Overall there were a lot of beautiful or awe-inspiring scenes in this issue, and a lot of great, meaningful / poignant character interactions and moments between characters. It’s pretty impressive actually how much was able to be packed in. I posted some of my favorite panels here. also omg! the action sequences! the big reveal! the ending!! woww

cool scene-setting, panned out shot of Neromenian and behind it, the Dark Fortress, to immediately pull you back into the world and ‘where we left off’. the combination of ruined dead trees, red lights, lightning and fire/smoke is very atmospheric and hints at what’s ahead

“From this... city, if we can call it that” is a sick burn and reminds you that the Qunari are technologically more advanced than most of the rest of Thedas, from their cannons to their aqueducts

more individually distinct Qunari soldiers, sth I again appreciate

! last issue there were big ‘You haven’t seen the last of Tractus!’ vibes, naturally, but I didn’t expect him to escape by stabbing and killing the Qunari using a chair-leg..!!

the last panel on the first page of Karasten is really good. the way it’s colored, the way it’s lit, the light and shadow, the fiery backdrop, cinders floating, the details of his expression.. 👌 it also makes me think to the possible future, to DA4 when mainland Thedas may be continuing to face the entirety of the Antaam

in Vaea’s acrobatics scene on the bridge, I know rationally that she’ll be fine but couldn’t help but worry for her. again I like how they don’t shy away from showcasing Vaea’s specific abilities. also the attention to detail - you’d think some rocks are just some rocks, but it highlights the risk she’s undertaking that if she falls it’s into rough seas which could dash her against the jagged rocks :’S. Vaea, gooooo!

Fenris’ “Enterprising girl” line has big “Clever girl” meme energy :D

my heart can’t take Fran and Autumn leaning over the edge after Vaea in worry ;; or Aaron looking back in concern over his shoulder ;; or Fran’s tender reassurance ;; or Autumn’s Worried expression ;; the care and bonds which have grown between this group of characters ;;

notice Aaron starts drinking when Vaea’s away from them and they’re beginning to grow worried about her safety. the poor man’s nerves and stress levels

Fran touching the vegetation while she’s considering if she could use her magic to open the entrance from the outside is a nice touch

did Marius leap in front of Fenris and Fran there when the entrance opened?? damn, he’s quick. and the three of them look all scary and formidable here ready for combat. notice how the curve of the door and the spikes that go into the ground, and the composition of this panel, make it look like they’re standing in front of an opened dragon’s maw? ‘teeth’, a rumbling ‘roar’.. some nice foreshadowing here.

the reunion panels are so cute. Autumn’s lil tum as she jumps and Fran and Fenris’ lil smiles of relief and at Autumn’s reaction to seeing Vaea, then a rare happy beam from Aaron.. feel.. the love ;__;

red lighting in the tunnel sets a dangerous, dramatic build-up mood

👀 more info on Fenris’ past, on the specifics of the process which gave him his markings. in the panel where he says that it took a long time, his shadow on the wall behind him reminds me of the shadow of his past that has dogged him for so long :(

Fenris and Marius height difference

discussion of the process shows the power difference between blue and red lyrium. blue lyrium took a long time, red lyrium is almost instant

Autumn is such an intrepid little explorer and alert scout, tail and ears up, head forward. good girl!

“I just... worry about you, my girl”  ‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚  I’ll be so sad if these are death flags for Aaron and he doesn’t make it out of here. also note Fran in this panel, who recently had to kill her own father and is still dealing with that, watching the strongly paternal moment between Aaron and Vaea :(

love Vaea’s faith in Aaron and her sense of humor. also I don’t know why, maybe it’s because Vaea met Sebastian, but her “Maker, no!”, although in a completely different and light-hearted context, reminds me of Sebastian’s “Maker nooo!” at the end of DA2 hh

the reference again to Hawke, who Fenris saw haunted by what they tried to do - save their mother - and couldn’t :’(. also with the shadow in this panel, here’s another person struggling with the shadow of his past qq. this is later emphasized again in Aaron when he continues to talk about his past and in the panel is a chain and manacle. smart visual metaphors, a must in the comic medium with limited space

mushroom skull 💀🍄

“It isn’t about what I’ve done. It isn’t about my failures. Or my choices. It’s about their impact” - he’s misty-eyed here as he thinks back to Ostagar.. does this line btw seem almost meta to anyone else btw? :D it feels like a meta reference to the experience of DA players and PCs, who are always having to deal with the impacts of their choices

I wanna point out that I was right on reading issue #1, when I said “I’m positive that in panel 2 here, it’s the exact moment when he sees Cailan die” ;;

So Aaron is also a veteran of the Battle of Denerim

reference to the Hero of Ferelden - “Those were someone else’s battles”. I’m being captain obvious here but I can’t help but [heart pitter-patter] at any and all references to the HoF

I like the.. parallel? is that the word? Aaron’s stories were him trying to inspire people to make a change, or him trying to convince himself of that. and now here’s Vaea, inspiring Aaron with her words in these panels. the little guys can make a difference! in the world of Thedas, you don’t need to be a big bombastic hero or a Player Character to have an impact 

lmao Fenris right on cue. the moments of humor/light-heartedness are nice because they break up the tension and are sprinkled throughout without derailing build-up or taking away from dramatic story impact. yknow?

yeah Aaron!! leave it behind. leave it to rot with mr mushroom skull (and hey the mushroom skull was there for a reason). again tho if this is a death flag i 

Fenris straight down to business with the tactics

its cute how close Autumn has been sticking to Fran

Tessa checking in on Fran again, as she did in issue 1

Could Vaea’s “Well, shit” be an homage to Varric? :D they have met

I also wanna point out that I was right on reading issue #1, when I said “My guess is that the thing Tractus shows Marquette and Nenealeus is probably a chained up dragon or similar”

the poor dragon :’( big dragon the Qunari had in Trespasser vibes

the sword has a really cool design, kind of reminds me of something a samurai might be depicted wielding

👀 lore-drop! so ancient elven arcane warriors used lyrium-infused swords. this seems to confirm the sarcophagus is an ancient elven artifact, no? makes sense, wasn’t it said that the sarcophagus’ design was based on the architecture/outfit-design type elements of a specific faction, and that this was done intentionally? it looks kinda ancient elfy in make, right? also about the lyrium-infused swords of the arcane warriors, well well well.. remember that the Evanuris and the ancient elves mined the bodies of Titans for lyrium, for power and to use as a resource. here’s an example of that use

as I read through this portion I became increasingly concerned for my boy Shirallas.. we really are in it now aren’t we 😭

the Qunari are launching STRAIGHT-UP ROCKETS ohhhh

pretty ‘lightshow’ over the wall in the “Let’s hope the fortress is as secure as Danarius boasted” panel hh

protective older brother Fenris, impish younger sister Vaea. love that dynamic, we love to see it. sheepish and exasperated Fenris is so cute

the Bone Pit dragon fight with Hawke and co reference!

I wonder how long the dragon has been captive here, and how Danarius/Tractus was able to capture it

lore-wise what are the implications here? when Fenris’ ritual was being undertaken, the sword and the sarcophagus were bombarded with magic, fire spells. in this one they aim to have the dragon bombard it with fire-breathing. is it just fire that makes it work/powers it, or is there magic in dragonfire, in dragons? it reminds me of “Your heart beats with the old blood, as well. Where do you think it comes from? It sings of a time when dragons ruled the skies. A time before the Veil, before the mysteries were forgotten. Can you hear it?”

purple color for the dragon’s growling sounds/typeset is a great idea

lets.. goooo!!!!

Marquette is such a nerd. later on when he activates the sarcophagus he has mad scientist vibes

the dramatic reunion face-offs begin!! as the prophecy foretold!!!!1

true to form, Marius DOES have nothing to say ahahaha, even at this, his personal climax. maybe Marius dies in the next issue, but Tessa lives and gets to go back to Charter

these Venatori look almost Star Wars

Shirallas my boyy.. nooo... don’t do it 😭

ah ah ah! try casting magic with no ARMS

Francesca a beacon of blue light and goodness

the splash combat page is masterful. everyone playing a part, so much going on, everything happening at once. a thing that sticks out to me about it is Aaron’s outstretched hand and alarm as he watches Fran fall 

Autumn with her lil hackles raised

“The Venatori have returned” dun dun dunn

goodbye Shirallas 😭😭😭

the composition of the second to last page with triangle/diamond-shaped panels and the framing of dragon wings is awesome

the Dread Wolf rises, “the Tevinter Imperium will rise again”.. on-point on-point cohesion

there he is, the red wraith

Super Saiyan Shirallas

what a note to end an issue on

wow wow wow!!

and separate to the above, some speculation based on the cover of Issue 3: the piece of metal looks like a broken collar coming off Shirallas, like the one there was on the cover of Issue 2 coming off the dragon. also he’s all bulky now with draconic talons/claws (reminds me of in-world legends of Reavers who dug too deep of their own power after drinking dragon blood and whose bodies consequently began to manifest subtle reptilian traits actually). I’ll be interested to see what results of this allusion between Shirallas and the dragon!!

[freckles-and-jalapeno]

First Snow

Word count: about 5K 🎧: this Originally I posted it on AO3 in 2 languages, English and Russian. Check it out if you'd like! Other than that, I hope u enjoy! 🌟

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First snow...

No, we’re not talking about that pathetic, grey, mashed potato-like mud that makes your socks wet. It’s not those soggy pieces of cold white cotton wool, blown into the folds of your scarf by the wind. And it’s not that icy-cold frost that bites into your cheeks and ears, ruffles your hair and pierces the layers of your coat and sweaters. It’s that warm, pure December snow that quietly falls from the sky in soft flakes.

- What fine weekend weather we‘re having today! - happily said Tonks as she was crunching on her cheese toast. - Last week, you said exactly the same thing about the snowstorm - remarked Talbott, briefly looking up from his book "Transfiguration Tips for Young Wizards and Witches".

"What’s wrong with enjoying life?" Tonks would have answered, but since her mouth was still full of food, she only managed “Fffoosss wwonkk ittph eehooaaifff?”

Indeed, everyone at Hogwarts was in high spirits: the winter holidays were in full swing, half of the tables in the Great Hall were removed to accommodate beautiful Christmas trees, and students from different houses were allowed to sit together. Y/N, Tulip and Bill were the first ones to arrive for breakfast and attack the apple oatmeal; then Talbott and Tonks joined them. The air was full of joyful hubbub: the owls, who already delivered their morning parcels, were hooting and flapping their wings; students were rattling with their spoons and cups or loudly discussing the latest gossip from The Daily Prophet . And yet, there was one man in the castle who did not share the common joy.

Charlie has entered the Great Hall and tragically plopped down next to Tonks. - It’s a nightmare. I asked Francesca Wayne out on a date, and she agreed. - And... isn't that good news? - Bill gestured with his spoon of oatmeal towards his brother. Coincidentally, some oatmeal flew off the spoon, soared over the table and sludged right onto Barnaby’s shoulder.

- Her agreeing to go on a date with me was good. - Charlie said. - We were strolling around Hogsmeade, and everything was swell until some fifth-year Slytherin student unexpectedly jinxed me with the Tarantallegra charm. I began to tap-dance like a madman!.. And then it got worse. I was still dancing by the time Fitwick showed up. He did cast a counter-spell, but.. - Charlie covered his face with hands, and now was talking through his fingers. - ...by that time I had already managed to plummet into some mud nearby… I suspect it was porlock’s dung. It smelled all the same. Basically, I looked like a complete idiot ... oh, crickey!

Just at this moment they noticed a group of cute Hufflepuff girls passing by. For some mysterious reason, all girls had their hair gathered in a neat, long ponytail. The tallest gal from the gang stopped and waved in their direction.

- Hee-hee! Hiiiii Charlie! .. How are your legs doing today? ..

The feeling of shame caused Charlie’s face to take on a shade of beet.

- This is officially it. I quit girls. From now on, I will become a druid, go somewhere like Egypt and will only be dealing with dragons.

- Oh come on, Charlie! Don’t mind Francesca! - Y/N reassuringly patted her friend on the arm. - You know, I often see her in Potions class: she hides behind a cauldron and picks her nose, thinking that no one can see her.

- So true, - Tulip signed with her brows. - I bet she’s eating her boogers, too!

The whole company burst into loud laughter.

- But seriously though, - continued Tonks. - Let's forget everything about these bloody incidents and celebrate the weekend properly! Let's visit Hogsmeade, buy some butterbeer….

- Take a look at Zonko’s! ..

- Blimey, how could we forget about Zonkos’ for a split second?..

