#he just wants to go home. people keep talking shit about the mage rebellion but bc he’s an Adaar inquisitor mage that means he’s a mage from

[ziracona]

Just got called ‘flat ear’ by a Dalish and while it’s not like that’s offensive or hurtful, I’m losing my mind because girl??? I may not be an elf but do my bigass Qunari ears LOOK flat to you??

I mean. Girl they are JUST as pointy and elongated as yours are.

[thebookworm0001]

Okay I have to ask because o see it EVERYWHERE and it looks like something of be interested in, but what is Dragon Age?

Strap in darling you just asked the question that will unlock hours of nonsensical ramblings. I will try to make it coherent.

Dragon age is an rpg developed by video game company BioWare (owned by EA). The game is set in a losely-European fantasy setting be sent by all manner of troubles mundane and magical. The first game, Dragon Age: Origins, was released in 2009 and focuses on what amounts to a magic zombie disease attacking the surface population known as The Blight. Blights kill and infect everything and are generally bad for business. You, The Warden, are brought from your home where it falls upon you to end said Blight.

The big draw of this game is the Origin. You choose a gender, race, and background, and get to know your character through an Inciting Event that leads you to become the Warden. This mechanic went away in Dragon Age 2, in part due to a rushed development cycle. You play as Hawke, a human fleeing the Blight with their family. You live as a refugee in a city called Kirkwall and seek to keep yourself and your family safe. In Inquisition, the mechanic returns, though with less impact. There is no intial origin-specific quest. Instead, the sky explodes and you have to fix the hole in it. You become the Inquisitor, leader of a religious movement to fix the Breach and have a weird ass magic mark on your hand. Which is good because it lets you fix those aforementioned sky holes. None of the games require the knowledge of the others to play, but it is helpful. You can jump straight into Inquisition if you like, but I suggest starting with Origins and working your way through all three games. They give you insight you otherwise wouldn’t have and can enhance plots in ways you might not have felt as attached to otherwise.

There a number of races in the game - Human, Elf, Dwarf, and Qunari. Origins allows you to play as the initial three. Inquisition lets you plays as a Qunari. Humans are… humans. Life can be great or shitty, but they are the most numerous race and the dominant religion is led by them. Elves once had an empire that spanned the entire world, then humans arrived and everything came crashing down. Tevinter, a country led by mages - powerful magic users - destroyed their empire and took what they wanted. Including the elves. They were enslaved, until they joined a rebellion led by Andraste. This rebellion started the Chantry, see: Catholicism led by women. Andraste is like if Jesus was God’s wife instead of his son. Andraste, Bride of the Maker, has her life similarly cut short by betrayal and went to the Maker’s side to be his bride and petition on behalf of his creation because he’s an absentee father. The elves were given a large amount of land, called the Dales, and life was cool for a while. Until the Chantry decided they sucked and should be Andrastians and held an Exalted March (see: Crusade) to wipe them out. Those who fled the dales became the Dalish, who refuse to submit to human rule, and the city elves, who generally live in poverty in slums called Alienages. Elves, like humans, can be mages. Mages outside the Tevinter Imperium’s aristocracy (called the Magisterium) have various degrees of sucky lives. Most mages are taken to Circles, “schools” where they can learn their magic in safety and away from other people. By and large, they function more like prisons. Templars, the Chantry’s soldiers, possess talents that allow them to combat magic. Ideally, they protect mages from themselves and others, and protect others from mages. Many times, they are glorified jailers, and that comes with a significant potential for abuse. Mages outside circles are called apostates, and the Chantry calls for the death of apostates. “Magic is meant to serve man, not rule over him” is something Andraste said and it has a number of different interpretations. Magic is accessed through the Fade, the place mortals go to dream and the realm of spirits. Mages are susceptible to demons, who wish to enter the world of the living, and becoming possessed often results in an abomination - a creature of immense power who wreaks havoc and death upon the waking world. Then there are the Dwarves. Dwarves cannot dream and therefore cannot be mages. Why can’t they dream? Unsure. However, they do not have an organized religion, instead venerating their ancestors and returning to the stone from which they came. They posses a ‘Stone sense’ which allows them to navigate below the surface. Their society is highly structured, containing castes which cannot be traversed with little exception. At the top of the list is the nobles who rule Orzammar, one of the few thaigs (cities) that were not destroyed by the Darkspawn - the creatures that dwell below ground and who carry the Blight. At the bottom are the casteless, who are not even considered dwarves by society at large. Then there are the qunari. It’s technically the name of the followers of the Qun, a highly structured religion, but the race is often synonymous. They are giants, often possessing horns, and have grey-toned skin. They can be mages, as they dreams, by within the Qun they are shackled, their mouths sewn shut, and their actions controlled by another Qunari.

There is a shit ton of lore, and the stories are incredibly compelling. Each game (Origins, 2, and Inquisition) follows a different protagonist with different goals and companions. The companions can be romanced, with various amounts of fluff and heartbreak. A fourth game was “announced” last year at the Game Awards and the fandom has been frothing at the mouth for new content since Inquisition’s release in 2014.

Tl;dr, if you like fantasy role playing games where stuff can get dark (and I mean implied rape dark) and there is a lot of gore (seriously the gore mechanic in DA:O is a lot) but the stories are compelling, the characters are rich, and you don’t mind screaming into the void because a bald elf gave you Feelings, play it. It’s a seriously wonderful series, even with its faults, and the fandom is pretty awesome too.

If you want more specifics PLEASE ask. I love talking about the series and I can and will speak until I lose my voice. Or… type until my fingers fall off, I guess.

[arkt-nehrim-archive]

Thoughts on the actual land of Nehrim?

Soooo many thoughts!  Possibly too many to share in one post, but I’ll try to keep it contained(I make no promises).  I’m still gonna put a break in it so it doesn’t just throw a WALL onto people’s dashes. 

Before saying anything tho, I subscribe to Nehrim’s clock that 1,000 years really did pass between certain events, so I’ll be cataloging my thoughts according to that. 

So the land of Nehrim!  Possibly the single most diverse place on Vyn!  Trouncing even Qyra, since Qyra is still overseen teeeechnically by a theocratic element (Saldrin) for a vast majority of time and is mostly just arid/tropical desert. Sure Qyra is SUPER progressive as far as Vyn’s various territories go, and I dream of a game set on that continent-  AAAH okay, focusing. Here to talk about Nehrim, not Qyra. 

So at one point in time, we’ll say somewhere in the 7200s a.St. by the Light-born’s established clock, Nehrim was a loosely unified place under Erodan. Not in the sense that everybody -agrees- with one another, but y’know, nobody is -actively- at war.  We got the Middlerealm of course, which is the seat of Erodan’s power in which he may or may not have actually -lived- amongst his subjects (given Narathzul is described as being his right-hand dude and the Order of Paladins is stationed -on- Nehrim up north, I’m inclined to think this is true).  Then there’s the North, which wasn’t it’s -own- territory at this point but still definitely had its own diverse culture and possibly still some manner of monarchy specifically loyal -to- Erodan  (not too hard to believe given Erodan is actually a half-breed between “Light-born” and Norman anyway; King Wuran). Then we have Ostian, which only -recently- in lore has been the theocratic dictatorship we see in Nehrim (only existed for 40 years by then), otherwise being described as being a home of art and culture, much like Qyra. A place still recognizing Erodan’s rule, but likely having its own power structure beneath him- again, a lot like Qyra/Golden Queen/Saldrin.  Lastly there’s Treomar!  Which I am fascinated by because it’s a swath of territory -attached- to Nehrim, that is openly -not- loyal to Erodan or the Light-born. From those that live within during Nehrim’s gameplay, one can assume it was primarily, if not entirely a nation of Aeterna, possibly loyalists still to ancient figures like Asatoron and Aeterna from Irdor (which is it’s own whole fuckin’ thing, I’ll share thoughts on that later).  With its geographical location its not too hard to imagine they came from Myar Aranath and landed in what they’d found as Treomar, building this Dalaran-esque (any Warcraft peeps in here?) mage society and aaaaaaaaaah, they’re cool. 

There’s all of this going on and co-existing at least to some degree, with the only other place approaching being that diverse being Arktwend later. I honestly would have looooved to see this Nehrim, before all the craziness and war and murderdeath that results in the country -we- know and experience in the game itself, as back then I’m fairly sure the magic abolition hadn’t been a -thing- yet  (because Aeterna and magic weren’t such a threat to Barateon’s power), so Aeterna would’ve still had rights n’ such, though they were probably still looked down on because of heritage (soooo gonna get into THAT later mmmMMM).  Erodan all in all seemed pretty chill all things considered, which may be owed to his half-breed status, he’s closer to the people on a genetic level, so maybe that makes him inclined to treat people better I dunno.  We only get to see him for like two seconds and -can’t- talk to him!  So!  -shrug-  

OH SHIT I forgot somebody really important!  -Anku-!  Technically speaking that is totally a fifth nation/state, as it encompasses a huuuuge swath of territory (underground) and is ruled by some fashion of monarchy, so -EVEN- more diverse cultures on this continent. The Starlings don’t answer to Erodan, but still exist peacefully within Nehrim within their own lil’ pocket nation and MAN I was sad most of our time spent with the Starlings is in the parts of their territory they don’t actually spend time in. I get it, when we got to see Anku is a time when there’s very few Starlings actually -left-, but still. They’re such a neat race, especially when you consider Nehrim’s lore for them over Enderal’s (which downgrades them significantly from the literal galactic superpower they’re said to be in Nehrim). 

And all of this!  All of this and still the Nehrim -we- see and adventure in is -so -different. Erodan is dead, has been for -centuries-.  Now there’s this grubby, tyrant human in the throne named Barateon, who’s loyalty literally goes only as deep as whatever preserves his life the longest. Credit where it’s due, he’s still a powerful arcanist, extending his years beyond what mortals should be capable of (which is exactly what the myths say the Light-born did so hhHHMMM more on that in another post).  Treomar is destroyed, and much of its history is gone with it outside of specific documentation the Light-born for some reason keep around and guarded instead of getting rid of it- like they -want- people to rise up against them or something. Ostian is a friggen magical radioactive wasteland where the fabric of reality is so damaged now even the skies rage with toxic super storms- and as if that weren’t enough the part of its that’s still inhabitable is now kept under the bootheel of another powerful mortal mage whose roftstomped everybody into a new highly oppressive, morally appalling religion that saw Enderal’s Prophet created from its awful maw.  Like, Nehrim has become, in its centuries outside of -direct- supervision become this tragic shadow of what it once was, and when you actually dig into the lore of how it all ran before, it’s just like auuuughh -man-. It’s so sad. ;_;  It’s tragic that somebody as negligent and awful as Tyr, is proven right, because of how life has degraded in the absence of direct intervention. And I’m not making a case for Light-born tyranny here!  I’m just saying Nehrim 1,000 years ago was pretty cool and I would’ve loved to see it  (I’ll just have to write stories from that era heheheh >>;).  

So yeah uuuh...  OH!  I didn’t even mention the sheer amount of Aeterna ruins all around Nehrim!  Suggesting Asatoron’s empire probably had a decent chunk of it built there when it was still part of the super-continent of Pangora! I would’ve loved to be able to actually -speak- to the clans of Aeterna that took refuge and used these ruins; I want to know so badly -who- Etronar is, I want to know more of the various Aeterna peoples that splintered off and had to find safe corners in Nehrim to exist after Narathzul’s rebellion and subsequent defeat/capture, that is centuries worth of time, a significant swath of history and there’s so much to play with there that y’know, stuff like cutting the timeline apart and whittling it down just makes all the unrealized potential sssoooo friggen unsatisfying, but anyway. 

Overall, I think Nehrim, as a region, is a fascinating place. So much has happened there, absolutely world-defining events that changed so many things; how Aeterna were viewed and treated, how use of magic is policed/outlawed, how the Light-born govern purely from a fear of -what if they rebel again-, I mean they ALL retreated to Inodan after Narathzul and Arkt unleashed their individual rebellions and ruled from a distance, bringing about this era of mystery where the peoples of the world just -forgot- what it was to -see- and -hear- their Gods, leading to no small amount of many just, -not- thinking they actually existed. I mean shit, look at how Jespar thinks, that man came out of an upbringing that tried its -hardest- to instill faith in the Light-born, but without them actually around to -prove- anything for -centuries-, what grounds did they really have to prove to the kid they were legit?  But there I go getting off topic -again-, because I love Vyn way too damn much. 

I love Nehrim. I think Nehrim is awesome, and fascinating, and I feel too many feelings.   xD  

Thanks for the ask @mirogeorgiev!