- Actually, this might be a good idea. I do need a new moke leather bag...

- I”ll get some sugar quills! ..

And so they agreed.

* * *

After shoving themselves into warm sweaters, hats, and mittens, they headed out of the Courtyard together. Bill, Charlie, and Tulip were walking in front, followed by Talbott, Y/N and Tonks. The group chatted about the upcoming semester and wondered which subject will have them writing most essays. Shortly thereafter, they met Professor Snape, grouchily making his way back to the castle, and they started proposing different versions of why he wasn’t around much these days and what mysterious business he was up to. Finally, they had an argument about what kind of festive pudding the elves would be making for the last day of holidays. Talbott betted galleons to Fizzing Whizzbees that the pudding will have strawberry flavor, Y/N voted for lemon, and Tonks - for cherry.

The road was gradually getting covered in white. Snow was sneaking into their boots, and the wind was merrily propelling them forward.

Suddenly, when friends were walking past a small brome grass field (now frozen and covered in snowdrifts), a large snowball glided through the air, furiously whistling all the while. It crashed directly into Tulip’s hood and majestically exploded with snowflake glitter.

- What the %#!*i9&! - angrily cursed the Ravenclaw as she turned around in search of the culprit.

Tonks was standing a little further away, now mockingly tossing another snowball up and down.

- Haha. One-zero, Karasu. C’mon you guys, we can't just walk away from this much snow.

Tulip shook her head to get the snow out her hair.

- Well, you're doomed, you little pink-haired witch! - she yelled and lunged herself at Tonks.

- Look at yourself, you tomato head! - metamorphine shouted in response and dashed away from her friend, laughing uncontrollably.

Unable to resist such good fun, the rest joined the battle, which was about to become the greatest strategic snowball battle in the history of Hogwarts.

They split into 2 teams. While one of his teammates was distracting the others, Talbott would conjure gigantic snowballs and avalanche them onto the heads of enemies via Wingardium Leviosa. Meanwhile, Tulip sneaked up on Charlie using a disillusionment charm; she grabbed his red hair and dipped him into a snowdrift right up to his neck. Bill, suddenly filled with brotherly instinct, jumped in front of Y/N and covered her from a charge of Tonks’ snowballs with his body. This sacrifice, however, turned out to be utterly useless, as the very next moment Charlie doubled the snow artillery in her direction; so much so that he knocked Y/N’s cap off.

At last, they tumbled in Madam Rosmerta's pub as one noisy lump of fun and laughter: cold, wobbly and covered with snow, but lively and carefree nonetheless.

- A table for six, please! - Tonks demanded in a jolly voice.

- For six? M’dears… - a low pitched, cackle-like noise came from a table at the very door.

It was professor Trelawney who tremulously perked up from underneath her thousand and one sherry-scented shawls.

- I think I heard I ... saw that you wanted a table for six? But did you know, m’dears, that the ancient scroll of prophecy specifically says NOT to sit down at a table on the sixth day of lunar December, if you are a group of six? The last one to sit down will lose a friend on the very same night ...

The group of friends exchanged puzzled glances. Of course, no one believed in Trelawney's predictions, but it was still very uncomfortable to hear things like that.

- Here, please. - Madam Rosmerta appeared in front of them before anyone had the time to reply to the terrible omen. She led the group up to a cozy table next to the fireplace.

- Blimey! What rubbish this old blind cat is saying this time? - Tonks hissed.

- Nonsense, like the usual. Every tea leaf class she’s now predicting a painful and a horrible death for just about everybody. Woo-o-o-o! Some dark forces are hovering over Hogwarts… - Y/N mimicked professor Trelawney’s voice and gestures. - But when aren’t they?

- Right. - nodded Talbott. - Besides, no one has died so far.

- Uh .. Well, who wants to sit down last? - Charlie asked hesitatingly.

- I’ll go! - volunteered Y/N.

- Suit yourself. - shrugged Charlie and hastily sat down.

- You don't believe those silly predictions, do you, Charlie? - Tulip settled down on a nearby chair. - Take a look, there are so many people around here sitting in groups of six. This doesn’t mean they will all lose a friend overnight ...

- Numerologically speaking, it is simply impossible, - added Bill and sat down, too.

Tonks sat down next to Bill. Talbott thoughtfully gazed at Y/N for a moment, and then he silently joined the others. Y/N was the last one to sit.

Without listening to friends’ endless squabble about Trelawney's competence, she stretched her legs towards fire, feeling blissfully warm and tired. Today was such a good day. And Madam Rosmerta is about to bring butterbeer for everybody! ..

- While we’re here, - Tulip cleaned her throat, - we need to make sure that there is enough of the wonderful drink for each one of us.

She took out her wand and pointed it at the glasses with beer.

- Engorgio!

The glasses had grown twice in size. They weren’t glasses anymore, really - they were jugs.

Bill raised his jug in the air:

- Let's drink to friendship! - To loyalty! - To honesty! - To dung bombs! - To holidays! - To Hogwarts!

Comfortably nestled at The Three Broomsticks, friends were clinking their glasses and drinking, and then some more, and a little bit more. At last, when everyone started to feel the soothing and flushing effects of the caramel liquid, Tulip grabbed a pack of Self-Shuffling playing cards from her coat.

- Alright, friends. How about we play some truth or dare? - she suggested.

- Since when does truth or dare require cards? - argued Charlie.

- Since today, you silly redhead. Highest card gets to ask. Lowest card gets to answer. I'll start, you chickens... Y/N, take one card, too.

Y/N stretched her hand forward and caught a card that jumped out of the deck. One moment later, the two girls smashed their cards onto the table. Charlie declared:

-Three of feathers and a phoenix. Hey, Tulip wins!

Tulip let out a wide mischievous grin.

- Y/N, tell us the truth then. Marry, flip, kill: Penny, Merula, Charlie.

Bill and Tonks immediately started to giggle and nudge each other with their elbows. Talbott and Charlie, on the other hand, straightened up in their chairs, leaned forward and stared at Y/N solemnly, without blinking.

After some thinking, Y/N tilted her head to one side and replied:

- Okay, I think I got it. I’d marry ... Charlie.

Tonks let out a loud whistle.

- I ... Uuhhh thanks I guess? - responded Charlie, blushing furiously.

- I would flip ... Merula. - continued Y/N.

- You mean you’d flip the greatest witch at Hogwarts? Ha-ha, that’s an interesting choice. - Tulip mightily slapped Y/N on the shoulder.

- Wow Tulip. - Talbott gingerly proceeded to remove Tulip’s hand from Y/N’s shoulder. - You pronounce “horrifying” differently than I do.

- Wait, so this means that you kill ... Penny? - Bill's jaw dropped in astonishment.

-Don’t get me wrong ... - explained Y/N. - She’s nice and all, but sometimes I get this feeling that she’s following me everywhere… and I mean everywhere. So yeah.

- Poor Penny. The sun-like creature who is always happy to see you. - Talbott chuckled. - And now, she has to DIE.

Their table shook from the loud cackling.

Brilliant! - Tulip clapped her hands. - The first round is over. Y/N, you won, now you get to choose who draws cards next..

Y/N chose Bill and Tonks.

- 7 of wands and 9 of stars! That was a close one, Bill. - Tonks’ face glowed up and her hair turned raspberry color. - So here is your dare, William...

- Oh no, no, no ... - Bill grabbed his red hair and started to crumple them.

- Don’t fret, dear Bill! I like you, so I will provide you with options... You can either ask Ismelda for a kiss or... you can kiss a garden gnome’s tummy!

Y/N and Talbott simultaneously snorted into their butterbeer glasses, almost choking on the drink. Bill, on the other hand, looked like someone had just asked him to drink a cup of newt’s goo.

- What bloody hell is this, Tonks ?? - he howled from annoyance and smashed his fists on the table. - There are NO gnomes in here!

- Most certainly there are. - Tonks replied calmly. - Take a peak at that table in the corner.

The table in the corner was taken up by Hagrid. He was quietly cooing with a small potato-like creature he had brought to the pub - apparently in secret from Rosmerta. At this very moment, he was feeding colorful Bertie Botts beans to the gnome.

- Merlin's saint underwear! - Y/N whispered reverently - It looks like Hagrid knitted a suit for him ...

And surely so, if one was to look closely, the gnome was dressed in a blue sweater and coarse-knit socks that were almost reaching the creature's thighs (if garden gnomes have thighs, of course). By some unknown coincidence, the gnome had no pants at all.

Bill looked at Tonks with the most touching expression Y/N had ever seen in his eyes.

- Can we play without the kisses?

- Hey, come on. I'm not asking you to kiss a Dementor, aren’t I? - Tonks just laughed in response.

(read here if you want Bill to kiss Ismelda)

I can't believe I'm doing this. - Bill shook his head. - I'll go out there and ask Ismelda for a kiss.

Charlie delightfully roared "Hallelujah!" and let a few green sparks out of the end of his wand. Tulip, Y/N and Tonks began to synchronously thump on the table and whisper: “Smooch! Smooch! Smooch! Smooch!”... Talbott threw his hands behind his head and settled himself more comfortably on the bench, getting ready for the spectacle.

... As a prisoner goes to be executed on a guillotine, that is how Bill Weasley was approaching Ismelda. The Slytherin gal was chatting with her fellow students at the bar.

- Check it out, it looks like she noticed him ... - Tulip started to comment on the action. - He’s telling her something ... great, they have contact! Come on, come on ....

- I almost feel sorry for him now - announced Charlie.

- Never let me forget this, ok? - Talbott smiled lazily.

Nobody else had the time to add anything because in the next second, the pub was filled with Ismelda’s shrilly wails, immediately followed by the ones of Bill. The girl, as one might expect, went absolutely berserk at Bill’s proposal and wacked him in the eye with all her mighty strength.

- Left hook! Fa-la-la…. A punch to the stomach! Fa-la-la ... And our hero returns ho-o- ome! .. - friends began chanting Bill's name merrily, with no tune or tempo whatsoever, which attracted even more attention to the oldest Weasley.

- Somebody please tell me why I became friends with a bunch of brainless doxies.. - Bill muttered under his breath as he was sitting down. He tried to say it with the most serious expression there is, but all the while his lips were quivering from a suppressed smile.

(read here if you want Bill to kiss the gnome)

- I can't believe I'm doing this. - Bill shook his head. - I choose to kiss Hagrid’s gnome.

- On the tummy! - abruptly corrected him Tonks. - Otherwise, you'll have to redo the dare!

- His tummy looks like pumice, did you know that? It’s crusty and hard and got some weird flakes falling off of it… And it smells just like my Great Aunt Tessie’s feet! - Bill exclaimed in anger.

- Stop whining! Just go already. While we sit here and enjoy ... - one could hear pure delight in Charlie’s voice as he was (for once) telling his older brother off.

Bill let out a sad sigh, got up from the table and started to make his way towards Hagrid. Apparently, the giant was not very happy to see him - the garden gnome would be considered quite a contraband for Madam Rosmerta, and she could forever ban Hagrid from The Three Broomsticks.

- Crickey, it's starting now! - excitedly squeaked Tulip.

The company stared at the show unfolding in front of them without blinking.

- Ah, it seems that the birds started chirping, can you hear? - Talbott said quietly.

- Fountains are sparkling, little hearts are flying in the air! - continued Y/N.

- Oh gosh, oh look! Oh, he’s kissing him!

As a matter of fact, it seemed like the angels themselves started crooning the moment Bill's lips softly touched the gnome’s belly button.

The friends doubled over with mirth. Tonks laughed so hard that butterbeer and snot started spewing from her nose.

But the gnome, as it occurred, did not like being distracted from his bean feast at all. The creature got even more upset as all the boundaries of his personal space were violated, and probably that’s why he suddenly growled and bit Bill’s nose. "Crunch!" - the sound echoed throughout the pub. Bill angrily yowled and burst out in obscenities. Now all the eyes in the pub were watching in his direction only.

- Yeh… What are yeh doing?! Stahp scaring the baby ... - Hagrid said gruffly and hid the gnome in his pocket. - Go back to yer’ friends, now, or he’ll start molting from stress .. And tis’ the worst, you know ...

Bill returned to their table, still rubbing his swollen nose in frustration.

- Oh, hey, Father Christmas! Did you bring us any gifts? - Charlie mused.

- I brought you a whipping, reptiloids... - Bill replied with the most serious face he could make, but his lips were quivering from a barely suppressed smile.