[cakelanguage]

Can you believe it? I’m not dead and I’m updating the “Dorian as a young boy” fic that I’ve been neglecting for God knows how long. But chapter 5 is finally here!

First//Previous//Next

You can also read it on AO3

~~~~

While going with the Herald and his party was the safer option, Dorian felt dread trail his steps. As they moved further from Redcliffe, so did Dorian’s bit of safety. The insurance that at least Felix would treat him right and not as if he were a speck of dirt or a snake slithering by were getting slimmer and slimmer with each passing moment. Out here he was going to have to fend for himself.

Not that he hadn’t been fending for himself since he left Tevinter. He’d gotten here in one piece, though he’d lost quite a bit to get here. He was well in-tuned with the loss of gold that had pressed against his chest for the majority of his life. It wasn’t big in the grand scheme of things, especially if it meant he could help Felix, but he still privately mourned the loss of his birthright.

If he lost his birthright to get here, what else was he going to have to give up now that he was out of Redcliffe without Felix to help him? While the Chantry sisters barely tolerated him, they did give him small portions of food when he’d looked “particularly pitiful,” as one of the sisters would point out. Felix himself would always try to sneak food that he could without arousing suspicion. Would the Herald and his party do the same? They had agreed to let him come with them at Felix's request but he didn't know if he could trust their word.

“You’re thinking pretty loudly back there, kiddo,” Varric commented, slowing his pace to walk beside him. He actually was only a few inches shorter than Dorian was and he longed for puberty to give his height a well-deserved boost. “Care to share?”

Dorian worried his bottom lip between his teeth, shaking his head. “Nothing important,” Dorian replied.

Varric shook his head. “Kiddo, I’d like to say everyone here believes you,” the dwarf sighed, “but right now we don’t. We don’t have all the information and we’re running off the inconsistencies between Grand Enchanter Fiona’s offer and the mage rebellions current status and the word of two Altuses who are willingly going against a Magister, who happens to be one of said Altuses’ father.” Varric’s mouth quirked up in a sheepish smile. “It’s a little hard to believe.”

“So think of myself as insurance that if one of us were lying you have recompense.”

Varric looked at him sharply. “Hey, no kiddo, just wanted you to share what was going on in that head of yours.”

Dorian was silent for a moment as he thought of what to say. Should he lie and make up something? Or should he just be forthright with his feelings on what was going on? Lying probably wouldn't do him any good besides create a mask that he doubted he could keep up for long.

He sighed. “I was thinking about the fact that I’m leaving the last place I had any insurance of kindness.” When Varric didn’t say anything he took it as a nudge to continue. “I left my home, gave up something I never thought I’d have to in order to get here, and I was… sad to leave my country.” He let out a humorless chuckle. “I don’t expect you to understand. Tevinter is horrible how it is now, I’ll be the first to admit that. There isn’t enough acceptance, too much deceit hiding under honeyed tongues, and the slavery- don’t get me started on how awful that is. And no one’s doing anything or done anything about it. And Father always tells me that my beliefs would get me killed and that I will grow to accept it, but I haven’t.” He took a deep breath to halt his potential tirade. “But it is still my home, and I miss it.”

“No one is going to fault you for missing home. Hell, I miss Kirkwall and that place is sometimes like a steaming pile of nug shit.”

Dorian actually laughed at that. “Of course they will! They’ll think ‘of course he misses Tevinter, misses the slaves, the pampering, what a spoiled little snake!’ But I can handle missing home, that longing doesn’t come up often.” He sighed again. “But I had Felix back in Redcliffe, even if it was for only short spans of time when he could sneak away. But it was freely offered kindness and love that I had to leave behind.” He hiked his pack up on his back. “That is what I was thinking about.”

Varric didn't say anything more but he did clap Dorian on the shoulder giving it a squeeze before the dwarf let his arm fall back to his side.

“You both okay back there?” the Herald called back to them, a playful smirk playing at his features. “You're looking awfully serious.”

“Don't worry about it your Heraldness,” Varric said lightly.

“Now I’m worried,” the only woman in the party said.

The Herald waved his hand. “I trust Varric, Cassandra. If Varric says it was nothing then I believe him.”

Varric grinned. “At least someone in this party trusts me.”

The booming laugh from ‘Bull’ made Dorian jump. “Awe Varric, I trust you as much as I trust Rocky, you're fine.”

“Isn't he the one who blew up-"

“Yup,” ‘Bull’ interrupted proudly.

Dorian listened to them banter good-naturedly with each other with a detached longing. He had never really made any friends in the Circles, always too smart or just too much. He had never regretted not being able to before, he had Felix and Alexius and Rilienius when the man would indulge in hanging out with him. He even had Maevaris who was a delight when it came to discussing fashion and makeup; she was the one who suggested the kohl around his eyes to make him appear a little older. But he didn't have this easy banter, this camaraderie and it suddenly made him feel bereft of something special.

“-Kid? You still with us or did you go to the fade?”

Dorian came back to the present to Varric’s hand waving in his face. He shook his head to clear the fog of his thoughts, he could think later. “Yes, sorry,” he said. “What was it you were asking?”

“I thought it’d do us some good to actually introduce ourselves since we kinda jumped over that portion of our meeting.” the Herald said sheepishly.

Dorian stared for a moment before nodding his head. “That’s true, it would help if I knew all of your names.”

The Herald clapped his hands excitedly, like a child. “Excellent! I’ll go first, the names Aeren. Just call me Aeren, everyone else just calls me the Herald unfortunately.” He pointed his finger at the woman next, his grin never faltering even when the woman was giving him an icy glare.

The woman scoffed before leveling that stare on Dorian. He felt like he was about to be scolded by his mother when that look was directed at him. “Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast,” Cassandra said shortly.

Dorian's eyes widened and he clenched his teeth together to stop his jaw from dropping. “A Seeker? I haven't met a Seeker before, what do you-"

“Don't,” Cassandra interrupted.

Dorian wanted to insist and keep asking questions but held his tongue, instead just giving her a nod.

Varric elbowed him playfully. “You might already know my name, but I'm Varric,” Varric said with a smile which Dorian found himself reciprocating. He liked the dwarf, and could see them becoming friends. “Nice to meet you, kiddo.”

Dorian fought the urge to pout and instead playfully bumped the dwarf's shoulder with his own. “I’m nearly fourteen,” he insisted.

Varric shrugged. “Right now just about everyone out-ages you by ten years.”

Dorian huffed but he let himself sink into the banter.

The Tal-Vashoth cleared his throat, effectively halting Dorian’s lighthearted conversation. “I’m the Iron Bull, leader of Bull’s Chargers,” Iron Bull said evenly,

“‘The Iron Bull?” Dorian asked.

Aeren laughed. “The ‘the’ is important to remember.”

Dorian felt even more confused by that response. Why include the article in his name?

He must have said that aloud or the qunari was very good at reading people because he went on to explain. “The article makes it seem like I’m an object or a tool, not smart enough to do a lot of things. Makes business boom for my company.”

“That's actually very smart,” Dorian commented.

The Iron Bull snorted and shot him a smirk. “Not expecting a Qunari to be smart?”

Dorian shook his head. “The Qunari are matching the best of Tevinter,” Perhaps beating some of the best of Tevinter, “they, and subsequently you, are intelligent. I’m not so stooped in Tevinter’s ideals to think that you are all stupid beasts.” Although Dorian can’t deny he’s still uneasy around the Qunari.

The Iron Bull made a humming noise but didn’t say anything else to him on the subject.

 Battling with the Herald and his party was… an experience. Aeren himself was a force to be reckoned with. He hefted twin axes around with an otherworldly grace, cutting through darkspawn and wild animals alike. Aeren also didn’t seem to care about getting dirty as he did nothing to wipe away the grim and blood that splashed across his body and face. No one should look that good with blood splattering their face and Dorian had a newfound appreciation for the way the Herald’s blood-stained face would quirk up in a grin when he found something amusing.

Damn hormones.

Cassandra was a powerhouse that seemed to withstand every blow that was inflicted on her and then dealt back the same damage. She had no problem standing her ground in the face of any adversary and didn’t hold back her blows. Though she had a tendency to make sure she covered the Herald’s back at every turn. Dorian felt a bit awed by her attacks. So this was just a taste of a Seeker's power.

Varric, for all his jokes and talk of being a simple storyteller, must have the eyes of a hawk based on his accuracy with Bianca. Dorian thought he himself was excellent at accuracy when it came to his spellcasting, but he felt like an absolute novice after he’d seen Varric literally do a flip before firing off two shots consecutively. Varric provided great support on the field that he, and he assumed everyone else, was thoroughly thankful for.

And then there was the Iron Bull.

A force of nature, with raging battle cries and heavy swings of his axe sinking into the flesh of every enemy they came across. Dorian definitely could see what some of his countryman were talking about when mentioning the raw power Qunari possessed. But the Iron Bull also had an almost childlike excitement when it came to battling literally anything. It was almost endearing to see the excited grin and booming laugh the Qunari would let out after a successful battle.

The only problem was that the Qunari seemed to make sure Dorian was put safely out of harm's way. More than once, he’d been picked up by the collar and put safely behind the warrior. Which was all well and good and perhaps he’d be thankful if he actually needed it.

Which he very much didn’t.

It was insulting to be underestimated like he was. As if his title meant nothing, his skills meant nothing. For Maker’s sake, he was nearly an Enchanter, well on his way to officially receiving that title and that meant absolute shit to the Iron Bull. Was he supposed to feel thankful? Being protected like he was a helpless child, a mage still training for their harrowing having to be protected when faced with real combat.

He shouldn’t feel this upset about it. He was providing good support with his shields and healing the party when they needed it, but he still felt upset. Maybe he was just feeling stressed out by the unfamiliar environment. Maybe it was because he was alone and he felt like he needed to prove himself to the Herald and his party and yet he wasn’t being given the chance. No matter how much he told himself that they were doing it for his own good, the frustrated feeling grew larger making his lips purse into a thin line.

When it happened for the fifth time, Dorian had to resist from stamping his foot on the ground. He observed the battle going on in front of him, at everyone fighting against the foes who’d chosen to attack their party. He wasn’t going to let himself be shuffled to the background any longer. Carefully channeling the power through his body, planting his feet firmly on the ground to act as further grounding for the storm magic he felt crackle through his body. The familiar crackle of electricity gathered around him before he slammed his staff against the earth, releasing the chain lightning on the parties’ attackers.

The lightning arced from enemy to enemy and he watched with satisfaction as two enemies faltered and collapsed under the assault of the electricity. He followed it up with a fireball and a roar, channeling his frustrations through his attack.

Fire licked at the outlaw’s clothes, indiscriminately searing flesh and scorching armor. He blocked out as much of the cries of pain as he could, focusing on taking down the next target. Letting himself fall into the rhythm of battle that he’d grown used to since leaving the safety of his home, he kept casting.

He tried to stay out of reach of any of the men attacking their party, but when one got too close Dorian fade stepped away, extricating himself from the location and putting enough distance between them to let a bolt of storm magic strike his opponent.

It didn’t take long to defeat the group, especially with an additional fighter now that Dorian had joined the fight. He felt proud of himself, for entering the fray even with the Iron Bull’s overbearing protective streak attempting to keep him on the sidelines. Perhaps he’d finally acknowledge that he could take care of himself.

“Kid, you finally decided to join us,” the Iron Bull commented as he slung his axe back onto his back. “Was wondering when you were going to.”

Dorian gaped at the Qunari. “What do you mean?” Dorian asked, “You were the one making sure I had no opportunity to join the fight!”

The Iron Bull shrugged, scratching his head and smearing blood on his ear. “Figured you’d join eventually, thought I should cover you in-case you weren’t ready.”

“You saw me fighting all of those demons back at the Chantry in Redcliffe!” Dorian threw his hands up, squinting at the other man. “Did that mean nothing to you?”

“I think what Tiny’s saying is that he didn’t know if you were ready to fight people,” Varric interjected as he checked over Bianca for any damage.

Dorian crossed his arms “Of course I was ready.” He jumped as a sudden hand clapped his shoulder in a reassuring grip.

“In Bull’s defense, he was just looking out for you,” Aeren added warmly. “The big guy is hired as a bodyguard, so technically he’s just doing his job.”

“He’s your bodyguard,” Cassandra muttered with a roll of her eyes.

Varric waved his hand as if to knock that comment aside. “The point is, we didn’t mean to make you feel like we didn’t trust your abilities.”

Aeren nodded. “Yeah we just…”

Dorian raised an eyebrow. “You just didn’t trust my abilities.”

The Iron Bull snorted. “I guess you proved us wrong.” Dorian sniffed and gave him a look which only made the Iron Bull laugh. “I’ll try to tone it down, Dorian.”

“See that you do! I’m perfectly capable of taking on my fair share of enemies.”

Aeren breathed a sigh of relief and holstered his axes. “Thank goodness, maybe I can sit back and watch for a bit.”

Cassandra gave him a piercing look. “That’s not funny.”

The Herald’s head hung. “Worth a shot, I suppose.”

 They crested over the mountain before Haven not three hours later. Dorian's feet ached in his boots and even with the warmer clothes that Felix had given him he felt like his bones were made of ice. He wasn't used to this sort of weather at all, not when the climate in Tevinter was always warm and just the slightest bit humid as you got closer to the coast. But he didn't bring this to anyone's attention, instead keeping his complaints about the weather to himself. 

"Ah, there she is," Aeren said with a sigh of relief. At least Dorian could take comfort in the fact that he wasn't the only one who was tired from their long trek. "Welcome to Haven, Dorian."

If Dorian were being honest, Haven wasn't much. The tiny village if he could call it that had no more than ten houses with the Chantry taking center stage in the back. He could see how bustling it was and for the first time Dorian really thought about the panic and unrest that infected the masses when the Breach had appeared. These people had lost their Divine and the peace talks were in shambles after the destruction of the Conclave. They'd banded together to try and stop what was going on and others had joined to help. He didn't know if there had been any instances where Tevinter had done the same. 

"We should be there soon," Varric said, carefully making his way down the steep slope. "Watch your step, it's easy to lose your footing with all this snow blocking our view."

Dorian nodded absentmindedly, switching his gaze from looking at the ground and what was in front of him.

Cassandra cleared her throat and Dorian turned his head to look at her. "Just so you are aware, a scout has already made the other advisors aware of our additional company," she informed, shifting the shield on her back to a more comfortable position. "I'm sure they'll want a full report from the Herald."

Aeren groaned loudly beside the Iron Bull. "I suppose they'll want to talk about the situation in Redcliffe."

Cassandra nodded her head. "To discover that the rebel mages have sided with Tevinter, especially after Grand Enchanter Fiona came to us to ask for our aid… well let's just say Commander Cullen and Leliana are most likely chomping at the bit to find out the details."

"Very well, I'll meet with them right away," Aeren said.

"I should be there as well," Dorian spoke up. "I know the details of what's going on."

"Which you told us," Aeren said turning his full attention to Dorian. "Unless you and Felix left something out when you were explaining the situation."

Dorian resisted the urge to flinch under Aeren's sudden hawk-like gaze. "N-no I did but I can clarify any confusion that might occur after your advisors hear about the situation."

"Somehow I doubt that will go over well with them," the Iron Bull commented. 

"I know that for a fact," Cassandra said. "It would be best if after the meeting, if any of them had further questions, they could ask you, Dorian."

Dorian wanted to argue with Cassandra but held his tongue. He was still an outsider; for all they knew, he could still be gathering information- have an alternative motive that would cause disruption within the council. Dorian finally nodded his head and started thinking of ways to listen in on the meeting. It'd be highly suspicious behavior, however, he'd be able to hear what the Herald's advisors really thought about the situation in Redcliffe.

"Don't think too hard about it, kid," Varric reassured, clapping him on his back. "I can show you around, introduce you to the rest of the gang."

Dorian made a noise of affirmation and started planning how he was going to now sneak away from Varric of all people. "Perhaps it'd be best if I ate something first?" Dorian asked.

"I could go for a drink myself," Bull said. "Gotta get a report from my crew but then I could meet you at the tavern."

Dorian shifted awkwardly at the mention of the Iron Bull's crew. There were more Qunari here in Haven? "Your crew?"

Bull laughed. "The Iron Bull's Chargers. Bunch of assholes, but they're my assholes."

For some reason hearing Bull sound so jovial about his crew made Dorian feel more comfortable. But it didn't deter from the fact that Dorian now realized he had a small window of opportunity to get away from Varric and to the Herald's meeting with his advisors because once the Iron Bull joined them Dorian knew he wouldn't be getting away so easily. 

Aeren clapped his hands. "So Cassandra and I'll be off to the Chantry for that simply delightful meeting that I'm so excited about attending, Bull is going to his Chargers and Varric and Dorian get to eat," his lip quivered as he turned towards Cassandra once more, "are you sure I can't at least get something to eat before this thing?"

Cassandra scoffed and Dorian wondered if it was Cassandra's default expression. "You should still have that goat jerky you purchased before we left the Hinterlands," she said.

"But Cassandra," Aeren drew out the vowels of her name in a whine, "that's emergency food in case we can't get some."

She gave him a blank look as they reached the end of the slope. "Seems you've found your emergency."

Dorian split his attention between listening to Varric point out different locations in Haven and taking in all the stares he was receiving from the village folk. He didn't look terribly different from them at first glance but Dorian could quickly see the differences. His clothes were a higher quality; having unnecessary decorative belts and bits of leather and fur while definitely Dorian's style, wasn't abundant in the people of Haven. It could also be the staff strapped against his back. Mages were still being oppressed and were always watched warily as if they were going to turn into demons at a moments notice.

Or they could tell he was from Tevinter, it could always be that. His safest bet was to stay close to Varric until he found an opportunity to leave and try and listen in on that meeting.

"-And that's the merchant here in Haven, he's an ass and jack's up his prices but he does have some good quality stuff if you can afford it. But if you ask me," Varric laughed and pointed back outside the gates, "just buy some schematics from Seggrit and take them to Harritt and have him make them. Takes a while to collect some materials but the Herald stops for elfroot every five minutes so you'll have plenty of time to get stuff." 

Dorian's ears grew hot and he turned to look away from the dwarf. "I did notice Aeren's… affinity to collecting elfroot but I thought it might have been an elf thing."

"Are you kidding me? Every time he stops I can hear Sera's complaining and Solas looks physically pained."

"Well that's different."

"Different strokes for different folks. Guess plants don't get 'em going." Dorian snorted and shook his head. Talking to Varric was easy. "Now, you want to actually eat something?"

"Oh um- sure?" He needed to sneak away, but this was his chance. "But I have to… relieve myself first."

Varric snorted and shook his head. "Say no more, pretty sure there's a chamber pot in the tavern somewhere in the back. Or you could pick a tree."

Dorian forced his grin to look relaxed. "A tree sounds a bit better to me."

"Well I'll be in the tavern getting some grub, come join me when you're done." Varric patted him on the back and started walking away. "Gotta introduce you to Sera, she spends all her time there."

Dorian wasted no time before he was headed for the Chantry. He tried to look as calm and confident as he could manage, refusing to make eye contact with any of the people who might've been looking at him. He saw a livid looking Grand Chancellor speaking heatedly to a harried group of soldiers who looked like they wanted to be anywhere else.

"-it's bad enough that this Inquisition is allowing for the Divine's killer to walk around freely without even a slap on the wrist but to have the audacity to-" 

Dorian blocked out the rest of the man's speech as he reached the large double doors. He felt oddly proud of himself, that he managed to get this far without any issues. Perhaps he had gotten lucky.

Shimmying in through the small space he created he made his way inside. It was dark and smelt heavily of musty paper, wax, and potpourri; exactly how the Chantry in Redcliffe had smelled. He hoped Felix was doing alright. He could almost see the teasing grin on his brother's face when they’d get up to mischief and his fake reprimands to appease Alexius while he gave Dorian a thumbs up once Alexius looked away. He missed Felix so much.

He confidently walked to the doors on the far wall. He knew that confidence fooled plenty of people that you knew exactly what you were doing and that you were supposed to do it. He did notice a woman dressed extravagantly in the finest fashion from Val Royeaux giving him detached curious looks but she didn't make any moves toward him so he counted it as a win.

Once he was at the door he absentmindedly leaned his head against the door, pressing his ear against the surface to try and hear what was going on. It was obvious he was listening in on the meeting but he hadn't thought of what he was going to do once he had gotten this far. And no one had stopped him yet. Perhaps his age for once might be an advantage rather than a hindrance and people would brush it off as a curious child. 

Then again, he hadn’t recalled seeing anyone remotely his age since he’d entered Haven. He shoved his worries aside and pressed his ear harder against the door. 

“-Either we find another way in, or give up this nonsense and go get the Templars,” A man argued. Dorian grimaced, he wasn’t liking how this was sounding.

“Redcliffe is in the hands of a Magister. This cannot be allowed to stand,” Cassandra said firmly.

“The letter from Alexius asked for the Herald of Andraste by name. It’s an obvious trap,” Another woman interjected, her voice heavily accented.

“I was actually wondering about that, why does he know my name?” Aeren asked. “Didn’t even think Magisters bothered to learn elves’s names.”

“Perhaps not in most cases, but you aren’t most elves,” The heavily accented woman said. 

Aeren didn’t give a verbal response to that statement, instead letting out a sigh to show his displeasure. “Whatever, what’s important is coming to an agreement on this. We’re just wasting time fighting among ourselves.”

“A Tevinter controls Redcliffe, invites us to the castle to talk, and some of us want to do nothing.” This woman’s voice was accented as well, but this one he could place geographically. Those from Val Royeaux had a very distinct accent.

“Not this again,” the other woman muttered.

“It’s like I’m dealing with children,” Aeren mumbled. He must have been standing closest to the door because Dorian doubted he would have heard the elf otherwise.

“Redcliffe castle is one of the most defensible fortresses in Ferelden. It has repelled thousands of assaults,” the man stated simply before lowering his voice. “If you go in there, you’ll die. And we’ll lose the only means we have of closing these rifts. I won’t allow it.”

Dorian could understand the man’s hesitation especially with the fate of the rest of humanity relying on the Herald’s mark to close the rifts. That didn’t mean he agreed with the man though, especially with how quick the man was willing to cast the mages aside in favor of the Templars. 

“And if we don’t even try to meet Alexius, we lose the mages and leave a hostile foreign power on our doorstep!” The Val Royeaux woman insisted. At least someone understood what was at stake if they ignored Alexius and cast aside the mages. 

“Even if we could assault the keep, it would be for naught,” the accented woman spoke up again, “An ‘Orlesian’ Inquisition’s army marching into Ferelden would provoke a war. Our hands are tied.”

Cassandra didn’t seem to agree. “The Magister-”

“Has outplayed us,” the man said sternly.

Aeren seemed to be at his wits end with the discussion as he spoke up. “The Magister’s son, Felix, told me Alexius is in a cult that’s obsessed with me.” The Herald’s amusement was clear in his voice. “I doubt they’ll graciously receive our apologies and go about their business. Typically not how cults are usually run.” Dorian doubted Aeren knew much about what cults were really like, but his comment did seem to lessen the tension that was going on in the room the group was in.

“They’ll remain a threat, and a powerful one, unless we act,” the Val Royeaux woman plainly said. 

Dorian was nodding his head at what he was hearing. Finally the meeting seemed to be on the right path to coming to a decision in the mages’s favor. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if the Inquisition decided that they would side with the Templars over the mages. Try to take Alexius down himself he supposed, try to wriggle himself back into Alexius’s favor to get the man’s defenses down so that he and Felix could take care of him. 

He was stopped from his eavesdropping when a shadow loomed over him. For a moment his heart stopped and he wondered if it was the Iron Bull that’d found him somehow, but the shadow was much too slim to be the Qunari. He tilted his head up and met the gaze of the fashionable woman he’d seen near the front of the Chantry when he’d entered the building. She didn’t seem too interested in what he was doing, but Dorian didn’t believe that disinterest for a minute. He’d worn similar facial expressions at numerous parties he hadn’t wanted to go to until he’d discovered that he could slip away with Felix or Maevaris if he pretended he didn’t want to be there. 

“And what are you doing all the way back here, child?” the woman asked.

Dorian looked at her imploringly and tried to put on his most innocent face. “I was just… curious. About the Herald. He uh… Varric mentioned that he and his advisors were having an important meeting and well I um… wanted to hear it from the source?” He was a fool and wished he’d learned how to be a honey tongued snake like his peers had been. 

She seemed to ignore his verbal stumble and gave him a small smile, like one gave a particularly amusing animal. “In other words, you’re the company the Herald brought back with him after his trip to Redcliffe.”

“H-how-?”

“Oh dear, people often forget the walls have ears and that fashion is an instant identifier.”

Oh she was good. She played the game with the grace of one who was well versed in all the ins-and-outs of the rules. “There was no point lying to her at this point. “I know exactly what is going on in Redcliffe and how crucial it is that the Herald side with the mages.”

She nodded. “The mages have their leashes too loose in Redcliffe. They feel too invincible. To allow that to continue and further excommunicating them to this freedom would be detrimental to getting things back into order.”

Dorian stared at the woman. “A-are you implying that the Inquisition should side with the mages to reinstate the Circles?”

“Hm, at least some sort of control needs to be put into action, but I doubt the mages will stand to go completely back to the Circles.”

With good reason, Dorian thought but didn’t voice. “Not that this isn’t a riveting talk, but I was busy listening in on the meeting.”

“Which you aren’t supposed to be doing.”

“Be that as it may, I would appreciate being able to continue listening if it’s all the same to you…”

“Madame De Fer, Enchanter to the Imperial Court of Orlais.”

Dorian stood a bit straighter and nodded at her respectfully. “Dorian of House Pavus.”

She raised an eyebrow at his name. “You are a far way from home, Dorian.”

“I’m here to do what needs to be done.”

She sent him that amused smile again. “See that you do.” And with that she walked away as if their conversation had never happened. He didn’t waste anymore time and instead tuned back into the meeting behind the door. 