* * *

It was getting dark. While the group of friends was drinking and enjoying themselves at the pub, Hogsmeade was slowly being enveloped by velvet darkness. One after the other, the stars were lighting up. Here and there, windows of little shops and huts were blossoming in shades of orange. The garlands and wreaths, untouched after the holidays, were glittering with frost. Now there was cheerful music emerging from Madame Rosmerta's pub - those were the local musicians. They were playing flute, lute and tambone. One of the guests, who had a pig's snout instead of a nose, joined the musicians and started to grunt and beat on the drum. Many visitors picked up this joyous tune and began clapping and tapping to the beat - slowly at first, then faster and louder. One of the guests - a bubbly witch dressed in a lilac robe and a pointed hat - jumped from her chair, knocking over a mug of fiery whiskey, and began to dubstep dashingly with a goblin in a tweed jacket.

- Wowza, it's getting hot in here, - Bill said, wiping his beer mustache away. - Let's have the last round and head back. Talbott and Charlie, now it's your turn.

- My pleasure, - replied Talbott and drew a card.

Charlie drew a card with a higher suit.

- A perfect ending for a perfect day! As you can see, I'm a man of many talents, not only Quidditch. - Charlie boasted and gracefully ran his hand through his hair.

- Uh, yeah, except that quidditch sucks, - Talbott raised his eyebrows.

- You suck! - Charlie blurted.

- Mmm ... not as much as quidditch. - smirked Ravenclaw in response.

The young Weasley's cheeks turned so red that one could easily fry eggs on them if they wanted.

- Fine. Okay. If you do hate quidditch that much, maybe you’d care more for dancing? I dare you, Talbott Winger, to go out there and have the best time of your life on the dancefloor - yes, IN FRONT of the musicians! But of course I can’t let you suffer alone - sarcastically added Charlie. - Go ahead and invite someone to dance with you… if they agree to dance with a haircut like yours, that is.

Talbott squinted his eyes and examined Charlie’s face in disbelief.

- Uhhh ... I look cool.

- Pffft. Whatever you say. - the redhead let out a cheesy grin.

- I say I look cool. - Talbott replied calmly.

Tulip and Tonks audibly snorted.

- Now then… Who will be the lucky one to have the ultimate all-inclusive Talbott Winger experience? - asked Bill and started to tap his fingers on the table. The rest of the group picked on this beat and joined Bill, making the sound be a very accurate drum roll.

- Hmmm ... I know just who to take on this adventure. Y/N... would you like to dance with me? - asked Talbott and offered her a hand - I promise not to step on your toes more than three times.

- Oh? I thought you “fly solo”... - teased him Y/N as she was taking his hand and getting up from the table.

Talbott didn’t answer, just sighed and rolled his eyes at her.

The two entered the dance floor in an uncertain and shy manner. A new festive holiday song was just beginning. Another vocalist stepped onto the stage, bowed, and dimmed the pub lights with Nox . He then casually flicked his wand, created a few golden and silver wandering pellets of light, and then sent them floating around the pub. Soon, the music began to play, and the vocalist started singing in a heart-warming voice:

Last Christmas, I gave you my Hippogriff,

But the very next day, you gave it away...

Y/N felt that the majority of gazes were directed at her and Talbott - not at the singing wizard. What a strange feeling - to be in the spotlight. It got very hot; she felt a few sweat drops form and slide down her forehead. Talbott looked at Y/N with a weird expression on his face. He seemed to be slightly uncomfortable, too. Without changing his bewildered expression, he took Y/N's hands and placed them on his shoulders, then dropped his hands on her waist.

- Talbott ... I hope you know what you’re doing? - Y/N inquired quietly.

- What kind of question is this, of course I don’t know what I’m doing. - said Talbott with feigned confidence.

- Now I get it. You're winging it, Winger!

Both dancers burst out laughing. The tension was released. They began to move, jump and spin to the beat of the music. And even Merula's screams about how they looked like two prancing warty frogs could not spoil their mood. Maybe they weren't professionals and had no idea what they were doing, but they were having a lot of fun together.

The song ended. To Y/N’s great surprise, there was an applause from the audience! Someone from the crowd even threw them a bright, fragrant bouquet of orchids, freshly conjured from the air.

- For the record, I hate dancing. But it wasn’t all that horrible with you around. - Talbott said bashfully. - Maybe I should have gathered my courage and should have gone to the Celestial ... you know ...

Talbott and Y/N returned to the table, slightly out of breath after the dance and still holding hands. “Two brooos !! chilling at the Three Broomsticks! Five feet apart ‘cause they’re not friends!” - the others hollered and cheered and greeted the two back.

- Will you just shut up?.. - chuckled Y/N as she was letting Talbott's warm hand go.

* * *

It was time to return back to the castle. Friends were getting dressed in silence. All their wet clothes had almost dried up by the fire, and for those pieces that weren’t dry yet, they used their wands. Before leaving the pub, Y/N gave the bouquet to Madam Rosmerta. At the very exit, Trelawney's warnings came back to Y/N. It was so scary to think that on this night, according to the prophecy, she would lose a friend, and so she chased those thoughts away. As soon as the group stepped outside, contrast between the warm pub and icy cold air made them cough. Sniffing and cursing from freezing weather, they rushed towards Hogwarts down the snow-cleared path. This night was especially quiet: there was only the sound of snow creaking under their feet, and from time to time there came a bird’s distant cry.

- Bloody hell, we never bought anything, - Charlie complained in annoyance.

- Well… Let it burn, then. It will just be added to that list of four hundred things I have to do tomorrow ... or the day after ... or after.. or after .... - Tonks answered him with a loud yawn.

Friends were already approaching the doors of the castle when Talbott deliberately started to slow down. He stopped right in front of a path fork that was turning off the main road and leading to the owlery.

- Ummm... I need to send a letter to someone, - he said shyly, milling about the path. - Care to join me, Y/N?

“Hmm .. that’s a strange request, it’s practically nighttime... Something is fishy (pardon me, birdy) here.” - Y/N thought in her head, but out loud she only said:

- Uhh .. okay, sure. Let’s go.

After all, Talbott was her friend, and she had no reason to mistrust him.

The group of friends said their goodbyes and parted ways. Talbott and Y/N turned to the owlery. Tulip was waving at them a very long time after that, until their silhouettes blurred out, enclosed by the veil of snow.

Several minutes had passed since Talbott and Y/N were alone together. They were strolling down the path and talking about all sorts of things that happened during the past few days. The two of them were approaching the little towers of the Owlery rather quickly, and now only a small meadow was separating them from a brick staircase leading upstairs. In the summertime, the meadow was blooming with daisies and dandelions and was serving as a perfect playground for Puffskeins and Knarls. But now, the meadow seemed to have stopped in time: bare bushes were the only thing that was left from thick flowering plants; icy ground was tightly intertwined with fallen grass and wrapped in snowdrifts. Here and there, towered a few cedar pines, spruces, and chestnuts, but now they all were covered with white snow dust. For some reason, Talbott stopped walking towards the Owlery when they reached this meadow, and he began searching for something in his pockets. Finally, judging by the way his face lit up, he found what he was looking for. Aloof animagus beckoned Y/N closer. He was clutching something in his fist. As soon as Y/N approached, he opened his hand; there were two small luminous grains lying on his palm.

- What are these, Talbott? - said Y/N in quiet astonishment.

- These are midnight mint seeds, - he replied. - Professor Sprout gave them to me this Christmas.

- I have never heard of them…

- These are very rare. They can only be harvested once a year from underneath ash flowers. In places where you plant them, blood will never be shed again. - Talbott remarked in a lowered voice.

Y/N couldn’t stop staring at the grains. They seemed alive.

- Don't be afraid, touch them.

Y/N carefully raised her hand above the luminous grains and covered them with it.

- They’re warm! - not expecting that, Y/N let out a smile from ear to ear.

Talbott nodded. He looked straight into her eyes.

- I kept looking for an opportunity to plant them. Today seemed very special to me, and I decided to do it now. With you. If you want to.

- I ... of course I do! - Y/N’s cheeks and neck were rapidly getting covered with blush. - But aren't seeds planted in the fall?

- Not these. These should be planted in winter. They can only be planted under snow.

Y/N and Talbott knelt down and started preparing the soil for the seeds. They dug up a sufficient amount of snow, and then carefully placed glowing grains onto dead grass. They covered them with several layers of grey leaves and twigs, and then put a dense snow blanket above it all. But even through all these layers, the magic light of the seeds was shining through. Moreover, it seemed to have intensified and was now pulsating. For a brief instant, the pulsation stopped, and little blue stars began to emerge from under the snow, where the seeds were planted - similar to mini-fireworks. The stars took off and fell, crumbling and shattering into smaller pieces and dust. But the most spectacular thing that two friends were now hearing was... singing. It was a wonderful, calm and solemn melody without words. It was sung by the grains! Y/N had never heard such music before; she felt how her heart was opening up because of this melody. If someone had looked out of the Owlery window at that moment, then through the veil of a starting blizzard, they would have only distinguished a soft blue light illuminating two young faces floating above it.

The singing ceased; the blue light also faded away. Friends were silent for a minute, as if they were afraid to destroy the soothing feeling that the magical grains have produced within them. Finally, Talbott said in a hushed voice :

- You know, I didn’t actually need to send any letters. I just wanted to spend some time with you but without those dorks. So ... Thank you for being here with me.

His eyes crinkled at the corners as he was smiling softly at Y/N.

- It was my pleasure, - she answered quietly.

Talbott rose and brushed the snow off his knees. He then reached out his palms towards Y/N to help her get up, but he did not let go of them after that.

- There was something else. Care for one more dance with me?

For the second time during that evening, Y/N and Talbott were dancing together. But this time it was so much different than it was in the pub!! Instead of all the noise and din of The Three Broomsticks, soft spruce paws were playing them a silent symphony of winter. It was a melody of silence, a melody of bright joy, a melody of snowflakes and wind. This melody cannot be heard unless one would actively try to listen to it. The snow was falling inaudibly. It was cascading from the sky in large flakes, performing a couple of waltz motions with the dancers, and then laying down on the ground and sparkling merrily under their feet. These instants were filled with a sense of miracle: without any magic or magic wands.

- You know, dancing like this is so much better than having to dance while hundreds of thousands of eyes are staring at you. - Y/N noted.

- Agreed.

Gradually, without noticing it themselves, two friends stopped dancing. They were now standing across each other, looking at individual snowflakes on their faces and hair. Every now and then, several small crystals would shiver and gravitate down, but they would never reach the ground as they would melt in a cloud of frosty haze from their mouths. It was very quiet now. Soft light was being reflected from snow and onto their cheeks, flushed from the cold.

- We might freeze this way. - said Talbot, slightly smiling.

Slowly and gently, he unwound his blue and silver scarf and wrapped it around his own neck first, and then around Y/N's neck; now their heads were even closer to each other, connected by knitted threads. Y/N could see his face much more clearly now. She could see glitter in his brown eyes, his every eye lash, every mole, she could smell the herbal scent of his shampoo ... she could even feel the warmth of his breath.

- What I actually wanted to tell you, Y/N, - Talbott said softly, - is that the longer I think about it, the more it seems to me that professor Trelawney was right about her prophecy.

- H-how do you mean? - stuttered Y/N.

- You’re about to lose a friend because I don't think ... I don't think that I can stay friends with you any longer ... I want to be much more than that, - Talbott whispered and leaned over toward Y/N's lips and kissed her.

It was a light, subtle kiss, but Y/N could clearly feel the warmth gently spreading among her skin. And then, another kiss followed … and one more ... and one more.

All the while, the snow was falling - soundlessly, tirelessly, tenderly.

* * *

Much later, after going back to her dorm in the Gryffindor Tower, Y/N had been sitting on a windowsill for a very, very long time. She was looking through a window, wreathed by frost: at the icy lake, at never-ending fields, covered with silver and at the...

First snow.

[bard-llama]

Second Chances (Time Travel AU)

Okay, I’ve slept about 4 hours, so hopefully this is coherent, but I created a new fic universe yesterday and I’m a little obsessed.

This was inspired by @fantom-flower​‘s endeavor to engage, specifically the part where Iorveth sleeps with twink!Roche and talks about taking Roche with him when he leaves. I wanted to figure out how he really COULD bring Roche with him and, because I’m me, I created a whole complex universe to do it lmao

(under a cut, ‘cause it’s long)

So, the premise is that Iorveth is killed by Roche around the time of Witcher 2 (i.e. 1270s), and he is PISSED about it, but also kinda resigned, ‘cause he’s always known Roche would be his death. But something about the death also REALLY makes Iorveth pissed at Foltest and the way that Roche is so devoted to such a shit man. But he’s dying, so what can he do?