“-their focused on Lavellan, we break the magister’s defenses. It could work, but it’s a huge risk,” the man said. He sounded much calmer than he did previously.

“I can definitely do distractions,” Aeren cheered. 

“It’s a huge risk,” the man emphasized.

“Come now Commander, ye have little faith in my ability to get on people’s nerves.”

“Trust me we’re plenty aware of this ability of yours,” Cassandra said blandly. Dorian had to bite his lip to stop himself from barking out a laugh. Cassandra didn’t hold back her opinions at all.

He was waiting to hear more when he felt a hand against his shoulder. Dorian tensed and turned to look at the soldier who looked at him with confusion. “You’re not supposed to do that,” he said. “This is a meeting between the Herald and his advisors, he’ll give his orders once everything’s been sorted out.”

Dorian shook his head. “I have information about the magister in Redcliffe and his methods.” He prayed that this was one of Leliana’s scouts who knew about the situation in Redcliffe. The soldier blinked at him and looked between Dorian and the door like it held a complicated problem that he was trying to solve. “I just want to be able to offer my aid to them.”

The soldier warred with himself for only a moment more before he pushed open the door to the meeting room. The room instantly quieted and Dorian forced himself to not shrink away from suddenly being the subject of everyone’s attention. He could feel Cassandra’s glare and the exasperated look being sent his way by Aeren. 

The soldier cleared his throat and gestured to Dorian. “He says he has information about the magister and his methods, Commander.”

The Commander didn’t seem to know how to take him his face going from a stern gaze to outright confusion. But he gestured to Dorian to speak.

“Your spies will never get past Alexius’s magic without my help,” Dorian said. It was true, Alexius had always been good at wards and he doubted any old mage would know how to create a hole in them without disrupting the whole spell or attracting Alexius attention. “So if you’re going after him, I’m coming along.”

“This mission could mean life or death for the entire Inquisition, and you’re a child,” the Commander said, not unkindly. 

“I’m fully capable of holding my own.” He wasn’t going to budge on this. He was coming along whether they wanted him to or not. “I’m coming along.”

The Commander seemed to want to argue further with him, but he turned his attention to Aeren who was pinching the bridge of his nose. “The plan puts you in the most danger. We can’t, in good conscience, order you to do this.” The Commander paused before continuing on, his focus completely on the Herald. “We can still go after the Templars if you’d rather not play the bait. It’s up to you.”

Dorian opened his mouth to argue, but was silenced by an elbow hitting his shoulder. He turned to see Aeren giving a manic grin to the room. “And pass up the opportunity to be asked to be annoying? I think not.”

The rest of the group nodded and started to sort out the finer details. Dorian quietly took steps to the door only to be stopped by a hand grasping his shoulder. He was getting tired of being stopped like that. 

“If this meeting is adjourned, I think Dorian and I will grab something to eat, won’t we Dorian,” Aeren said. It wasn’t a question but rather a fact that Dorian wasn’t going to get away from. The Herald walked with him out of the room, his hand never leaving his shoulder. 

Dorian squirmed under Aeren’s hold. “A-aeren I-”

“I understand why you did it, but you really could’ve gotten in trouble.” The Herald sounded tired. “I really was going to let you know what the verdict was when the meeting concluded.”

“I couldn’t guarantee that you’d choose the mages.”

“You couldn’t do that eavesdropping either.”

Dorian shrugged. “I figured if it was going badly and sounded like you were picking the Templars I could burst in and try to convince them otherwise.”

Aeren laughed. “You think causing a scene would change their choice?”

“Felix always said that I had a nact for dramatics, I felt it wouldn’t hurt my chances.”

Aeren looked considering. “Huh, I guess that might have worked a little. But you’re still in trouble.” Dorian sputtered but Aeren plowed on. “For what you just pulled, I’ll be taking you to the Tavern with me, have Varric and Bull scold you some while I eat. Then I’ll introduce you to the others.”

Dorian supposed he could live with that.  

[lokeanrampant]

Spirits of the Fade

Mouse and Imshael and company have been all over my feed of late.  So I’m tossing down some HC and ideas that have been wandering around in snippet-form in documents on my laptop.  

I think, in general, demons are supposed to be the worst aspect of an emotion.  The pure desire to be something more…

Neither spirit nor demon have the humanity (barring whatever you call what qunari, dwarves, and elves have…we’re simplifying here, damn it), the soul essence that creates life in our world.  They have SOMETHING, or they simply wouldn’t exist.  There is a spark there, those shiny lil wisps, but it’s…like a draft.  It’s unfinished.  And that’s why they reach out.  Spirits are more content in what they feel they are.  Demons?  Demons WANT. They feel very acutely that something is missing and they hunger for that.  It’s why the Fade is a replica of our world, why they are part of our dreamstate. They are mimicking that for which they long and attempting to fill in the missing pieces.  

So why are spirits okay with their lot and demons aren’t?  Good question.  Now, do I have a good answer?  I’m going to say that it’s because each spirit, or demon, or any Fade entity, is the personification of a particular emotion or state of being.  If something is felt acutely enough, if you believe something strongly enough, it becomes its own thing, takes on a life of its own. In this case, it’s fairly literal.  I would imagine that the Fade is a place of magic and bits and pieces of souls.  Unfinished matter and snippets of ideas.   This is particularly strong in places of extremes - battlefields would be overflowing, as they are, with all manner of strong emotions that literally thin the Veil.  When something is felt strongly enough – terror or rage or love or compassion – by enough people, especially by enough dreamers, they coalesce into either spirit or demon.  They become more.  They become self-aware.  But because they are fragmentary by nature, they are lacking something.  

For the more, shall we say, lighter and compassionate fragments, they are more, by nature of their essence, predisposed to being content with what they are.  Justice is righteousness.  Valor is simply that (and a bit of a dick, but I digress).  Faith is belief that there is a reason behind it all.  And so long as we believe in those concepts, they will exist.  It is only when they are placed outside their environment do they begin to change.  

For the darker emotions? Oh, they are very well aware that they are missing pieces of themselves.  They feel unfinished and empty.  Which of us hasn’t?  And if you haven’t, you are one of the few and extremely fortunate.  Unlike their lighter halves, they are not content to simply be unfinished.  They want more.  They have seen and tasted more and it’s cruel to have that just out of reach.  They want what every sentient being wants – a life, a purpose, to experience things.  They aren’t evil by nature.  They simply don’t have the experience to know better.  They are essentially toddlers who know what they want and they know they can do these actions to get it.  Admittedly, they are very smart toddlers.  They are mimics.  They simply do not have the same set of social interactive skills as society would demand.  So they do what they can, take what they can, manipulate as they can for their ultimate goal – to feel complete.

It’s actually horrifyingly sad.

So let’s talk Imshael and Mouse.  Cause I can. Cause I adore them both.

Imshael.  Oh honey…that boy is pure Trickster.  He’s old-world pagan Trickster.  He’s not really nice and he can do some damned shitty things…but it’s always the CHOICE of those with whom he interacts.  Tricksters are all for change and change can be ugly, it can be brutal, but in the end, it is NEEDED.  They will play the role of the villain with ease, because people are terrified of change, so who better than a villain to give them the nudge that is needed to make the decisions that will keep the world moving, to keep it from stagnating?  

Were he evil, he would happily take the choices of children.  But he doesn’t.  Why?  Because they don’t understand choice and consequence. Demons have no issue tempting children, as we have seen with Kitty and Connor.  So why doesn’t Imshael?  Because that’s not his motive.  He’s not a demon.  He actually IS a spirit…or a god.  He’s listed as a Forbidden (or Forgotten) One.  He’s more than some simple spirit and BioWare has a big-ass problem with shitting on pagan gods.  What they’ve done to the Dalish pantheon is damned rude.  

He’s personable and has personality.  He can be called out and he can laugh about it.  He can do nice things.  He can do totally dick things.  Or he can be absolutely brutal.  A trickster’s path is never easy.  And would he like those individuals who make the hardest decisions?  Absolutely.  He would adore those people who make decisions that cause ripples throughout the world, a cascade of change.  It’s why I HC he’s wearing Anders’ coat.  That was a decision that was open.  It was talked about, gossiped, spread throughout Thedas…it was VISIBLE.  It wasn’t the only turning point by any stretch; there were uprisings in varied areas for the mage revolution, the rebellion. But Kirkwall?  That was BIG.  That was SEEN.  And more than that, it had visible history.  Anders didn’t just wander in and decide to make a statement.  He was there for years.  YEARS.  He was known to the citizens of Kirkwall.  He was known as a healer.  He was known for trying to help so many.  The downtrodden of Kirkwall had a vested interest in their healer.  There is impact there.  It’s massive on multiple levels.  It’s a ripple that touched not only mages and templars, but the entirety of Kirkwall and their descendants.

And in the midst of the rebellion when you meet Imshael in DAI?  Hell yes, he’ll wear the coat of the most visible and known linchpin.  Abso-fucking-lutely.  Tricksters have more than a touch of drama queen.  They will play to expectation, they will play to the party line…until they flip it on its head and turn you in the direction they want or need.  Imshael is the type of spirit or god you want on your side…because you sure as hell don’t want him against you.  And humans always make the most interesting choices because everything is so “right now” with humanity.  Human decisions are bigger and bolder because of the amount of time we have to decide them.  It’s a very “Go Big or GO HOME” attitude.  Oh, he’ll play the long game without a doubt and he’s probably got plenty of irons in the fires across Thedas and across time.  But there is so much room to play with all the goings-on right now.  It’s exciting for him.

You’d think I’d have more on Imshael, but dude, I have tricksters all over my blog.  It’s kind of a thing.  You want more?  Ask me.  :D  Trickster goals are renewal and change.  They are the blazing forest fire destroying to renew.

Mouse?  Mouse is more fun in his way because he is less obviously anything.

So why does Mouse play with you in the Fade, if you’re doing the Mage Origin?  This is a trapped demon…how the Circle has trapped them, I’ve no clue.  But it’s been given a role and more than likely, it has witnessed more than a few Harrowings.  It knows how the play the game.  Demons are terrifyingly smart and adaptive creatures, always looking for whatever it is they believe is missing from themselves and they have absolutely no moral guidance preventing them from doing whatever they like to try and find it.

You never really get the sense that Mouse is actively try to harm you.  It’s legitimately a test…he’s watching to see what you do, observing.  Leading you, giving you hints, but ultimately, just seeing what type of person you are and how much interest you are going to bring to his time during this Harrowing.  Mouse is actually fairly neutral, though he has the options to choose a variety of actions and shapes. So being that Mouse isn’t actively trying to mess with the mage and possess them, it makes far more sense that he isn’t a demon at all.

He’s a gatekeeper, an interactive observer.  You do get the whole spiel of letting him slide out with you, but I wonder.  Would he actually do it?  I get the feeling that he wouldn’t, that he would just have some random demon do so.  It wouldn’t be interesting for him.  What is of interest is the participants of the Harrowing.  He is another form of trickster – being neither good or evil, but shaping the world events around him.  Were he to actually possess someone, he would lose the power to observe and shape the mages as they come to him.  Each Harrowing brings him new information, new stories, new everything. PLUS, he KNOWS the templars are watching and waiting.  

It’s very obvious he doesn’t like the Circle.  I think part of it is they somehow, ages back, managed to leash him to the Harrowings. He’s learned so much humanity from these events, more than most demons will ever learn from a simple possession. He learns frailties and strengths, fears, weaknesses, desire, bravery.  He uses the Harrowings as learning experiences as much as the mages.  Yet, overall, he’s still a Spirit of the Fade – not demon, not spirit guide in the ultimate sense.  The Circle would’ve tried to trap a demon for their purposes, but they really don’t have a good concept of what separates a demon from a spirit, now do they?  They would naturally assume they trapped a demon, but perhaps the trap they laid was appealing to more than just demons.  After all, they consider all spirits demons and all those possessed by piggybacking spirits to be abominations, and we know both are untrue.  Both the Avvar and Rivaini disprove that on multiple occasions, as do Wynne and Anders (don’t make me fight you on this).

So Mouse learned and became what they needed, each time.  

But ahhhh, he is still leashed is the question?  How could the Circle and Templars routinely put themselves at risk by trying to lasso a demon for EVERY Harrowing?  It doesn’t make sense for that.  I’d wager pretty heavily that they bound a demon – or what they thought was a demon – to their font for the Harrowing.  It could be that it’s individual for each Circle or perhaps, it’s bound to the stones within the Circles that allow the sendings between Circles, something that keeps them all in an internal network (whee…Circle Intranet is so a thing).  Is he still leashed?  I HIGHLY doubt it, but it totally suits his purpose to let them believe it.  He learns more than any spirit or demon could hope to achieve from an actual possession and could, legitimately, free himself at any time.  He enjoys this and I think there are those mages he feels deserves more from their Harrowings, like the Warden, like Anders, like those whose Harrowings we actually get to read about or experience.  These are the mages who have fates beyond the everyday.  He can sense there is something more in their lives because, after all, he has been around a very long time.  

So does that mean he is both Mouse and Anders’ cat?  Absolutely. He can take multiple forms and if he gets to play at multiple Harrowings, or at least, the ones where he feels particularly drawn?  He has this total air of a teacher.  He knows how the Circle works.  He knows how the Templars work.  He’s not fond of either.  He’s highly disgruntled, but he seems quite content to dismantle from the inside-out, putting ideas into the heads of young mages who pass his tests, not the tests of the Harrowing itself, but HIS tests.  He knows far too much for this to be his first dance.  

Did he start out as a spirit?  Likely.  He could’ve started as demon, even.  But he LEARNED.  He EVOLVED. Over the centuries and countless Harrowings, he has become so much more.  He’s a clinician, a scientist, an experimenter.  He watches and involves himself, setting up tests and variables, predicting and learning from the outcome.  He is theory and testing, trials and errors.  He is a literal trial within the Harrowing.

So here’s another neat idea. It’s not just the Harrowings.

Mouse is in the Fade. He’s not bound.  Mages are interactive in the Fade…it’s part of what sets them apart from non-mages.   So Mouse could easily seek out the mages of interest, those who have that glimmer around them that says these people have something of interest in store for them.

And for him.  

After all, fade spirits watch dreamers.  It is no surprise if he found himself fascinated by a few and interacted.  He would be testing variables and theories. And if he liked a particular mage? He would absolutely be sure he was the one at the Harrowing, if there was a potential for another to be there. He can mold them.  It makes him more like Flemeth.  She definitely finds those who have the potential for such great impact, great change in Thedas.  Flemeth has interacted with each major protagonist in the series, mage or no.  Makes you look at Mouse a little differently in that light.  If he’s looking at all of those dreamers and finds anyone of interest?  He would absolutely interact, mage or no.  The Fade is open to most everyone aside from dwarves, so Mouse can be anywhere and interact with anyone.  

He’s not just a trickster, changing outcomes, manipulating players, putting a touch of chaos and rebellion in those he touches.  

He’s a weaver.  He’s a FATE.  He’s the Spirit of Fate.  

Fate is all about trials, perseverance, overcoming odds to a final destiny.  It explains the warnings.  It explains the interest in specific Harrowings that we actually see and hear about. Most are probably fairly bland to Mouse, but not a few.  Not the ones who will change the path of Thedas to a significant degree.  It explains the not-quite clinical detachment as if he’s leading you.  He’s urging you to take a path, to accept it.  

Of course, Mouse can’t account for every variable.  People are people and throw random variables into the equation right and left.  Which is why Fate is so damned fascinated with these particular threads.  The weaving takes on a life of its own.  It’s novel.  It’s exciting. It is outside the norm and creates all these new threads and possibilities.

There’s even an HC theory out there that Mouse is one of the Forbidden Ones.  That has some serious potential in how he interacts with everyone.

[impossible-rat-babies]

owen.... i can't believe you thought i would not ask you every question yourself in return.... go! dimitri or darva for All The Questions! ❤❤❤❤❤

Ooooo boy here we go! Vi, you’re a peach and wonderful

This is probs gonna be long so mostly below the cut?

Dimitri Enallasani, an Anderfels Elven Mage

art by haloneshiral

1. If not for the Conclave, what would drive your character to join the Inquisition?

Dimitri would be recruitable depending on if the mages or templars were sided with. If the mages were sided with, he would be an apostate who came with them to Haven who would be causing “issues” with the templars already there and the PC would be asked to step in. 

If the Templars were chosen, he would be brought with them as a “prisoner” and since the Templars are in no real position to judge others–especially if they were conscripted–they would turn him over the the Herald to judge then.

Both opportunities would give the chance to recruit him as a companion. As for how much he would want to join, it would seem the logical choice in both circumstances. He’d been helping the mage rebellion and with that effectively under the control of the Inquisition, it would be logical to change his focus. With the Templars he would be free to choose his own course and he would want to repay the person who saved him + they are the only people fixing things. Plus he is a mage with no shortage of skills in magic outside the Chantry influence, so he would be ideal with strange magic like the Rifts. 

2. How would they meet the Inquisitor?

They would get to meet him in Haven with his recruitment cutscene and one could meet him “better” after the choice is made, provided he would be allowed to stay. That would go something like him being very grateful for letting him stay and helping him out of a tight spot he hadn’t intended on getting into. He would also casually talk about the choice made with the templars or mages, which would be the first chance to get approval/disapproval with him.

3. What would some of their cutscenes look like?

A lot of them would play out in his private space in Skyhold since he is an exceptionally private person. But after Adamant, he would have a cutscene in the rotunda with Solas over what happened, especially if he was brought along. He would also have a special scene on the Storm Coast where he would find a wounded Great Horned owl and if the PC would let him, he would heal the creature and send her on her way. But she would keep following them and after three of his comments, another cutscene would trigger where she comes to rest on his shoulder.

Dimitri: She certainly seems intent on sticking around.

PC: Why not keep her around? She seems to have taken to you quite well.

Dimitri: Hm, I could see to giving her a good home.

From then on, she would be included with Dimitri when you take him out as a companion and she could be used as a scouting feature, reaching further distances and a way to plot out paths up complicated hills.

Dimitri would also have longer cutscenes by virtue of how his speech can be much slower and he takes his time to talk; it also goes along with his tendency to ramble on and on. He would be the kind of companion where one could have long simple cutscene conversations with.

4. What would their romance route look like? Would they be romancable?

Dimitri would be romanacble by male only Inquisitors of any race. A female quizzy could flirt with him, but he would shut that down at the first flirt and express his lack of attraction to her and anyone of her “fairer sex”. 

He would be a much slower romance and require a high approval for him to consider a relationship in the first place. He is very hesitant about getting close to someone and embracing a new kind of relationship like that. It would be reassurances of attraction and comfort that would evolve into him giving that right back. Like at Halamshiral, he would express that he is proud of him and comfort him if it was trying for them. He would grow much, much softer in the relationship, growing to laugh and smile more as time would go on. His reservations with a relationship aren’t like Dorian’s where he doesn’t have that sort of angst with his status as a gay man, but it’s more the intimacy and the need for acceptance of who he is with all his messy faults and bad choices he’s made.

EDIT: His first romance scene would be him pulling the quizzy out onto the ramparts near the garden room and him exasperating about how he can’t be serious in having affections for him. He’ll comment about how it won't work between them for a whole host of reasons, but if the quizzy presses and reassures him, he is more willing to try.

Later on after one of the main quests and his approval is high enough, he’ll prompt a talk about the relationship and he’ll have grown more comfortable with the idea and the idea of soft affection like holding hands and the like. It would be nothing big, just something sweet and soft between them.

The first kiss wouldn’t happen until after his personal quest is resolved and he feels more comfortable and certainly more trusting of the quizzy to let down more barriers and grow more comfortable with him. (His romance is very much about letting down the barriers and walls around him). 

His romance culminates in scene that can be sexy or not, but it’s that sort of final breaking down of walls--both physical and mental--and him letting the quizzy in completely. It would be the first time he would say “I love you” as well.

5. If they romanced someone as Inquisitor, would they still fall for that person as a companion? How would that play out? How would they react to that person being romanced by the “new” Inquisitor?

Maybe? See, I don’t think Dimitri would have the moxie as a companion to flirt with Bull or grow closer to him. He wouldn’t have the exposure to get out of his shell more like he would as Inquisitor. He wouldn’t rock the “lone wolf elf apostate” look that Solas has with the detachment, but he would be more passive in developing friendships. But him and Bull might’ve had a fling or two. Tbh most of their relationship if it did happen would be subtext and very on the down low. Both of them could be asked about it and there would be a few banters, but nothing like the romance with Dorian.

He wouldn’t mind the quizzy getting with Bull. He would be happy for the two of them with a few idle words; like I said, he might not have the moxie to approach that relationship, so there wouldn’t be anything to get upset about.

6. Write some of their party banter (in reaction to major events, scenery dialogue, or just shitting around. Askers can specify for which character/event, or leave it up to the writer).

(Exalted Plains, near the body pits) “Feels like the Veil is normal. Which to you is a bad thing.”

–

(Emprise Du Lion) “If you’re curious why I’m useless in the next fight, it’s because I’m using all my mana to make sure I don’t lose my fingers.”

–

“Tell me about Elrahal.”

(Only available with high approval +75)

“He was born a slave in Tevinter and never met his parents or any other members of his family. He was kept as a serving man which equaled to him standing around and looking pretty until his master needed blood for the rituals. He resented it or he wouldn’t have tried to escape a half dozen times. The final time he escaped, he ran to the Anderfels. He said that he ran to the Anderfels because if he was going to die, he would do it as a free man.”

*Chuckle* “Thankfully that didn’t happen. He found our clan first and we were used to taking in ex-slaves. If they ran to the Anderfels, they could make it in the clan. I was just shy of eighteen when he joined us.”

–

Banter:

Cassandra: I’m…sorry about what you had to witness in Kirkwall…

Dimitri: Why are you apologizing to me?

Cassandra: You experienced horrific things that could have been avoided–

Dimitri: The conflict in Kirkwall was far from inevitable, Cassandra. Any other Circle in any other city could’ve been a “Kirkwall”.

Cassandra: Undoubtedly it would have received the same treatment as Kirkwall.

Dimitri: Hopefully the chaos was enough–that the horror of it was enough for people to learn that the Circle as it stood was far from effective. The best we can do now is look to find a better way to move forward.

Cassandra: That is oddly optimistic of you, Dimitri.

Dimitri: I can be optimistic in affairs outside of myself.

Cassandra: *laughs*

–

Cole: It ripples around you, like a stone in a pond. It folds and folds and makes that sound–like when metal grinds upon metal.

Dimitri: I won’t rip it or change it.

Cole: I can see it around you. It wraps you up and the spirits see it and press back. They’re curious.

Dimitri: I’ll pull on them occasionally. Keeping the Veil thin makes moving to the waking world less…difficult. They won’t twist on themselves.

Cole: But then you let them go back. And then they come back to watch you. I don’t know if they know what to think of you.

Dimitri: Most people share the same sentiment.

–

Dorian: Dimitri?

Dimitri: Yes?

Dorian: It is you making that sound? The low bzzzz and the high pitched bit in the ear?

Dimitri: It’s the Veil making that sound. Well, me and the Veil. I make the low pitched sound and the Veil is the high pitched bit. Why do you ask?

Dorian: Curiosity is all. Why do you make such a sound?

Dimitri: The Veil in the South is kinda like a shirt too small for me. So I have to fill it out with mana to stretch it–thin it out. The high pitched sound is the Veil curling on itself and the low pitch is the mana interacting with the newly thin Veil and the Fade being closer.

Cassandra: It won’t rip a hole in the Veil?

Dimitri: I don’t have that much mana to expend to accomplish such a feat. I simply thin it down to draw magic through the Fade how I’m used to.

Dorian: *chuckles* Why not just adjust?

Dimitri: Force of habit. I could relearn how to do magic down here or I could simply rely on the methods I’ve always used. In the interest of time and my own stubbornness, I prefer the later.

–

Solas: You warp the Veil as to draw more mana through it?

Dimitri: I learned magic were the Veil is incredibly thin. Coming South was a drastic change and I had to find quick solutions. Thus, I expend the mana to thin the Veil to draw upon it in a way better suited to how I know.

Solas: What is it like without such measures?

Dimitri: Frustrating. Spells don’t burn as hot or have the desired effect with them. Glyphs come out…wrong. They don’t hit as hard or do as they’re supposed to. Spirits become twisted and wrong when the change is too drastic. I use more mana to create spells that don’t work. 

Solas: Doesn’t this mean that you push more mana out of your body and experience more highs and lows of mana imbalance when you thin the Veil?

Dimitri: I suppose. I know it has a negative effect on myself, but I’d rather not spend the time to relearn and just use what I have.

–

Cassandra: You have said you would do away with the Chantry, Dimitri?

Dimitri: Such as it stands, yes. It cannot survive in its current state; not as a headless beast with it’s ready made zealous army on the loose.

Cassandra: A rather unflattering picture you paint.

Dimitri: It’s the truth of the matter. Such beasts can only wither and die, or they can grow and change. Sometimes I hope it is the former, and other times the later.

7. What would be on their tombstone in the fade (what is their greatest fear)?

Dimitri’s greatest fear would be himself. Ultimately, Dimitri fears what his actions will cause and the pain he has already caused to others. He is terrified of what he could become if he fell to his demon or if he will look back on himself and see how he was so much better of a person. He is keenly aware of how close evil sits behind his eyes and it would take only one slip to fall into it. 

8. What kind of Inquisitor would drive them to leave the Inquisition/confront them about their actions (what gets their approval low? what does that scene look like)?