Except, instead of things coming to an end, he wakes up somewhere with a genial-looking (presumed) human in front of him who offers him a second chance. Gaunter offers Iorveth the options to go back in time to any point in his life and start over. Iorveth doesn’t wholly believe this is happening, but hey, wtf, why not take it seriously? He knows he should go back to before humans arrive and maybe find a way to keep elves from ever falling from power. But when he thinks back on his own life during that time, all he really remembers is the pain and loneliness he felt - the result of a family who didn’t want him. He tried to fill the pain with the adoration of audiences as he performed flamboyantly, but it all feels superficial in his memory and he doesn’t want to go back to then.

So when he thinks about when else he could go, he thinks of the way Roche killed him, of the way he resented that an incredible opponent like Roche was such a tool in the hands of a man like Foltest. So then he has an idea: what if he steals Roche before Foltest turns him into that man?

Gaunter seals the deal with the promise of payment being “something you don’t have, but will once more”, which Iorveth is like wtf does that mean? But like, whatever, it’s a good deal.

Iorveth wakes up and thinks he’s had a wild fucking dream - until he realizes that he has both of his eyes again. As he freaks out over that, he comes to realize that he has woken up in a time before the Scoia’tael and before the Vrihedd Brigade. Before the Nilfgaardian wars in general, actually. He has woken up 23 years in the past, in 1247, in a world where the elves that haven’t assimilated into human societies are refugees living in the Blue Mountains. Isengrim runs a sort of proto-Scoia’tael movement that Iorveth is a young officer in. At this point in his life, he’s been fighting humans for about 200 years (the sacking of Loc Muinne triggered his enlistment in Aelirenn’s uprising in the 1060s). He and Isengrim aren’t actually friends yet - Isengrim barely knows who this nobody kid is. But when Iorveth comes to him and proposes that, since they can’t hide in the mountains forever, why don’t they bring the fight to humanity? Whether that looks like an actual fight or a diplomatic negotiation, Iorveth doesn’t actually care, but Isengrim consults with civilian leaders like Filavandrel and Enid an Gleanna/Francesca Findabair and they decide it’s worth it to make diplomatic overtures. And since Iorveth is really insistent that he needs to go to Temeria (in fairness, he was born in the forests that I’m calling the Gleanne forests that his Scoia’tael are later based in), they start there. Maybe King Medell is a little more sympathetic to elves than the other northern kings or maybe they’re just like “wtf gotta start somewhere”, but either way, Isengrim brings a small unit to Vizima.

While Isengrim and Toruviel negotiate (or try to?) with King Medell, Iorveth goes looking for Roche. He doesn’t know where to look at first, but figures that hanging around the palace hoping to find Roche with Prince Foltest would be a bad idea, so instead, he searches the city. He vaguelly recalls intel that Roche in the future often visits a brothel in the shit part of town, so he starts there. He goes from brothel to brothel, hanging out in the taverny area on the first floor and watching the Johns. At first, he’s unsuccessful and starting to get frustrated, but then he happens to come down the list to the Clarabelle brothel. He’s watching the Johns as he sips an ale, searching for Roche - only to have one of the workers come up and start flirting with him. I think maybe it takes him a little bit to recognize Roche - after all, he’s only known the man as a 43yo soldier and the twink before him is very much NOT that. (is it still a twink when they’re hairy? ‘cause my Roche def has body hair). But when Roche propositions him, he decides hey, why not? After all, if he wants to convert Roche to his side, he’s going to need to spend time with him. And if that time happens to involve paying for sex? Well, that was just a side bonus. It’s not as if any part of him has wondered what Roche would be like in bed before. Not at all.

So while the elven unit is hanging around Vizima and while Iorveth slowly gets to know this Roche (who might not have even chosen the name Roche yet. Haven’t decided), Iorveth deals with the consequences of having the memory of being an old warrior with one eye while his actual body is very much not that. There are some weird things people notice - he shoots with his left hand now, closing his right eye to aim. He knows moves that they’ve never seen before. But his body doesn’t know how to do those moves and he has to retrain and figure out how to fight as he is now. His memories are both a help and a hindrance and he trains with Isengrim and Toruviel and a few OCs and pooossibly Filavandrel is there too, but as a diplomat, not as a fighter.

I don’t quite know how the negotiations with King Medell go or exactly what the journey of elves claiming equality looks like, but ultimately, Iorveth manages to convert Roche to his side (and no, he hasn’t fallen in love along the way. Not at all) and this actually changes quite a number of things, especially combined with all the other changes from the past Iorveth remembers. Elves are more successful in gaining equal rights throughout the north due to these changes and Iorveth and Roche get together properly and maybe go back to the Blue Mountains with the other elves (who uh... very much question Iorveth going for a fucking human whore who also happens to be a “playmate” of the prince and princess of Temeria). All seems hunky dory and Iorveth really thinks that he’s done it - he’s made his second chance count and the world is better than his old one was. And he still has both eyes and is still beautiful and maybe even finds more time to play music now.

So then, of course, payment time comes due. Because the Witcher world is pain, Gaunter comes to collect - and Iorveth loses his eye once more. This, of course, leads to a lot of mixed feelings and grief from Iorveth, who now thinks that he’s ruined again, disfigured and ugly and in this world, he doesn’t even have the saving grace of being a Scoia’tael leader. He thinks that no one can love him now and goes into a serious depression spiral that does not help his recovery At All. 

Fortunately, Roche is in love with him and he’s built a family of elves around him and they aren’t the Scoia’tael he’d had before, but they’re still family, his new family, and it takes time, but Iorveth does eventually recover and come to see his own worth. 

Open questions I still need to figure out:

Does Isengrim have his scar already? Or did that come later?

How does Iorveth manage to convince Isengrim to go to Temeria?

Does Iorveth tell anyone the truth about his second chance?

What makes King Medell decide to actually negotiate with elves? Considering his son is fanatically anti-elf, I feel like maybe someone else in his life needs to be pro-elf and helps convince him to give it a try. Possibly his wife Sancia of Sodden and/or his daughter Adda of Temeria (not to be confused with Adda the White, her daughter).

Should Eliza (Roche’s mama) run the Clarabelle already? They’ve been in Vizima for about 10ish years, so I could go either way. If she’s not running it, who is the madame?

What is Foltest and Roche’s relationship? They’re definitely not as close as they are later in life. For one thing, Roche I think has maybe either not been through military training or has only just started. This is because right now, he’s basically a glorified “playmate”/companion for Foltest and Adda. It’s not until Foltest becomes King that he becomes more than that - but that won’t happen in this world.

Should I include Brigida? In my hc, Roche meets Foltest/comes into royal service by accident when he’s about 15. He and Brigida go on a date to a royal parade - notable because the royals are ACTUALLY coming through the shit part of town. Roche happens to notice an assassin and tackles them, thereby saving Foltest and Adda’s life. King Medell decides this peasant has potential, so he makes Roche into his children’s playmate.

I’m really excited for this AU! I’ve skipped ahead and started writing Iorveth waking up in the past, so I still need to go back and write his death and deal with Gaunter, but I’ll get there. This is gonna be a BIG fic, I think, so I’ll have time lol

That said, how tf did I get here from “I want a world where Iorveth DOES take the pretty whore he slept with with him when he leaves”???

[adozentothedawn]

Vela's adoption! Iwanna hear about that one >:3

Ask is here.

Vela's adoption is actully one of my oldest wips and was begun before I even made Favaen.

It's based on my very first Pillars fic just called Vela, which is a short one shot from her perspective about growing up with my Watcher Francesca as her mother. That one is written in short meaningful episodes in her life, which Vela's adoption is meant to expand on, beginning with her adoption. Francesca actually didn't steal her (mostly because I didn't realize you could and then just built on that) but instead spent a year pining before finally getting off her ass and negotiating to adopt Vela under the pretense of diplomacy.

The Watcher was ready. She had spent the last months preparing for what she was about to do, had secured the Castle and had spent such an extensive amount of time on research, that even Aloth would be proud. (If he hadn't decided to be a bastard and left in the middle of the night, without even a letter left behind.)

And yet, standing here in front of The Passage of the Six she didn't feel prepared at all. She leaned on the wall trying to breath evenly. Lupa clearly felt her tension and was pacing in front of entrance watching for enemies. She sighed and kneeled down to coddle her a bit. It wouldn't do to have her start growling in the middle of the ceremony, just because she couldn't properly control her jitters. Besides, it was undeniably therapeutic to sit on the ground, hugging a giant fuzzy animal.

Lliras came to her, only slightly surprised to see her sitting in the dirt, wearing an expression of doubt. The Watcher only glanced at him and continued petting her wolf.

“Are you certain this is a good idea?” She did not look up to him again, fearing that her face would betray own doubts. Her voice did not waver though.

“Lliras, we’ve talked about this. She’s not safe here. She will be with me. I promise, I’ll give her a good home.”

She’d always been better at convincing others than herself. She only hoped, that still remained true. He did not seem entirely convinced but sighed defeatedly.

“I know you did a lot for our people, for me and her specifically. Nonetheless I find it difficult to give her up to a stranger.” She raised an eyebrow and glanced in his direction.

“You had no problem asking a stranger to kill your father.” He frowned at her.

“You know that is not the same. Besides, you have an excellent reputation as a killer, but certainly not as a caretaker.”

Now that was just insulting. The Watcher turned sharply and stared at him much harder than before. Lupa yapped slightly when her grip suddenly grew tighter.

“I will have you know that I am not actually in the business of assassinating people.” Lliras was not impressed by that. He’d spent enough time negotiating with her in the last year to recognize when there was no bite behind the bark.

“I believe there is a battalion of mercenaries that would beg to differ. And a few white elves. And few Ethik Nol druids. And, if rumors can be believed, a dragon. I'm sure there are quite a few more of that sort. Not that it matters. Reality is rarely the same as a reputation.” Her face grew tighter and tighter and for a second Lliras was afraid he'd gone too far. But then she relaxed again and went back to spoiling the wolf.

“Sometimes you surprise me still, ri fath.” Not an accurate title anymore, but he’d have to live with that.

Mind you, all of that is still pretty unedited even if I've had it for a while.^^° I also really think I've gotten a little better since then. I do still like it though and refuse to just abandon the idea.

[gayregis]

Yes!! Let's talk ab Phillippa! She used to be my favourite sorceress when i read the books for the 1st time (mostly bc my teenage self didn't know a lot of wlw rep oof). She obv suffers somewhat from written-by-a-cishet-dude syndrome, but i like her villainy the most from the saga. I like her contrast with Yen (they are both considered talented but bitchy cold-hearted etc but Yen cares about her family and that influences her and the way she achieves her goals while Phil is the end justifies the means type) and with Vilgefortz (they want same thing from Ciri but Phil thinks she wants it for less selfishness more greater good type of reasons (still not valid) while Vilgefortz is open about doing this for himself. Also she's the evil mastermind Vilgefortz wishes he was! He's just evil, sitting in his evil castle sending around goddamn Rince out of all people, getting results more by luck than judgment...). She's Magnificent Bastard and i really hope they wont ruin her in twn by shrinking down her role or by making her SuperEvil like they did Fringilla 😔 she's cunning and power-hungry enough on her own, no need to add extra layer of immorality bc someone could forget she's a villain here. 🦇 (sorry it's 3am here and i... also want more Philippa content that's something more than people calling her a c*nt)

this ask is SO blessed i started happy stimming gfgsdfksj

yes!!!!!!!!!!! philippa to me is a really interesting character (even though she suffers from being written by a man as all the female characters in the witcher do) but she as a villain is severely overlooked. and she’s only ever addressed by the fandom in the manner that she is either a neutral character or a protagonist, which annoys me a lot, perhaps more than i tend to show, because as you said she’s really the mastermind vilgefortz fucking wishes he was. 

i love how competent the lodge seems to be, they hold meetings and discuss complicated lineage and have a whole plan marked out with spies (fringilla) and international participation. of course, things go haywire in the end, because philippa and the other sorceresses are unwilling to admit that sometimes there are things in life one is not able to exert control over, that nature is just too random to rule over, because to them, that would be a defeatist’s perspective... but they had a plan, at least, they were organized and led in a semi-democratic manner with of course philippa leading, but holding meetings in which everyone was allowed to voice their opinion and argue. it’s so much more fleshed out than vilgefortz, who was just evil for power but really vague about it and seemed to just be that kind of over-the-top tropey villain. 

i think your comparison with her to yennefer is spot-on, they both are painted as power hungry and selfish... i love that philippa is hungry for power and ambitious in politics, and yennefer doesn’t really care about politics and has always just done her own thing. their contrast also comes in what you describe, why they feel that their goals are justified. the montecalvo scene grew on me a lot especially after i listened to the audiobook version of it, because it really portrays philippa and yennefer as opposing forces. 