An Inquisitor who is cruel without provocation and has an open hatred of mages or a lack of wanting to understand the complexity of magic and the situations surrounding it. He has lived enough of his life with ignorant people who don’t care to understand, so he isn’t going to be bound to a willfully ignorant attitude. So things like conscripting the mages, agreeing with the Circle, cruel options. Those sorts of things would bring his approval down.

His scene would be of him packing his bags in his now empty room, only having a few terse words to say for their actions before storming past them. If one would grab to stop him, a sharp flash of lighting would immobilize the PC and he would walk away without a word. The PC would then be left to lay on the ground for the next two minutes–in real time–to think of their actions.

9. Where in Skyhold would they be found? (e.g. Cole is in the tavern rafters, Leliana in the top of the tower, Varric in the throne room, etc.)

Dimitri would be found in a room off the balcony overlooking the garden and it would be an organized disaster. It would be a sort of self contained set up. Like he has a pot over the fireplace and several bowls that would have potions or leftover food in them sitting near a bucket of water. He would have a place to prepare food, fruits and veggies sitting out along with herbs in glass jars, mugs and ceramic pots across the window sill. He would have a whole alchemical station set up, scattered with all sorts of herbs, gems, precious metals, strange magical objects and dozens of jars. Much of it would be bubbling along, magical flames to keep it going. Rugs would cover the walls and old paintings and tapestries would cover the old walls, many of them colored blues, greens and yellows. His bed would be shoved off in a corner, piles of blankets and pillows in various colors and furs too. Books by the stack would be scattered across the room too. 

But the most notable thing would be the floating charms and crystals all across the ceiling with wisps dancing between them in orbiting patterns. They would be colored soft white and cast shadows across the room. They would be mainly used as mana reserves as rather simple little spirits that don’t have much to them beyond being reserves. They come in handy for making magical potions and the like. He has a very liberal use of magic.

10. If Inquisition operated like DA:O, what would their gift items be? What would their approval and disapproval Feast Day items be?

His main gifts would be a book on the Flora and Fauna of the Anderfels, pastries imported from the Free Marches, an Ironbark necklace charm, and some fine Tevinter wine.

His major feast day approval gift would be a handwoven wool blanket from the Anderfels, made by the Orth people: it would be decorated with patterns of Harts and Varghests across the orange sands, the sun blazing down upon them.

His gift for massive negative approval would be a book full of Chantry teachings on the dangers and practices of Maleficarum.

11. How would they grow as a person? How would they compare at the end of the Inquisition as a companion to who they were as the Inquisitor?

He would be changed like he is as quizzy, albeit with less friends and connections than before. But he would have peace and a new direction which he hasn’t had in over twenty years. His path is free and he can do what he wants, but most importantly, he has people who care, respect and love him for who he is and that is what truly makes him feel like he has a new chapter of his life.

He would be content in a way he hasn’t felt in ages.

12. Do they believe the Herald of Andraste is really the Herald of Andraste?

He isn’t keen on the Chantry, so he is inclined to believe that they ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. He sees how the Inquisition is going to use that holy status to their advantage and he knows part of it is necessary, but also unsavory. He would support a quizzy who also rejects there Herald status–bonus points for a dalish quizzy–and be critical of a quizzy who thinks they are the Herald. It would be questioning them on how they know that they really are and if it’s not just a play into the power fantasy or getting caught up in the grandeur. He would be condescending about it to a quizzy he has low approval with.

13. If the Herald didn’t have them tag along to prep the trebuchets, what would they do during the battle for Haven? (bonus: would they join in on the impromptu Dawn Will Come choir practice in the camp?)

Dimitri would be fighting against the forces that would get loose from the others and protecting those he can, sheparding people to the Chantry. In the mountains he would be helping tending to wounds and wouldn’t pay any mind to the music, the task of healing and tending to the wounded much more important. He also doesn’t care for Chantry music.

14. What nickname does Varric give them?

Chatterbox, because it’s ironic.

15. Without the influence of their decisions for the Inquisition, which of the companions do they get along with? Which ones do they bicker with?

Dimitri would get along with Iron Bull, Dorian and Solas for the most part with him heavily bickering with Vivienne and Cassandra based on drastically different views of the Chantry and magic.

16. What would the Fear Demon say to them in the Fade to try and discourage them?

Nightmare: Look at you, Dimitri. Come so far and still so lost. How many people will die this time? How many will die and you won’t remember them? The screams last time were so delightful.

Nightmare: Do you remember how Elrahal screamed? *laughing*

17. Where do they hang out in the Winter Palace? What’s their thoughts on the nobles/The Game?

Dimitri hangs out on the Vestibule, up near the entrance to the library where he can watch everyone. He is intrigued by the Game and loves to watch it happen.

Dimitri: I do enjoy watching them spin circles around each other, trying to be polite to no real end. Killing each other in dark spaces is the same as killing them out in the open–they end up equally dead. Difference between assassinations and all out war, one would think.

18. What’s their reaction to a dragon showing up?

Dimitri: Oh….oh! *laughing* Chasing her, yes?

19. Once Corypheus is beaten, what do they do during the party? Do they stay with the Inquisition, or go somewhere else? What could the Inquisitor do to convince them to stay?

Dimitri would hang back in the hallway near the door, sitting on a bench with a drink in his hand. He wouldn’t much like the sound of the party/all the people around. Even after everything, he is still an introvert. Him staying or not staying would depend on approval level.

Dimitri: (low approval) I am leaving in the morning. I have no more reason to stay and I suspect you will not want me to stay. Congratulations, I hope the world doesn’t realize you made a tyrant trying to take one down. (He can’t be convinced to stay).

Dimitri: (high approval) I am going to stay for a while. I know I talked about joining the clan we met in the Exalted Plains, but….they are sorely lacking the company you keep. I…was looking for a place to belong and I think I found it right here. If you will continue to have me.

Dimitri: (romanced): I am staying, vhenan. I…can’t think of a better place to be than in this place made into a home and…anywhere else will lack my one, most precious love.

20. How do they react to learning abominations can retain their consciousness and identity, and even live peacefully with their spirits/demons, as seen in Stone-Bear Hold?

It’s not surprising, given how he’s lived much the same way for many years now. Its far from being the exact same with the Veil separating him from his demon, but they have an existence that could be called peace in a sense. Well his demon being rabidly possessive of him isn’t exactly peace. But it does give him a shred of hope that things could turn into a peaceful solution someday.

21. What do they think of the discoveries made in the Deep Roads? Do they make any comments on anything?

He thinks it’s groundbreaking and interested in the implications of such a find to a great deal. It shouldn’t be something to keep a secret and a fact of history to be remembered. But he would be extremely interested in what will happen to in regards to the Titans. If they can wake, then they are alive; maybe they can move or change or shape the world. The implications are staggering.

22. If you have another Inquisitor, how would those two get along, specifically?

Darva and Dimitri would get along well enough. Casual friends, but mostly at Darva’s insistence. But he would grow on Dimitri in that sort of protective caring manner.

23. In trespasser, what “gift” would they give the Inquisitor, if any?

He would give a friendship quizzy a beautiful indigo colored silk wrap that he had imported from the Anderfels. The gold would seem to shine in it’s way as if powered by magic or runes. It would also be incredibly tough and tear resistant on account of the magic weaved into the fabric. He would tell them he counts them as one of his greatest friends and that he wouldn’t trade their kindness and affection for the world.

For a romanced quizzy he would give the same gift and the idea of getting married would be shared between them. A slide in Trespasser would indicate they did get wholeheartedly married.

24. What are their plans for after the Exalted Council? Will the Inquisition staying in tact or being disbanded make a difference?

I have a whole thing written about that! He goes back to his given name of Dar’thenaras and during the two years he spent time in the Dales and the reconstruction work in the area.

(Unromanced, Inqusition peacekeeping force):

Dar’thenaras returned to his duties in the Dales, still trying to mediate the squabbles between the nobles of Orlais and the Dalish clans. Eventually, an accord is reached between the Dalish and the leaders of Orlais. Under offical decree, the land of Dales would be rightfully returned to the elves with reparations. The land would be protected by the new Inquisition under the Divine. The land would not be lost again. Many clans joined the new settlements and Dar’thenaras became the leader of the settlements, a voice for the Dalish in the courts and in the land.

(Inquisition disbanded): …The land would be protected by various agents, all with suspicious ties to the old Inquisition. However, few would question their origins.

(If romanced, peacekeeping Inquisition): The continuing work of the Inquisitor frequently lead him back to the new Dales, and back into his lover’s arms. The meetings they had were treasured moments of reprieve for both of them in their new duty. It wasn’t long before the Inquisitor and Dar’thenaras were spotted wearing matching rings, an enternal promise of love.

(If romanced, Inquisition disbanded): With the Inquisition disbanded, Dar’thenaras found himself with frequent company during the reconstruction efforts in the Dales. Even with the frequency of such company, they both treasured the moments they had with each other. It wasn’t long before they were spotted with matching rings, an eternal promise of love.

25. In the alternate reality, if they were corrupted with lyrium, how do they act? What’s their attitude about the end of the world/their inevitable death?

Dimitri–if the corruption would last long enough–would turn into an abomination and slowly lose his mind and turn into a beast. His speech would be a slurred mix of half spoken words and hissing sounds like two voices competing for one mouth. He would be twitchy as well, hunched over and a pale shadow of his former self. If it was late enough, he would attack on sight, unable to be reasoned with as a great beast, half metal and half man, wielding both magic and a sword and shield.

Beyond that, he would be excited for his death and the end of his life; he would have struggled so much and changed so much that death would be the only escape and saving to be had with him.

–

[lilietsblog]

some magic worldbuilding stuff we’ve been talking about

@synesthetic-feline

so let's start with the magic system bc its kind of the basis of everything else so first of all, there's a 'weave' of reality which is like elementary particles in physics except in a different 'dismension' (like sideways from those). It has a certain inherent stability to it, like a living system (sorta like a plant I guess? not an animal, much less anything sentient) it 'feeds' on life, positive emotions, constructive 'vibes' (various degrees of abstraction here, people in the world dont necessarily understand it in detail either) it gets more 'worn' from death, strong 'vibes' of despair, fear, hatred like, on a small scale, some negative emotions actually help it thrive, but when they overpower the positives bad shit happens

more specifically about Bad Shit, there's a 'neighbouring' hell-like dismension with demons. the philosophical implications of this do not exist nope it was just something i thought was cool for the plot. The demons feed on negative emotions, misery and death of people - all the same things that the weave gets damaged by. They arent happy in their home dismension, and really want to get some destroy on in the human one.

Human mages can 'move apart' the weave, creating openings demons can pass through (this is not the only thing they can do ofc this is just one example). Demons make deals with them, etc, etc. Demons' magic power varies a lot, and the summoners had better know what exactly they are going for, because there are lots and los of ways this can go wrong.

At one point in the story the protagonist discovers that there are actually demons just living undercover in the human world, not doing anything malicious, just low key feeding on the negative emotions they can pick up from others. Well, obviously some of them also do bad shit deliberately to make others suffer, but the smarter ones realize its not good for their long-term perspectives, and they don't really have to.

Anyway, if there's a lot of bad stuff happening - wars, particularly civil; epidemics; badly handled natural disasters; etc, basically just a lot of misery - the weave can wear thin, and demons can invade the human world, and have to be beaten back

This is relevant to start with because that's how the dynasty in the country the story is in started - the first ruler was someone who was in some way personally credited with defeating the demons (powerful mage and military commander I think). They got a nifty magic trinket - a crown - that gave them a certain power over the land, both symbolizing and providing protection for it. However, over the centuries the crown got corrupted pretty badly, along with the dynasty itself, that went from genuinely good people who happened to be rulers to... yeah.

Magic in this setting is an ability all people have inherent access to, to a greater or lesser degree. Talented folks can try to figure out magic on their own, but overall self-taught ppl can't compare to mages who actually receive a formal education. The standard system is master+student, but in various cultures different variations have sprung up. The main character comes from an entirely different overseas country where she was a daughter of a wealthy merchant who wanted to study magic, so her parents found her a teacher - a strong and learned mage who didn't mind taking on a student, especially when he was getting paid for it. Eventually he went overseas to join the rebellion, and master/student ties in magic tend to end up being close enough that she just followed him without question.