i guess some might take issue with the fact that philippa is gay because she’s evil in the series, especially because her whole deal is that she is willing to sacrifice the life (freedom) of a child (ciri) for political stability, as opposed to yennefer, who wants to protect her child (and husband), so it might be seen as “lesbians want to destroy the sanctity of marriage and hate children!” ... but i don’t think this was the message, to me i don’t think representation mattered sort of at all to sapkowski, so i personally don’t think of philippa as representing lesbians as a whole, i think she is just gay and that’s a coincidence. she’s not meant to be good representation anyways so it’s not a big deal to me.

and on that note, philippa as a villain was a really nice statement to me ... i mean, because usually i feel that it is the guys being evil. and there are of course the male villains of vilgefortz, bonhart, rience, emhyr, the aen elle if elves have gender, etc. etc, but philippa is a special case because she’s competent and also as a character she isn’t bogged down by “feminine issues” in her evil ... such as that one might expect a woman to be more empathetic towards a child, etc. i think it was actually kind of humanizing because it demonstrates that anyone has the ability to commit evil actions.

but in the fandom the content i see for her is either just ship (nothing horribly wrong with it, just that it’s bland and doesn’t take her character and character motivations into account at all) or fluff which outright ignores her character traits and placement within the narrative and relationships to other characters. i suppose this is somewhat the fault of tw3 for declawing her so to speak, but it’s really annoying because it’s pretty much the only philippa content that exists. like, where is the appreciation of her as a villain, a really good and smart one at that? 

and yeah, for twn, i don’t think they even casted her yet, even though they’re doing blood of elves, where she makes her character debut... yet they casted for fringilla and francesca, so i have no idea what’s going on. i think they might be replacing her with someone else (tissaia? or that new violet OC they have? or vanessa-marie OC? idk). so as always i have little faith in them but i’m sure they’ll find a way to butcher her character somehow ... 

it’s just that philippa is such a specific and kind of nuanced character, she’s really not basic in any kind of way unlike the other villains of the series kind of are. and it’s interesting to me but no one ever seems to approach her with this intent to analyze her, they only care about her appearance, romantic potential, or the fact that she got her eyes cut out in tw2 or killed radovid in tw3. 

like ok, but can we first talk about how she basically ruled redania by controlling the puppet king vizimir (even though she would never admit it and told tissaia she was lying when she called her out on it (iirc))? that’s kind of insane and demonstrates the political power mages can have in this fictional setting. and that statement tissaia makes to her in time of contempt, that she was once so proud of her as a student, but now she has nothing but contempt for her... i want to see that explored. philippa is kind of a takedown of the #girlboss trope as well and i like that

[chillyravenart]

Thoughts on The Lodge? Which ones you like/dislike, maybe a few thoughts on them etc

I had to really think about this one lol firstly because it took me five minutes to realise you were referring to The Witcher and not the 2019 horror/thriller film and secondly because I didn't know I had any specific thoughts on the Lodge until I received this.

Let me preface all of this by saying that I absolutely love the way sorceresses/mages are portrayed in the books. They're all so eclectic and colourful and capricious, and above all GLAMOROUS AF. I hated the show's depiction and design for them soooo much, it was incredibly underwhelming and lame to me. But the books do such a wonderful job of describing their glamours, their gowns, jewels and aesthetics. I also love how each mage/sorceress has their own tasks and motives, they excel at different things and are very enjoyable to read about.

I did like the premise on which the Lodge was founded, to exclusively serve matters of magic. Which will do everything to prevent a cataclysm. For if magic were to perish, our world would perish with it. I love the whole realm of magic and sorcery within The Witcher, so this secret organisation really appealed to me, particularly because it united all sorceresses; human and elven, including sorceresses from all over the various kingdoms including Nilfgaard! But then their motives kind of rubbed me up wrong and I didn't agree with their plans to extract information from Geralt (looking at you Fringilla) or their plans for Yen and Ciri. I particularly didn't like their mistrust of Yen either, so overall I can't say I was a fan of the Lodge's overall objectives.

I found Philippa Eilhart really cool in the early books, and admired her magical/polymorph abilities especially The Blood of Elves. But I didn't warm to her in the subsequent books because of her plans for Ciri and Yen, lmao I just don't like anyone interfering with Geralt, Yen or Ciri whatsoever. Leave them alone!😤

Francesca Findabair Enid an Glenna is one of my favourite Elven characters, she's the most beautiful woman in the world as well as the Queen of all Aen Sidhe. I enjoyed the complexity of her role in the coup of Thanedd (despite working with Vilgefortz), her alliance with Emhyr var Emrais and the fact that she helped Yen escape. I also loved the fact that she voted in favour of Ciri going to say goodbye to Geralt at the Lodge meeting. I'm a sucker for Elves anyway so really hope to draw her some day, she really appeals to me.

I also loved the Nilfgaardian mage, Assire var Anahid and the fact that she was Cahir's great aunt!!! I love how she was spying on Rideaux and gleaming information, as well as owning a black cat! And the fact that she wasn't as superficial or conventionally attractive was also a nice little contrast to the rest. I'm a huge fan of the Nilfgaardian idea that mages shouldn't use glamours to hide their real appearances/flaws. I'm trying to remember what else there was to add but I can't rn😅 I really hope to draw her too some day!

I don't really have much of an opinion on the others if I'm honest, I found Sheala de Tancarville's operations in Kovir very interesting, but the rest of the sorceresses didn't really catch my attention or interest in the same way. I've mentioned my thoughts on Triss in the past so I won't really repeat myself again. I'm firmly team Yennefer all the way so anyone who bears her any ill-will or animosity isn't really on my Good List haha.

I'm sorry if this was a really underwhelming response lol but I hope it answered your question somewhat!

[jackdawyt]

Today I'm delving into full spoiler territory regarding Dragon Age: Blue Wraith Issue #2, breaking down the major plot threads, characters and my overall thoughts on the second issue of this comic. I've already broken down the first issue, so be sure to check that video out if you need to be caught up.

But, if you haven't had the chance to pick up the comic and you want to read the second issue for yourself, go give it a read and revisit this video. Alternatively, if you'd rather pass up the comics for whatever reason, you're in luck because I'm going to summarise all the important deets in this video!

So without further ado, let's breakdown Blue Wraith issue #2!

Like the previous issue, the story starts with another flashback, four years ago in the Arlathan Forest. We witness Fenris's sidekick Shirallas freeing elves once more, this time by his lonesome. He swaps places with a slave, saving the elf's life whilst endangering his own. He makes a promise to the other elves that one day all slaves will be liberated.

The cart holding Shirallas and the slaves arrive at the fabled Magister Nenealeus's estate, with him present dealing with the new arrivals. He questions our knife-ear friend and his Vallaslin origin, then asks if he's ever dreamed about becoming a Perrepatae, taking him in and killing the rest of the slaves.

We discovered in the last issue that Nenealeus was looking to train an Elven perrepatae, this is a special type of Tevinter slave, specialised in killing rival mages. And it seems that he has found one in Shirallas.

We shuffle back to the present day in the Arlathan Forest, Vaea, Francesca and Fenris are having a bit of a spout. Fenris tries to take Franny's head off with a claymore, and Fran throws Fenris against a tree, then attempts to suffocate him with plant magic. We have an uppercut here, a cucumber slash there and then Vaea jumps in, seizing an end to the conflict.

Vaea explains that they just came here to talk, Fenris is like "but she's a Tevinter mage", Vaea clarifies that both she and the Mabari are trying to help Francesca, and Vaea did stop the fight.

Fenris replies saying "that is surprisingly logically", Francesca recovers from the fight and in a pinch she casts a spell and screams "where is my father", Vaea flies right through Fenris and lands on the opposite side of him.

Francesca asks how was that possible, Fenris ignores the comment and remarks that she's impressive and must be the Invidus girl, the plant-based magic she uses is very rare outside of Dalish Clans. Fenris then explains that his lyrium tattoos allow him to move through things, or things can move through him. And henceforth, the Blue Wraith.

Francesca asks if Fenris took her father, as to which he replies he did not, but the man he's tracking did. Which is Shirallas from the start of this issue who was taken in by Nenealeus.

Vaea intrudes, calling him Fenris, saying that she's a friend of Varric Tethras. Fenris and Francesca continue to talk about her father. If Fenris did take her father, he would've killed him as he is one of the last members of the Venatori, specifically a man who truly understands red lyrium. That alone makes him worth killing.

But Fenris exclaims that Francesca's father is in no danger from him, so long as he's not travelling with Shirallas willingly. He decides to go on his merry way, however, Vaea asks him to travel with the group, besides they have Autumn the adorable, amazing tracker.

We have this sad monologue from Fenris as he shares how in the end people only use you for your power and then they leave you.

One of the Dark Horse writers, Nunzio Defilippis shared more on this in his own blog I'll have linked down below, he talks about his own experiences with moving on and how in his life he's reacted to departure. He shares that no matter what choices you made, one way or another, Fenris was left behind. No matter how valid the reasons, he was left behind. And that's the basis of his character throughout this comic.

So, he leaves Vaea and Francesca and rides on. But, Vaea's smart and gets Autumn to track him.

We move on to the other team following the caravan from the first issue. Ser Aaron, Tessa, Marius and Calix are looking over a cliff-side. Ser Aaron and Calix talk about Autumn leaving him for Vaea, and how perhaps not everyone is up for sacrificing themselves for the greater good. They spot the caravan having stopped, potentially to meet someone.

We roll back to Vaea, Francesca and Autumn following Fenris, as they discuss their purpose within the group, Vaea defends herself, that she would not abandon Ser Aaron, nor the other way around, like Fenris's experiences. Autumn catches up to Fenris, as Vaea see guards ahead, she prepares a stealthy approach. However, Fenris ain't up for that, so he prepares to charge straight into the encampment.

But not before Francesca grabs him with plant magic, and they decide to take a more tactful approach as a group.

We swap back to the other group as they watch Marquette meeting Magister Nenealeus, Marius confirms that he is indeed Nenealeus, as he turned him into a Perrepatae. Nenealeus asks if the sarcophagus works, and Marquette states that it's repaired and ready.

The strange mysterious artefact from the previous issue is given more explanation here, the device was built to fit an elf and it's supposed to be used with red lyrium. However, Nenealeus would like to see if it works, so they use regular lyrium and put a human in the artefact, hence the front cover of this issue. Marquette states that House Danarius did use regular lyrium with this device before, so it should work.

Vaea, Francesca, Fenris and Autumn stealth their way into a fortress, however, as Vaea discovers the previous Tevinter occupants have been killed and the Qunari have invaded the fort. The group walk into a Qunari confrontation, we discover that the Qunari are also interested in the magical artefact and the magisters involved, they interrogate a slave and uncover that Magister Nenealeus has secured the assistance of Magister Invidus for his expertise with red lyrium.

According to the slave, the sarcophagus infuses with lyrium, granting them great power, the magisters intend on using this on Nenealeus's new Perrepatae. Which as we can understand is  Shirallas, Fenris's travelling companion.

Well, when Fenris hears this plan, he screams that the device was beyond repair and charges at the Qunari. Back to the stabbing as Vaea aptly puts it.

And we make it to our final scene, Ser Aaron and squad charge down the mountain towards the caravan, as they make there way down, they're attacked by a glowing lyrium infused man who attacks Casse, Ser Aaron's horse, knocking him to the ground. Tessa shoots the man, but her bolt goes straight through him, and as the man prepares to attack Marius and Tessa, we have a gigantic KATHOOM! End of issue 2.

We had plenty to uncover in this issue, and I thoroughly enjoyed every page. Blue Wraith is becoming even more epic with each issue, and I've got to say I'm loving it more than any other Dragon Age comic so far. And with that, we only have one more issue to go until this narrative concludes.

We do have a sneak peek at the cover of Issue #3 of Blue Wraith, we see Francesca pulling off an epic plant-based spell, so we expect some sort of epic standoff. In any regard, that'll do it for me, let me know what you thought of this issue, anything you noticed that I didn't, tell me in the comments down below!

[mllemaenad]

'Imagine your children growing up in such a world. If a mage asked it of you, you would have to give him your daughter, not knowing what his plans for her might be. You could not resist him, and neither could she.' - Sorry, this line particularly came to my attention because take away magic and this? Is exactly what happens in the Tabris origin. And to that one Orlesian merchant in Denerim in DA:O. And probably to any number of peasant/elven girls at the hands of nobles every day across Thedas.

No need to be sorry. :)

You’re right. Absolutely.

The thing is – take this in context. This is an answer written by a grand cleric to a nobleman who seems (we don’t have his side of the conversation, obviously, so we can only infer from the substance of the reply) to have been challenging the Chantry’s treatment of mages. If you look at it like that, then what the grand cleric is describing is what happens to almost every mage child in southern Thedas.

Armed men come to your door and take your child away. You have no right to say no. And you have no idea what they’re going to do with them. They may take your child to a Circle across the sea. They may murder them. They may make them Tranquil. They may rape them, beat them, torture them. Maybe you’ll be lucky: maybe your kid is Vivienne or one of the Warden mages. Maybe they’ll do okay.

But you don’t know. And you can’t tell the Templars to go away; that they can’t have your child. They live in a world where this happens to parents every day.

It’s almost too much to imagine. The Circle, the Templars, they’ve shaped my life. I was no more than twelve when they came for me. My mother wept when they fixed the chains to my wrists, but my father was glad to see me gone. He had been afraid, ever since the fire in the barn. Not just afraid of what I could do, but afraid of me, afraid my magic was punishment for whatever petty sins he imagined the Maker sat in judgement upon.

– Anders (short story)

Anders’s mum couldn’t say no. Maybe she wanted to. At bare minimum, it sounds as though she didn’t want to lose her son forever. But that’s what happened. Little Ella is desperate to get back to her parents, because the Templars didn’t even tell them where they were taking her – and when we encounter her, a Templar is threatening her with Tranquillity and strongly implied sexual assault.

Wynne gave birth to a healthy baby boy, whom she was allowed one day with before he was taken into Chantry custody. The child, who was names Rhys, was taken to Lydes and from there transferred to the White Spire in Orlais when it was discovered that he, too, was a mage.

– World of Thedas I

They kidnapped a newborn baby and took him to a different damn country. It took decades, and fighting an archdemon, for Wynne to even get the chance to find him again.

Dulci de Launcet was lucky: she’s a noble, so she at least had letters and some general idea of where her kid was, but she hadn’t laid eyes on her son since he was six.

Yeah. Good fucking job, Chantry. You really solved the problem of powerful people coming to your door to abduct your children.

But while, yes, given the context of the letter I think the irony is best understood in relation to mages, I definitely think it can be expanded upon:

The demon had impersonated the human man who had bought her from the slavers that took her in after her father died. She’d had no idea back then who those kind men really were, only that they offered her food and a warm bed to sleep in. Then an even kinder man came to take her from them, and she found herself in his luxurious home and thought herself the luckiest girl in the entire alienage.

How very naive she had been. Count Dorian, as she learned her new master’s name to be, had been in search of an elven whore he could keep as a pet, something he could put in a pretty dress and bring with him on one of his many trips to the capital, like baggage.

– Dragon Age: The Calling

Ah, look. The exact scenario Grand Cleric Francesca was fear-mongering about. A little girl abducted, enslaved and sold to a nobleman who abused and tortured her. Yes, a mage-child as it happens, but that wasn’t apparent at the time. Fiona was vulnerable because she was an elf – an orphaned elf considered expendable by society.

“What they wish is irrelevant.” Celene turned and stalked away from the window. “I am already fighting a war on two fronts. I cannot be seen to fight a war on three.”

“Then don’t.” Briala rose, putting herself in Celene’s path. “Give them justice.”

“A lord for the death of an elf? I … damn this thing.”

With a quick jerk, Celene tore her mask from her face. Her face was flushed beneath, her eyes red from another night of little sleep. “Shall I declare the elves equal citizens before the Maker and the throne as well, while I’m at it?”

“Why not?” Briala took her own mask off, stealing a quick moment to steady herself. “Unless you don’t believe that, and I’m just a jumped-up kitchen slut you haven’t tired of yet.

– Dragon Age: The Masked Empire

Or here: a revolt that ends in genocide, and that begins because it is unthinkable that they arrest a nobleman for murdering an elf. The victim’s name was Lemet. He was killed shielding an eight-year-old boy who threw a rock at a carriage. And the boy said he did it because his mother had been murdered by Orlesian nobility:

“They killed my mother,” the boy said, pulling against Lemet’s grip.

“Be quiet.” Lemet looked back at the coach and heard its joints creak as the guards jumped down to the street. The driver would want to have that oiled, some part of Lemet’s mind noted.

“They can’t come down this street after what they did to her,” the boy insisted. “They can’t!”

– Dragon Age: The Masked Empire

Or this, where soldiers rob, rape and murder their own citizens in the midst of a civil war:

“Two days ago, Lady Seryl’s men rode in and cur down every man and woman working the fields. Killed our guards, killed everyone in the village square. When they finished killing the other soldiers, they fired arrows out onto the water, killed most of our boys in the boats. They took all the food they could find. They spent the night.” A collective flinch splashed across the crowd. “Said we had been assisting enemies of the throne, that this was a lesson to anyone who’d help Gaspard’s men.” At the last, his voice broke. “My lord, I don’t even know who Gaspard is.”

– Dragon Age: The Masked Empire

Or the serial killer who is repeatedly allowed to walk free because he’s a magistrate’s son, and he targets elven children. Or the elven boys who fled to the Qun because a guard raped their sister – no one would arrest him, so they took matters into their own hands.

And yes, of course, you see the exact same thing in Ferelden in the alienage.

I’m sure everyone feels so much safer now they’ve locked up all the mages.

Orlais’s crimes don’t excuse Tevinter’s. That’s where they went wrong with Dorian’s … painful dialogue on slavery. You can’t point to the horrors of Orlesian society and therefore suggest that the Tevinter slave trade is not that awful. It doesn’t work like that. What you can do, though, is say that Tevinter’s crimes don’t excuse Orlais’s – particularly when they tend to do exactly the same shit:

Slavery still thrives in Thedas, even if the trade has been outlawed. Who hasn’t heard the tales of poverty-stricken elves lured into ships by the prospect of well-paying jobs in Antiva, only to find themselves clapped in leg-irons once at sea? And humans fall prey to this, too.

If they’re lucky, they end up in Orlais, which has only “servants.” Most nobles treat them decently because they are afraid of admitting the truth. Orlesians go to great lengths to maintain the fiction that slavery is illegal.

Of course, the greatest consumer of slave labor is the Tevinter Imperium, which would surely crumble if not for the endless supply of slaves from all over the continent. There, they are meat, chattel. They are beaten, used as fodder in the endless war against the Qunari, and even serve as components in dark magic rituals.

—From Black City, Black Divine: A Study of the Tevinter Imperium, by Sister Petrine, Chantry scholar

– Slavery in the Tevinter Imperium

Fiona is not an anomaly: Orlais kidnaps and sells people into slavery, too.

And this makes sense. Fantasy always draws on the real world, even if they mix and match the cultures and historical periods a bit. So, just like in the real world, you generally have to take anything the wealthy and powerful say with a grain of salt.

The Chantry has a very specific, empire building, agenda. It makes much of problems that aren’t really problems (demons and abominations are not widespread threats, and both are poorly understood); it pins the blame for actual crises on oppressed groups (the Blight is in no way the fault of this random peasant mage from Antiva); it uses racism and religious intolerance to create in- and out-groups (elves [and dwarves, but we haven’t conquered them yet] are degenerate heathens who are preventing the Maker from returning).

As much as I love Dragon Age, what Bioware does sometimes that is … uncomfortable … to use a mild word, is that it lets the powerful rule the narrative. Inquisition is worst at this, because it presents strong voices for people like Cassandra and Cullen, who stick fairly close to the party line. And then it takes characters like Varric and Sera, and distances them from their own cultures … which is fine for individuals but awkward when we’re not letting Briala or Fiona say much either – and where the fuck is Sigrun? No one’s spoken for Orzammar’s casteless since Awakening. But it’s there, to some extent, in all the games.

So the point, always, is that mages and Circles are misdirection. Mages are scapegoats in the Chantry faith who are held responsible for all the bad things, and represent a pretend evil nobility that the Orlesian Chantry is keeping under control.

But the actual problems of this fantasy world are more or less the same as the problems of the real world: powerful nations dominate the continent and force others to bow to their whims and adopt their culture, because empires are just shit; the rich and powerful hoard all the rights to themselves, and can do damn near anything to the poor – particularly where the poor are part of a marginalised group.

What Orlais doesn’t want people to realise is that they are Tevinter. It was never the mages that were the problem, it was the absolute power the Tevinter magisters held over their slaves – a power now held mostly by the Orlesian nobility, who use it in pretty much the same way. Not exclusively, no: of course the nobility of other nations can be, and bloody are, evil fucks. But even there, the Chantry view helps to obscure the truth: you should be scared of empires and those who rule them. Much more scared than you are of a possessed mage.

[capeshifters]

all muses

All muses shortly

italics - pc   bold- canon   normal -oc

some muses might have verse specific ships or they are not shippable at all

DRAGON AGE 

Nedra Surana //  mage elf warden- hof | multiship | pansexual | FC: Lindsey Stirling

Narya Lavellan // dalish inquisitor |Single ship with @thebloodychampion​ in her main verse, other verse open  | heterosexual | FC: Emile De Ravin

Merlyn Lavellan // Narya’s cousin, archer and hunter | multiship- | homosexual | FC: Eddie Redmayne (inquisitor verse available)

Litriel Lavellan // mage, necromancer and dreamer, also Narya’s cousin and Merlyn’ sister | multiship | heterosexual| FC: Alina Kovelenko

Nova Lavellan //dalish Inquisitor, has a very bad eyesight, necromancer, dreamer and uses wisps to see. loves dragons |  multiship |heterosexual | FC: Lauren De Graaf

Lesi  Aras //the master of smith work. Has her won shop, very inspired by Dagna | multiship | heterosexual | FC: Isabela Moner

Rin Ril Seraya //born to be female, works as a body guard of an Orlesian Lord. Disguised |multiship |undecided | FC: Winona Ryder

Aila Synelis// young elf, has a two years old girl, waitress,sweet but too trusting |multiship | heterosexual | FC: Dasha Sidorchuck

Armando Fiorenci // ex first enchanter o the circle in Dairsmuid, Rivain. Escaped death. jolly and a good mage. mage rights supporter.| multiship | pansexual | FC: Sam Elliott

Francesca Fiorenci // Armando’s sister, made tranquil. Whereabouts unknown  | multiship | heterosexual | FC: Oona Chaplin

Kai Kresge // magekiller, from tevinter |multishp| pansexual | FC: Ian Bohen

Kaisa Kresge// Kai’s little sister, mage and healer and herbalist, blind.| multiship |heterosexual | FC: Elise Aarnik

Sherborne Guyader “Guy” // professor of history and arts at the university of Orlais. born in Antiva | multiship | bisexual fc: Eoin bailey

Anna Alerion // mage ,dalish, slave, servant. Now Marquis tool for his twisted desires. Secretly when able she plots to free elves.- | multiship |bisexual

Regina le Bail // ex slave, run away from tevinter, mage but uses spear to fight, companion with a wolf | multiship | heterosexual | FC: Maia Mitchell

Alan Bearhold //avvar warrior, hunter, tall man, grumpy , protects his little sister |multiship |pansexual | FC: Manu Bennett

Valerie Bearhold// mage, talks to spirits, healer, herbalist, skilled. - | multiship |heterosexual | FC: Rachel Weisz

Millicent Cadash // Inquisitor, badass rogue, thief, spy, dwarf and what else.| multiship |  heterosexual | FC: Amy Manson

Devon Trevelyan // mage. from Ostwick Circle, born as a bastard son to a servant of Trevelyan family. Skilled mage, flirty but good mannered. | multiship |pansexual | FC: Richard Madden

Bella Lupus // Dragon Age - Tevinter mage, black mage, small woman, good at magic- multiship-heterosexual

Marcus Lupus // Bella’s little brother, warrior, has prosthetic arm and leg | multiship | bisexual | FC: Matthew Daddario

Janus Lupus // Bella’s and Marcus father, magister, master and killed by his brother.|single ship with @thebloodychampion​ |homosexual | FC: Luke Evans

Alceon Lupus // middle brother , brother of Janus, evil and mean magister. |no ship | bisexual | FC: Ansom Mount

Adrian Lupus // youngest brother, magister at the seat, divorced, likes elves | multiship.| pansexual |FC: Tom Pricone

Luca Lupus//Adrian’s son, rogue, likes training and solitude | multiship |pansexual | Fc: Adian Gillen

Gigi Trevelyan (Auriel// mercenary and Inquisitor - burns scars on her hands and feet - assassin || multiship |heterosexual | FC: Sarah Bolger