In this country the system was a 'tower' of mages, where they more or less got forcibly locked up and then pampered. Kids who showed talent for magic were scouted, torn away from their families and put into the tower, where they then got no freedom of movement but a lot of freedom of research and of course had all their needs provided for, as long as they carried out what orders their master (the king) decided to give. "No freedom of movement" of course only applied with the asterisk of "unless ordered by the king", with the asterisk being hella broad and allowing them to take on various official, semi-official and unofficial jobs. The king relied heavily on loyal mages as enforcers, which turned the local populace against them and reinforced their loyalty out of desperation. A bad mix of top-down horrible orders you couldn't refuse to carry out, and no consequences for lashing out at anyone who wasn't a government official, led to a lot of atrocities committed in the name of the king that he even didn't necessarily personally order.

Magic works basically by manipulating the 'weave', and requires energy. Some magic energy is generated by the mage themselves, the more they train this ability the more they get; some magic energy 'floats freely' generated by natural sources like life and emotions, and can be 'drawn in' by mages who know how to do that (all formally trained mages know how to do that, the question is duration and area, as ambient magic DOES become depleted). Some magic energy gathers into material stuff like ore or plants or water, which can then be gathered and used. Magic can be done purely with a thought, but the more complex the action you're trying to do, the harder it is to get it right, and words and gestures help a lot with 'fixing' it, like using a ruler while drawing. Objects can be enchanted, which isn't principally different from just generating a one-time effect, and depending on how they are made and what they are for can be single use, rechargeable, automatically recharge from ambient magic or owner, draw from owner's magic directly (bad design but hey people sometimes suck), or just have a permanent effect that doesn't 'use up' magic energy in any outside-visible way. Rituals, especially those involving pre-made magic objects, allow game-changing complexity and scale of spells. A mage who foresees trouble can, given enough time, fortify their personal laboratory/house/tower/keep absolutely out of proportion with their personal power. It's not impossible to break through / unravel such fortifications, but breaking through would require so ridiculously much force, looking for design flaws, inaccuracies and loopholes is a much more productive way of trying to hack it. That, or just trying to lure the mage outside - human factor is the weak point of any security system.

Whenever a magic action is performed, it 'leaks' some energy 'colored' by the effect it was made to do. The more harmless example would be a library that was daily illuminated by 'candle' spells for centuries eventually having faint ambient light even when no-one's there. The less harmless example can be more or less accurately compared with nuclear fallout. The amount of energy leaked depends on the degree of control an individual mage (or a group of mages; it's entirely possible to collaborate when doing magic, much like it's possible to collaborate on any other activity) has over what they're doing. Maybe comparable with how much paint gets on your hands, face, clothes and everything when you're painting. The bigger the spell, the harder it is to make it airtight; on the other hand, the smaller the spell, the less motivation there is to try hard to make it 'tight'. This can depend on an individual mage's style or skill, or on outside circumstances - an unexpected factor can make the process more messy than intended.

The social system of the land was more or less classic feudalism, eventually transitioning into absolute monarchy, as the mage-rulers took more and more power in their hands. Nobles stopped trying to give their children magic education, as it would just mean them getting whisked away to the tower (unless this was the intended result, which was also a thing that happened) (it was a whole Thing with some people, particularly poorer peasants, trying to develop magic so they can attract attention and get taken to the tower, and others desperately hiding their abilities/pursuits to avoid it) (obviously the mage searchers took bribes, though had to be careful to not get caught). Surrounding lands have some forms of feudalism too for the most part, though there's a lot of diversity there (I haven't worked out a lot of that). Neither native nor foreign nobility was particularly happy with how the king treated them; really, nobody was happy about anything he did, with rare exceptions mostly just confirming the rule.

It's hard to say when rebellion first started mounting; it's fair to say the king produced the rebellion himself by cranking down harder and harder on those who dared oppose him even a little bit. Overreactions and power trips of mages who wanted to feel superior to objectively freer people resulted in villages, towns and whole regions being wiped from the face of the earth, survivors banding together into either various rebellious movements or just bandit gangs. Rise of banditry led to more unrest, unrest led to prosecution, and so the wheel turned. Eventually, the very big majority of rebellious movements managed to unite under a single banner, with a group of charismatic leaders who were more or less agreed upon as the new rulers when the rebellion wins. Nobody really had the concept of democracy, the idea was changing dynasties.

Changing dynasties in this case was actually a more complicated thing than just toppling a government, because of the whole magic thing. As the country was a whole and single concept in the minds of the people, so the magic bent to actually make it so, and tie it to the crown/rulers. It's kind of complicated, because it's not purely 'whatever people think is true goes', but it is influenced heavily by people's 'mindscape' and also a dozen other factors that nobody keeps track of except particularly dedicated mage researchers... who in this country could be find exclusively in the tower. Rebel mages kind of had more immediate&important things to worry about, and even when someone thought about it, the thought was dismissed with 'let's take it one step at a time; it can't possibly get worse than it is right now' (see: nuclear fallout)

In the last phase of the war, the army + guard mostly switched over to the rebels' side, the problem being the king had long stopped relying on them. It was him and his mages vs everyone else, more or less, with civilian population just submitting to whoever was present.

The Big Final Confrontation was a big battle between the rebellion forces and the king. All people who were meant to evenatually rule the country were there, leading the troops, this being the only possible way people would actually follow them into what was very likely to be a suicide charge. On the other hand, a big layer of students / aides / next in commands was left out of the battle entirely as backup. This proved a wise decision as the battle did in fact end with a suicide attack - the king managed to set up a spell that would destroy the entire rebellion army, and the best the rebellion mages could do was disrupt it so it would detonate, destroying the king himself and his not-very-big-in-size army, AND a huge chunk of rebellion forces that were closer to them, including the mages themselves.

This left the victorious army basically without leadership, and the factually-kids left behind had to quickly figure out what to do. The reason the protagonist ended up in charge was just because she was the one to start telling disoriented others what to do now. She was just an apprentice mage, she didn't really expect to be looked to as a ruler, but she took on the responsibility more or less by accident and had to stick with it.

So, she was left with a ravaged country still actively in the process of destroying itself (remember, banditry, and non-aligned rebellion movements)... and the king's treasury, which she took a look at and went 'holy shit what'. And then she took a look at financial books and went 'holy shit what' a second time.

There was enough money to literally rebuild the whole country... the question was how to organize it (popular rebellions: not the most disciplined of forces) and how to not end up being a tyrant herself.

The plan she came up was was to organize a big big harvest festival in all more or less big population centers all over the country and invite a lot of foreign traders with a lot of goods to it - as much as she estimated would be needed to, in fact, rebuild the country. (The calculations on that were not done instantly and not on her own obviously). The festival would start with a census, where each person, including kids, would give their name, have their 'unique magic imprint' taken, and be given a pretty large sum of money. This would double as a pardon for any past banditry, assuming they did not get caught doing the same thing again. There are a lot of logistical difficulties with it, starting with 'what about people who can't come' proceeding to 'how many mages do we need to do this' and so on and so forth. Well, the revolution happened in the beginning of April, and she has until mid-September (the traditional harvest festival time) to coordinate the whole thing. And figure out what to do with cleanup of land and so so so many other problems (I spent many hours figuring out those problems I don't remember all of it now and I wouldn't be able to write all of them out anyway) (the long term plan is to do this same thing, festival, census and all, every year, because the crown's income is ridiculous and the structures ensuring it still more or less work, the king wasn't /that/ stupid)

One thing she decided on from the very beginning was take the tower as her own. She did keep them under a sort of 'house arrest' from the beginning, but they were not persecuted in any way. Obviously the populace would have problems with it and want to bring them to justice for what they did, but also if she let them do what they wanted they'd just burn down the whole tower and there were /kids/ there, not to mention mages are never not a significant asset. Given access to the king's personal stuff she wouldn't have problems controlling them, and she did need them. This was its own Whole Big Storyline about how she handled it, with individual approach and a lot of showmanship and focusing on giving people the impression that they were heard and believed rather than actual justice.

(There was also its own Whole Big Storyline with her burning out from trying to personally do everything just so she'd be legitimized in people's eyes)

Also she didn't want to take the crown from the beginning, despite everyone thinking she should, if only to make the situation clear and stable in the eyes of foreign powers. Then some facts came to light, and the sum of it was: the complete and absolute shit happening in the country for the last several years weakened the weave, and there's an impending demon invasion. Theoretically it's not yet too late, and if she manages to keep the peace and make everyone happy and make a lot of good vibes happen, the weave might yet hold... but she definitely shouldn't even touch the crown, as it has a lot of Bad Vibes in it by now, and as it was originally an artifact of the land's /protection/ from demons, 'activating' it again via a coronation ceremony would only make things that much worse for the country, not to mention it'd be pretty bad for the ruler personally. On the other hand, if she beats back a demonic invasion, either by force or by peace, she'll pretty much earn her own right to rule the land regardless of the old crown. Hell, she's /already/ earning it by doing everything she does.

So as far as specific questions go:

1) how did he rize to power? he inherited the throne, I think there was a bit of infighting over the crown among relatives and that had its own separate plot with a 'legitimate heir' popping up, but in the end he won out in the family intrigues

2) what prevented the revolt of hiz kingdom, thoze opprezzed to the point of zuicidal urgez gathering in one place? nothing. they did it. repeatedly and consistently. eventually it worked

3) what finally brought him down? see above: a big fucking climactic battle with his own spell detonating on him in the end

4) why didnt thiz happen before it happened? because he was a powerful ruler with a powerful base of mages who had to support his rule or greet an angry mob. It was a combination of random luck, slowly developing the organization over the years, and deterioration of the king's own support structure (there were renegade tower mages in the rebellion too, to give one example) that eventually overcame that

5) what waz the extent of hiz magic ability? that's a Really Good Question. He inherited a fuckton of ready-made magical power in magical items, including the palace itself (the defense spell system being one aspect of what it did), but he was also powerful enough personally to exploit it to its fullest potential. In the end it came down less to his personal 'power' (the amount of energy he could put in a single spell cast from his mind with no external aid) and more to his cunning, sheer nerdery (there was... a lot of creative demonology behind the scenes, and a huge part of demonology is just extensive research of every aspect of what you're going to try beforehand) and full grasp of resources he had at his disposal. Whether he would or would not win an all-out no-external-aid magic duel with the protagonist, or any other rebellion mage, is literally irrelevant. Nobody was fighting fair.

6) where did the kingdom get food? this is another Very Good Question. The country was fucking d e s t r o y e d. A lot of kingdom... simply didn't, and this is one of the problems the protagonist has to contend with. It's worth noting: - the strong foreign support the rebellion was getting, including some food supplies. Nobody wanted the fucker in charge of that world's equivalent of majority of oil wells; - the simple hedge magic a lot of villagers could do to augment their farming. This had to be kept secret from the government, but then, those mages wouldn't know what to look for, for the most part, as this kind of magic, cooperating with the land rather than forcing your will on it, was an entirely different branch than what was studied in the tower. Sure, some who came from there themselves would know, but they also knew this would mean going after literally everyone, and that particular kind of magic was no threat to anything, it was literally just particularly potent harmony with nature; - the economy of the crown getting rich on selling off magic items was built on exploiting the big magic sources, but in this country there were also a lot of tiny ones, that - see above - permitted the land to be a lot more productive than it should have been. Before the nuclear fallout shit, there was no such thing as a 'lean year' in this country, and hunger was basically unheard-of. This entire thing was a purely political problem. (so, yes, overall the answer is 'farming in villages')