Rufus Trevelyan //  ex- templar , Gigi’s uncle - mage friendly- never too old for fun | multishipo | pansexual | FC:Rufus Sewell

Adam Hawke // Hawke, shy dork, loves his dog more than people- | multiship | bisexual | FC: Garrett Hedlund

Anders//he feather mage merged with spirit, not so mage rights obessed- loves cats | single M!Hawke ship with   @thebloodychampion​ (other muses okay to ship) | pansexual | FC: David Garrett

Dorian // the sassy one From house of Pavus- the lost son- the failure | multiship | homosexual | FC: David Gandy

Hampus Luck // archer and companion , noble but hides it, a flirt | multiship |pansexual | FC: Jamie Dornan

Appius Trius  “The Architect”// High Priest of Urthemiel, a bit dork, but lovable, magister from the ancient times | single ship verse with @thebloodychampion​ other verse open |  pansexual | Fc: Hugh Dancy

Hay // slave from the ancient times - traveled through a rift |selective ship | heterosexual | FC: Hera Hilmar

Nellie Cousland // hero of ferelden, badass redhead |multiship | heterosexual | FC: Rose Leslie

Jacob Rivera//  pirate, thief, treasure hunter | multiship |bisexual | FC: Jarod Joseph

Albany Perdue // non binary, young magister , better than you- | multiship | undecided | FC: ErikaLinder

Lisetta Walgan // chasind scout/hunter - wild and untamed| multishp |pansexual | FC: Karen Gillan

Lilah Bearhold //  Lady of The Skies- goddess/avvaar/ - immortal | selective ship| bisexual | Fc: Julie Kennedy/Rachel Ward(old)

Mario Albergotti lamberto De Villacorta // rogue, noble, mercenary |bisexual |Pentaghast Blood |likes dragons | FC: Matthew Mcnulty

Vixten Adaar // Inquisitor - ex-mercenary | has a twin sister |mage |pansexual | kind giant | FC: Mahesh Jadu

Veran Adaar // Vixten’s twin sister | rogue |bisexual

Seranna Trevelyan - Inquisitor and templar | fears magic | bisexual | andrastian | FC: Michelle Alves

OTHER FANDOMS 

Quiet // Metal Gear Solid V // sniper and bad ass, does not talk- |multiship |bisexual | FC: Game face/Stefanie Joosten

Diana // Marvel DCEU // Wonder Woman, badass but sweet        | multiship | heterosexual | FC: Gal Gadot

Mei // Overwatch// climatologist, blogger, Overwatch agent | multiship | bisexual | FC: Game Face

Catwoman //Marvel // Selina Kyle, the catwoman  |multiship |heterosexual | FC:Camren Bicondova

Belle/Lacey //OUAT/Disney// Belle from both Ouat and Disney and Lacey from Ouat | multiship | heterosexual | Emilie de Ravin, Cartoon face, Emma Watson

Red//OUAT-// Red from the series Once Upon A time - werewolf | multiship | bisexual | FC: Meghan Ory

Nagini Nabila // Harry Potter // Voldemorts’ Snake with a canon divergent story, reborn |  multiship | pansexual | FC: Nathalie Emmanuel (young)/ Angela Bassett (old)

Augustus Rookwood//Harry Potter// Death Eater, Prisoner in Azkaban, a bit of coward |  multiship | bisexual | FC: Tom Payne

Neville Longbottom//Harry Potter// student, later professor, not married yet | multiship | heterosexual | FC: Matthew Lewis

Ailla Longstar // Star Wars // twilek, bad ass pilot, spy | multiship | pansexual | FC: Milla Jovovich

Zara Andromedra // Star Wars //  mandalorian warrior, arms for hire, skilled fighter , bounty hunter | multiship | bisexual | FC: Cladia Black

Lilo Young // works in the ministry of magic | FC:Nyakim Gatwech |  - Harry Potter

Lassie Young // ministry worker , lilos brother |homosexual| FC: Jordan Bolger |  - Harry Potter

Simon Wolfe // Deathh Eater | bi, homoromantic |FC: Alec Secreanu |  - Harry Potter

Salvia Pepper // werewolf | heterosexual | FC: Natalia Ramos - Harry Potter

Gilda Gloomsdale // vampire , not dragonborn but can be // FC: Aiyana Lewis - Skyrim

MASS EFFECT

Nedra Shepard//Shepard , biotic, paragon, earthborn, war hero-| multiship | pansexual | FC: Emily Browning

Nigel Shepard// Nedra’s twin, more evil and drunkard and a gambler |multiship| bisexual | FC: Eddie Redmayne

Nolus and Tunar Abgius // smuggler brothers even if one is a turian and other a krogan | multiship.|  Nolus is bisexual | Tunar is homosexual | Nolus FC: Brandt Daugherty | Tunar Fc: Aleksander Skarsgard

Lisell Avequa// Asari assassin, Has a adopted son Han.|multiship- |heterosexual | FC: Tracy Ifeachor/Danai Gurira

Jirida Avequa//Lisell’s grandma, a bit crazy old asari |no ship- |bisexual | FC: Whoopi Goldberg

Nyx Avequa// an asari consort at Citadel-, not using biotics, kind |single ship |heterosexual | FC: Yaya De Costa

Han Xanis Vas Astra-//LIsell’s adopted son, quarian. Good in tech |- multiship |bisexual | FC: Logan Lerman

Vivia Bonisis // pink turian but good C-sec cyber crime detective - | single ship with @thebloodychampion | heterosexual | FC: Penelope Mitchell

Camilea -// pretty and deadly turian Blue Sun assassin |-multiship | pansexual | FC: Cara Delvigne

Salla Ryder //-  female Ryder , biotic | multiship. |bisexual | FC: Emma Watson

Garrus // the one we love. does a lot of calibrating |multiship| bisexual | FC: Andrew Garfield

Liara// the blue doctor and Shadowbroker | multiship |bisexual | FC: Yara Shadhidi

Drack // the old grumpy grandpa | multiship |heterosexual | Fc: Jeff Bridges

PeeBee // the joyful and happy asari explorer|multiship-|pansexual | FC:Senait Gidey

Avitus Rix// turian pathfinder, loves Mason  |single ship  with @thebloodychampion Mason | homosexual | FC: Charlie Hunnam

Tibesius Suldonis  // a hastatim unit leader, gay , married to a woman, manipulated by his friend and ex lover Cosna |  Single ship with @thebloodychampion | homosexual | FC: Nathan Fillion

Quitilia Suldonis // sweet, Serlio’s and Silia’s mother, dead  by Cosna | no ship | heterosexual | FC:Bridget Regan

Lucius Suldonis // the youngest sibling, model  turian, bit of playboy, skilled pilot | multiship | pansexual | FC: Tyler Hoechlin

Serlio Salvilus // Actually son of Cosna’s brother Caius . good in politics, future turian councilor  | multiship |  bisexual | FC: Josh Bowman

Silia Salvilus-//blind. Serlio’s little sister, had many hardships, works in Citadel , not daughter of Cosna, but born from a relationship her mother had with Haral Nyras. | multiship| heterosexual| FC: Lyndsy Fonseca

Cosna Salvilus // the evil mastermind, took his brother’s life and played him -|no ship-|bisexual | FC: Christian Bale

Caius Salvilus // got in an accident and was in coma and memory loss for decades. Real father of Serlio | multiship | bisexual | FC: Christian Bale

Tokol // pink, hanar and definitely not someone you should trust | no ship| asexual | Fc: game face

Anaya Kiuk // a young drell assassin, suffers from deadly illness , works for Tokol- | multiship | bisexual | FC: Naomi Scott

Sunip Molane // a salaria assassin, scientist , works for Tokol |multiship |demisexual | Fc: Allyson Hannigan

Bono Baffabar-//batarian mercenary and assassin, works for Tokol -| multiship | bisexual | FC: Jake Gyllenhaal

Luc Laxius// turian business woman, mother of twins | no ship-heterosexual | FC: Meryl Streep

Maxius Kryik // son of Nihlus Kryik, C-sec officer  |multiship |pansexual | FC: Sebastian Stan

Titus Faion // thief and turian, disguises as a male | multishp- heterosexual | FC: Charlize Theron

Tasha Tissel // ex asari assassin, now a doctor  | single ship with @thebloodychampion  | heterosexual | Fc: Chrishell Stubbs

Magnar Shepard // the viking, tall and blond, gets the job done-  | multiship | pansexual | FC: Chris Hemsworth

Camephilia  Octatus// Camilea’s little sister, young, raised on Omega | no ship, single ship in the future times  with @thebloodychampion |  heterosexual | fc: Anna von Klinski

[felassan]

How does exactly healing in DA work? Is its power unlimited, or is it rather magical acceleration of natural healing process, so a mage can in a flash fix things that would take more time in normal circumstances? What can be healed by magic and what is impossible to heal? [mini-spoiler alert ahead!] I remember Fiona conjuring friendly spirits from Fade in Deep Roads to heal some injuries and broken bones, but how about ilnesses, poisons etc.? Is there any canon for healing process?

Hi Nonnie, this is a grand question. tbh I love getting Qs like this. (❁´◡`❁) pls feel free to send them to me folks if there’s stuff like this you’re wondering about.

This answer focuses on healing magic and spirit healing. One note is that there seem to be healing spells that don’t require the mage to be a spirit healer i.e. that don’t seem to require the assistance of a spirit, but not all non-spirit-healer mages have or know these spells (Adrian doesn’t for example). Another is that within the actual spirit healer discipline are the mages able to take healing and restoration far beyond a normal mage’s capabilities. We therefore infer that spirit-assisted healing magic is a lot more powerful. I’m not really focusing on stuff like “spirit healers in the lore are rare”, “the specific spirits they summon are […]” and “Wynne is especially powerful because she’s very accomplished, long-studied and bonded to Faith” because that’s getting off the question of canon for healing process. 

Healing magic in DA is a bit odd/frustrating cause it’s not extensively detailed in terms of capabilities, limitations etc. It’s very spotty. It’s not even internally consistent, and there’s also the issue of gameplay/story segregation. What’s just gameplay mechanics? who can tell. Beyond some notes on the spirit healer spec and how it works in the lore which you can read on the DA wiki (they do indeed call benevolent spirits from the Fade to help like you mention with Fiona; there’s more detail on that process at the link), and what you can see from the healing spell skills present in the games (so their descriptions and what they look like when used in combat), it’s never really like… set out. So we kind of have to infer from examples from places like books and cutscenes and try to build a picture from there.

Here are some notable instances. It’s under a cut because parts of the post contain spoilers for Tevinter Nights and Blue Wraith.

In the Dragon Age Comic from IDW, the one about a mage called Gleam: A dwarf called Minderel has only has one arm, having lost the other. He injures his leg in a fight, and instructs Gleam in how to heal him. This is odd to me because he’s a dwarf (uhh how does he know how healing magic works?) and Gleam doesn’t have formal training in this kind of magic, she’s like 17 and was raised by a non-mage blacksmith on a farm, not in the Circle or by an apostate like mage Hawke… Anyways, she heals his leg, and like, in the process.. unintentionally regrows his entire freakin long-lost arm?? Healer mages can regrow lost limbs?? WAT? His new arm is half the size of what it should be, but it’s there and functioning. Would it be the right size if an experienced healer did it?? Honestly.. this entire segment was so totally random and ‘tha fuk?’ that I pretend it didn’t happen. This comic in general wasn’t good quality. It’s like the ugly stepchild of the DA comics. The one nobody ever speaks about. it has other nonsensical-by-existing-lore stuff in it (like it says dwarves can’t see in the dark, when they can). actually this comic is a hot mess lore wise and iirc even some of the actual DA writers (the comic was written by an outside person) were like uhmm yeah you guys can decide for yourselves if these are canon… lmao. so I tend to write this incident off as world-breaking third-tier nonsense, like the kid Eiton in Dragon Age Legends who was supposedly born Tranquil (that can’t happen) and go with the line of thinking that no, mages in DA cannot regrow long-lost limbs. You’d think that if they could, this would be like, mentioned? The world of Thedas would be different if this was a thing that was possible. Like, if this is possible, why does Neve Gallus have a metal prosthetic leg of dwarven make…? ok I guess maybe she just wanted one or they’re stronger or sth? but cmon… anyway It did happen in a canon material though, so folk can make up their own minds ofc. imo though the power of healing magic is limited, and this would really be something that is impossible to heal.

There’s a moment I adore in Blue Wraith. Francesca, who has quite unique nature/plant magic for a human (such magic is usually only seen among Dalish elves), is also able to use healing magic, tho she doesn’t seem to be a spirit healer (which is consistent with what I said above). Aaron’s horse, Cassé, gets injured in battle. from the looks of things it’s an injury which would get a horse put down in our world. (that’s less a comment on the severity of a leg injury and more a comment from a biological perspective about how.. weirdly delicate horses can be despite appearances and strength, and how their specific body structure and such means broken legs in horses have only a small chance for recovery) Aaron, knowing Fran is a powerful mage, says that she may be able to heal him. she does so, re-knitting his bone. she also used her magic to grow Embrium blossoms to calm him during the process. Her writers note that even Fran’s healing is supplemented by plant magic, and this makes her unique even amongst healers. Aaron calls this magnificent and comments that he hasn’t seen magic like that since his time with a group of Emerald Knight restorationist elves who he travelled with in the Dales, possibly implying that some elven mages do similar things. From Fran’s comment on bone re-knitting, which is what bone in our world is sometimes said to do when it’s healing from a break, it sounds like healing magic is magical acceleration of the natural healing process. this is supported when Rhys healing is described as “knitting flesh back together”. that also sounds like it’s basically mimicking a sped up version of how our bodies would naturally heal given time. I wouldn’t say mages can heal things in a flash, because we see different examples of mages leaning over their charges and there’s glowing light while it happens (Fran here, meeting Anders in DAII), so it does take a bit of time. but certainly it seems rather quick and is oodles faster than the time it would take in normal circumstances.

In Tevinter Nights, Myrion is a mage who knows a little healing magic, but isn’t a spirit healer. He talks about his friend Jasecca, who “worked with spirits” - she was a spirit healer. she taught him a few tricks. On the subject of the capabilities of healing magic - Jasecca once reattached a man’s hand after it had been chopped off, presumably like very soon after. this mimics surgical limb re-plantation in our world, where most patients need to have the limb reattached within hours of the injury.

In the same story Myrion’s healing of Strife, who was punched clean through his torso with a big Qunari arrow, gives a lil bit more insight of how healing magic works. Myrion uses magic to close the wound and Strife feels a humming warmth seep into his back. it seems like Myrion does this without calling on a spirit.

Isabela goes to Anders in DAII in order for a magical cure (or relief from the symptoms of?) a disease which is implied to be an STD.

In TME Dalish mage Mihris uses healing magic to reduce inflammation on Celene’s wound, which had been stitched up I think manually beforehand. her hand glowed with cool white light which made Michel’s skin crawl.

In the Dalish Origin after Mahariel has been Tainted by the mirror, they are delirious with fever after Duncan found them unconscious. Marethari used “the old magic to [apparently] heal” them from the sickness. She says it was difficult even for her magic to keep them alive. Merrill apparently knows a degree of this magic and would be able to increase Tamlen’s chances of making it back to camp alive if they found him. It transpires that Mahariel’s ‘recovery’ was only temporary. Marethari weakened the Taint but couldn’t cure it with her healing arts.

what’s super interesting is the healing and related capabilities of (ironically) blood magic. We’ve seen it extend lifespans and keep youth despite aging. We’ve seen it cleanse the freakin Blight. a mage called Seraphinian used his own blood to cure his lover from a “wasting disease”. it’s even implied somewhere that I can’t remember that blood magic can restore sight if you’ve gone blind. edit: thank you @pugfaced for the help/note on where this came from. per pugfaced in the notes below, this “implication that blood magic can help restore sight – there’s a senior enchanter in the mage origin in DAO who says his eyesight is bad, you can ask if there’s magical ways to fix that, and he says “not any magic i’d be caught dead doing””.

as you say there are also written examples in The Calling when Fiona uses her magic. these are fairly informative in terms of the frame of your question. here she heals herself from fairly serious wounds (arrows in her stomach):

With a wave of a hand, a warm blue glow suddenly suffused her entire body. She gasped out loud as the pain was lifted from her, arching her back as the magic worked its way through her body. Maric watched, impressed, as several of the smaller cuts along her arms slowly closed and healed. When the spell was finished, the glow disappeared and Fiona collapsed limply.

this isn’t the only instance of a spirit healer healing themselves outside of gameplay. Rhys does the same thing in Asunder.

back to Fiona, here the limit seems to be the limits of Fiona’s power, i.e. her remaining strength and magical reserves, mana reserves. (she was exhausted at the time and they’d just been in a big ass fight). she drinks what seems to be a lyrium potion after in order to regain strength enough to then go on to heal some of the injuries the rest of her party sustained. The book notes that the magic she provides had its limitations. whether that’s of Fiona’s power specifically or of healing magic in general isn’t clear, but I lean towards the latter, because Fiona is a powerful and capable mage. We’re told it can mend flesh, stem bleeding and restore a degree of health, but that severe wounds were beyond her ability to heal. She wasn’t able to heal Julien’s broken arm, or Nicolas’ internal injuries. her own injuries were not fully healed. Maric’s twisted leg feels better immediately, but not completely repaired. 

Her tone was gruff but her fingers were gentle, brushing his skin lightly as the tingle of her magic began to wash through him. He tried not to stare at her, and instead concentrated on the aura of sapphire light that surrounded him.

some further description of what it feels like to receive. the glowing blue light is the most common theme.

here I’ll note that it’s not clear if this sort of partial healing is typical, as in this is the lore saying “healing magic is good but has limits, it’s not like a mage does the glowy blue light on your wound and you’re in brilliant shape again”, or whether it’s limited here because Fiona was so exhausted and also having to like “ration out” her power and heal her party members each just a bit, if that makes sense, as most of them had sustained pretty intense injuries.

healing magic clearly significantly sap’s the user’s strength. we see this in Fiona, in Asunder after healing Rhys Wynne is pale and drawn, we see it when we meet Anders in DA2 and he’s wobbly after healing the boy. these facts lead me to believe that the way healing magic is just flung around in battle willy-nilly in-game when we play in DAO and DAII is not.. truly representative of how it works in the setting. imo it probably requires a lot of focus and is more tiring than more usual forms of battle-magic like flinging a fireball. there are totally points in these books when Fiona etc do it in battle. but I think it’s hard and not at all like how it plays out in game.

later we see more of healing magic’s hard limits. in this bit I’m confident it’s a limit of healing magic itself, not of Fiona’s specific abilities, because at this point iirc she wasn’t injured herself and wasn’t like super exhausted. Julien lies mangled and probably died of a broken neck. Fiona pours magic into the body,

but very little seemed to be happening. Some of the gaping wounds on Julien’s body were closing, but no color was being restored to his pale skin and he didn’t move at all.

She keeps trying but he’s clearly dead… :’( reading the death of Julien always makes me teary, shit..

As Genevieve bluntly puts it, magic can’t bring someone back from the dead. although it can clearly mend flesh wounds on a recently-deceased corpse, presumably because at this point the tissue itself, purely mechanically, is still warm and ‘living’ enough in order for there to be an effect. This is reinforced in Asunder when someone dies. Even summoning healing spirits won’t wake the dead.

[Wynne] desperately summoned healing spirits to mend the woman’s injuries, but the magic she poured into the body was pointless. The woman was dead and gone

the same thing happens again when Evangeline dies. this one echoes what happened with Julien - her flesh knits and wounds close, but she doesn’t come back to life (not until Wynne gives her Faith obviously and dies herself).

There’s also a bit more info in Asunder. Evangeline gets injured in a fight. she gets burned, inhales smoke, cracks her head off the floor, is made dizzy. force magic had also knocked the breath out of her and her body got kinda battered as she crashed to the ground. she passes out and Leli has a mage heal her. 

Despite the healing magic, it still felt as if her bones were covered in bruises and her lungs filled with soot.

Magic can’t do everything, she reminded herself.

this excerpt lends credence to the notion that healing magic doesn’t heal injuries perfectly and people still feel pained and aren’t 100% healed after.

There’s a limit to healing oneself - Rhys can’t do it at one point when he’s too hurt.

Rhys tried to summon mana to heal himself. He closed his eyes and concentrated, but the pain was simply too great. It was a white blaze he just couldn’t fight his way past, and trying only made it worse. He doubled over, the light-headedness threatening to make him swoon.

I will also say that all magics in general seem to be more developed and so forth in Tevinter due to the lack of restraints on mages / lack of distrust of magic. I therefore think it’s reasonable to infer that healing magic too is more powerful and advanced/capable in Tevinter, especially with the prevalence of blood magic there (see section on blood magic above).

Umm so let’s recap/summarize because this has become a whole ass thing…

There are healing spells / healing magics that do not require the mage to be a spirit healer. Not all mages have or know these spells.

Spirit healers are far more powerful and capable at healing, thanks to the assistance of spirits. A bit more detail on how getting the spirits to help works and how one might become a spirit healer etc in the lore is found in the DA wiki article on spirit healers.

Healing magic and indeed medicinal practises in general in DA is frustrating because it’s spotty. Canon specifics and details on the healing process are thin on the ground and not well or clearly set out. Some of it is also inconsistent. Most of what we know is from isolated examples. We have a limited picture built mostly from those examples. We also contend with gameplay-story segregation - how much of the healing magic skill descriptions in-game and the way they play out on screen in front of us holds true for how healing magic truly works in the setting?

From what we can seem to tell however, its power is not unlimited. It seems to largely be a magical acceleration of the natural healing process. It’s not done in a flash, but it is of course a lot quicker than mundane methods or unassisted healing.

Examples of what is possible to heal/do with healing magic: regrowing a long-lost limb [?], re-knitting bone, knitting flesh back together, growing specific blossoms in the ground at the time to calm the patient while he’s being healed [rare], reattaching body parts soon after they’ve been chopped off, cure or help with a disease which is implied to be a sexually transmitted disease, heal oneself even when badly injured, restore health, stem bleeding, close wounds, close flesh wounds on a recently-deceased corpse, help with burns and smoke inhalation, dull pain, reduce inflammation.

Notes on the above: The regrowing a long-lost limb is super questionable. The segment it occurs in doesn’t make sense as a whole. This segment is from a poor quality source that gets a bunch of other lore stuff wrong. The source is such that even some of the dev-writers are like “umm.. yeah.. nvm probably” about it, lol. imo this would be impossible to do. The growing of flowers to assist is technically healing being supplemented by plant magic. This is a rare skill or thing to do that makes its human user unique even amongst human healers, but might also be something found among Dalish elves. The reattaching of a body part was done by a Tevinter spirit healer. I imagine that healing magic, like other kinds of magic, in a general sense is more advanced/capable in Tevinter, due to the lack of restrictions on mages.

Blood magic can also be used to heal. We’ve seen it extend lifespans, maintain youth, cure a wasting disease, and cleanse the Blight from both inanimate and organic/living objects. Lore implies blood magic could also restore sight after having gone blind. These instances of blood magic curing a disease and cleansing Blight are pretty much the only things that we know of currently that spring to mind at this time as regards the illnesses and poisons part of your question (aside from the STD).

On canon for the healing process - basically magic flows from the healer to the patient (they can either touch them or hover their hands over them it seems), there’s a blue/white glow or aura, the patient feels suffused with warmth as magic flows through their body. Wounds then slowly seal and such. Pouring magic into a dead body is pointless.

On limits: the healer’s individual power, their strength reserves, their mana reserves. Healing saps them and they can’t do it if they’re exhausted. Anders becomes woozy in a cutscene and Wynne becomes pale and drawn after an instance, for example.We’re also told healing magic has limitations multiple times. There are some examples of this which I think are partially due to Fiona’s exhausted injured state and number of patients at the time, but also partially due to the natural limitations of healing magic. Severe wounds were beyond her ability; she couldn’t heal a broken arm; she couldn’t heal internal injuries; some of her work left people feeling better but not fully repaired; some of her own wounds were not fully healed. In a general sense it does seem that healing magic doesn’t heal injuries perfectly and people still feel pained and not 100% after. It mostly seems like superficial healing. Further hard limits are not being able to bring back someone from the dead, even if flesh wounds on their corpse close over and you have the help of healing spirits (which would imply rez spells in-game are not rezzing dead chars but knocked out ppl or something, or that it’s purely a mechanic), and not being able to heal oneself if you’re in too much pain.

Also, no magical artifact can do something that a spell cannot do. In Tevinter Nights the healing bauble Bharv stole heals his injuries and closes his wounds til they’re purple welts. It also smooths the skin of one hand til it looks 10 years younger, and earlier on it didn’t close a wound he had on his stomach but it dulled the pain from a sear to a dull throb. The amulet couldn’t rez Elim from the dead. These things are consistent with the capabilities of healing magic as explored in this post.

Hope this helps you Nonnie. :)