7) what level of zcarcity and poverty waz there? See above: no want for food at least, until civil war started destroying everything. However, the state basically hogged all the magic resources that weren't small enough to escape their notice, so magic items were only marginally more common than in other countries. This wasn't always this way, the situation developed gradually as this specific dynasty deteriorated over the last several generations;

8) waz it a police ztate? "police" sounds to me like a much more modern concept, idk what 'police state' would mean Way Back When. But mages were being sent all over the country 'inspecting' and harshly punishing anything wrong, more and more so, so sort of?

9) waz there brainwazhing? if zo, what are the repercuzzionz that your protagonizt haz to face? not really, no. The king relied on brute force to get across his point. The closest is the tower, but mages there had an overall pretty good idea of the situation they were in, though their coping methods were often not the best;

10) how doez the kingdom deal with hygine? how doez that differ between economic clazzez? iz magic involved, and if zo, how zo? how doez that change with the protag? I'm personally a bit of a filthy pig so congratulations you hit on a question I have never thought of before. I'd have to say that in other countries, the ones where magic is available to anyone with money to pay for access, yes, magic piping and plumbing and deodorants and everything are definitely a thing for rich people, and the protagonist probably grew up seeing this as the norm. On the other hand, in this country, and others where magic is more restricted, 'magic hygiene' would come in the form of rare curiosity items. That is, among the common folk - mage laboratories, particularly old and well-equipped ones like the tower, have magic everything, including teleportation circles instead of elevators. Otherwise it's usual historical stuff... which I have no idea what it would specifically be for that climate and perios ahaha *hides*

11) do you have a ztory to tell on a zmaller and grander zcale then the ztory of economiez, that which iznt life itzelf but a facsimile carried out by it'z people? I'm not sure how to parse this question but most of the meat of the story is the protag figuring out her personal relationship with powre, so, IDK??? There are also other characters I like, like one of the aforementioned demons and a 'mundane prophet' (its a scientific term in-universe) maid and her tower mage war criminal brother and the young mage kid and the guy with a connection to the goddess of luck who ends up being her mentor though he isn't even that much of a mage and the ex-tower mage who ended up being in charge of the tower now that the rebellion won and I D K if this answers your question at all

12) what'z the landzcapez? THIS IS A VERY GOOD IDEA I NEED TO GIVE MORE THOUGHT TO. "Exactly like Ukraine" is a bad lazy answer, given the land is sort of alive and shaped a lot by its natural magic >_> but climate-wise, yeah, mostly like Ukraine. There are forests and plains and hills, mostly, with the southeastern border being mostly uninhabited mountains. There is a sea to east/northeast, with the mountains cutting off most of the coastline from the rest of the country. The capital is to the south. I don't know I'm getting vertigo trying to translate the vague mental image I have in my head into actual geographical directions )=

13) what kind of dancing are there? feztivalz? immigration? muzic? Another thing I never thought of... I'm sorry I'm so uninterested in the specifics of some of these that I can just answer 'regular folk dancing with regular folk music'. I literally have no idea how to tell folk music of my own country from folk music of any other European country and the only reason I know our folk dancing is because gopak is a meme. You don't want me trying to figure out these things anyway >_< Immigration was a thing back before the Bad Times, the country was fairly ethnically diverse and still is I guess, in bigger cities skin color variations are barely more memorable than hair color, and in the rural areas closer to the borders too. Festivals are A Thing that was part of the plotline I was figuring out, with the whole nature magic thing. Definitely a harvest festival, of course.

14) what waz there before he took over? how did hiz rule effect all of theze? Overall, the biggest effect is that people are poorer, and more focused on immediate survival. Nobody wants to stick out, nobody knows when a mage will decide that a festival is not respectful enough to the king and level a village. The bigger cities and the most backwater nobody-even-knows-they-exist villages are the two opposites that managed to keep more of the culture - cities were more integrated with the mages' 'policing' even before the Bad Times and so had less to adjust, and the most backwater villages avoided the worst of it. Tiny towns and big villages, those of it that survived, basically stopped any kinds of public celebrations at all. The protag organizing a big harvest festival will not interfere with anyone's pre-existing plans, there. (That she's foreign is a non-factor here, it's not like she's going to be personally micromanaging it, there's lots of people to delegate this particular part to)

15) doez magic work through the human body? more like through the human mind, but body is if not -the- source of energy, at leasts a very important one

16) iz it languaged bazed? no, any verbal formulas are purely to help spellcasters focus. Although given the whole 'magic affected by human concepts' thing, certain phrasings that are only ever used in magic (antiquated words, dead languages) might take on some power of their own. Basically the language basis is: if the spellcaster knows what they're saying and what they're intending to do by it, it works. If they are trying to blindly repeat a spell in a language they don't know without any idea how it works... maybe don't?

17) what'z the power zource? It can be basically summed up as Life. Life is not caused by magic, instead magic is caused by life. Dead worlds like our moon have no magic at all, other than the kind tied to what people think of these places

18) iz it through zpiritz? It can be! Many different kinds of entities that can be called 'spirits' exist. However, this is not the kind that is 'mainstream' in the tower, nor the kind the protagonist focused on when learning. They would know a little about it, like the basic fact it exists and the common principles that apply to it as well as to other kinds of magic, but overall are profoundly ignorant on this matter

19) through permiating magical energy? magic both uses up and generates ambient magic energy, yeah

20) iz it through perzonal power of zoulz? among other things, yes. If, say, two mages with vastly different abilities swapped bodies, the resulting magical abilities of both of them would be a weird fusion of what each of them separately was good at

21) iz it through perzonal power of zoulz? gods exist! like, pagan gods. none other than the goddess of luck came up so far though

22) unholy power? demons have magical power of their own, that is distinctly different in quality from that humans use, and does not interact with the weave much. It is both stronger and weaker, depending how you look at it. A demon could not learn human magic, and humans can not access demonic powers either, but various pacts are possible that allow cooperation or even merging of powers. Straight up work for hire is the most common form though

23) can it be obtained by zacrifice? how would you define zacrifice? ability to use magic, in itself, no; magical energy, yes, in many different ways. For example, it can be granted by a divine entity that likes having sacrifices made to it; more direct 'natural' transformations are possible, like draining life from something living (though this is horribly inefficient and can be compared to burning down the house to keep warm in winter); or for example, blood holds power and blood magic is A Thing

24) doez an offering of pain count? in this specific setting, this is counterproductive to human magic but makes one possible currency when dealing with demons (who feed on pain)

25) what kind of recreational drugz are there? this question sounds weirdly specific to me, and yet is wholly legitimate. Alcohol probably exists, though I'm not sure if I'd even referenced it once in the story proper; I could easily cut it out and make the recreatinal drug scene much weirder if I wanted to. Overall, I would say recreational drugs aren't widespread in this particular country (though for wealthy people there are no doubt all kinds of imports)

26) where do they come from? how doez pharmiceauticalz work? how doez magic come into play with all of thiz? I absolutely love that you asked this question, because I had not considered this before and yet it falls Within My Sphere Of Interest. First of all, there's alchemy: mixing ingredients and magic spells, producing a very weird and diverse variety of effects, though usually not very strong compared to what casting a spell on a 'solid' object can do. (An enchanted branch can be a thousand times more powerful than an enchanted potion, but an enchanted potion can have a weirdly precise effect that a branch would need to be worked at by generations of masters to achieve) Second of all, there's magic in nature: some plants can heal just because they have healing magic stored in them, regardless of what kind of plant they are (though watching out for poison shit is still, y'know, prudent). And third, there's regular folk knowledge of plants and what they do, extending into apothecaries in cities and private doctors tending the rich. There was no any kind of religion-based persecution of, say, wise women who know how to heal people with herbs (at least not in this country), so this remains a respected skillset transfered from parent to child. There are people (more often, yes, women) who specialize with it, but most people who grow up in the country would know what to brew against cough, what to put on a wound to prevent infection, and a couple of more complex family recipes.

27) how widezpread iz the availability of magic? See above: varies by country. A lot depends on how much 'natural' magic is in a specific place; rest assured this country is not the only magic-rich one in the world (though the only one with quite as many big concentrated sources). A lot depends on politics and availability of formal learning. There is the top-down direction of magic spreading, with wisened mages teaching their students arcane mysteries, and there's the grassroots direction, that includes anything from charlatans with annoyingly real disappearing coin tricks to thieves who manage to figure out how to blend with shadows to soldiers whose weapons seem to be blessed by gods of war to farmers who know how to get on the good side of the land. 'Mundane prophet' is its own category: people who get visions, prophetic dreams and other kinds of comes-out-of-nowhere knowledge without ever trying or even wanting to have it. They are, however, generally a sign of the weave weakening and the demonic invastion being imminent )=

28) can it be uzed pazzively or accidentally? On one hand, I want to say no, but on the other hand, with this system of magic I don't really feel like saying no to anything. In some magic traditions and in some environmental conditions (A LOT depends on natural and ambient magic), it probably can. Maybe you can define "I don't know anything about magic but I'm trying really hard to achieve this result I want and it weirdly seems to be working" as "accidentally" (OK, now that I'm thinking about ambient magic and particularly ambient lingering side effects: a person can 'activate' them with their thoughts if they are particularly strong/concentrated somewhere. This wouldn't technically be the person doing the magic, but then again, if they did it knowingly on purpose it might as well be)

29) are people born with it? People are born with a degree of affinity for interacting with the weave, but just as much depends on natural+ambient magic where they were growing up. A kid in a mage family, in a house where some magic is always happening, would have a stronger magical affinity than this same kid growing up in different circumstances and never encountering magic at all. What affinity influences is basically how easy it is for a person to use magic; however, there are lots of different ways to use magic (see: spirits, for example), and people's affinities can take on very different shapes. Partly this is actually cultural, influenced by a sort of collective subconscious: mages from different countries might find entirely different things easier or harder, with overlappng variations between individuals

30) do zome people not have accezz to magic, and if zo, how many and why? First of all, there are places with very little to no 'natural' magic. While ambient magic will exist anywhere there's anything living, lack of natural magic means lack of people instinctively interacting with it, doing the grassroots sort of casual magic. For children who grow up in this kind of land in a remote area that doesn't have formally educated mages, it's entirely possible to never encounter any kind of magic at all. Second of all, there are simply people who don't have access to formal education. Interacting with natural magic is very limited in terms of what you can do - mostly just what nature wants you to do - and people who can only do that and don't have the passion to stubbornly hone this ability until they can access their own energy as well might as well be cut off from magic. Most people belong to this category. Third, it's not impossible for a person to be born with zero magical affinity at all. Natural+ambient magic and inborn affinity are multiplied, not added, so someone who's a zero could never learn any magic at all. It's very rare, though, and if born to a family with a magic tradition could be regarded as a sort of disability. This person could still do certain kinds of demonology and interaction with spirits and divine magic though; gods don't care about magic affinity in picking who they interact with and gift with power. Those things are obscure in the country the story is taking place in, but in some cultures, or even specific places, it might well be a default thing for any person to learn when growing up, making their 'zero' affinity even less relevant than it is for people with simply no access to magic learning at all.

31) how doez magic effect the flora and fauna of your zetting?? VARIOUSLY. Normal farming looks mostly the same, but deep forests, mountains and swamps can look veeeery differently than in our world :> (This applies mostly to places with a lot of natural magic, of course; and in an entirely different way, to places with strong ambient effects. You maybe want to stay away from those latter ones)

[the-drunk-wardens-inn]

What exactly am I doing here?

I feel so lost. I keep looking at this war table and I just don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing.

But anyway. Kaaras has to play politics again. 

This guy is what? The owner of Haven? Don’t we have more important things to worry about? But lucky for all of us, Josephine can calm him down.

I’m surprised she wasn’t distracted by those killer-nipples, omg, Kaaras! Put a damn shirt on when you speak to a lady!  This is the last time that he puts on this embarrassing armor. I don’t care if it has better stats, we are going to burn this thing or make Solas wear it.

To the wartable! I send my advisers off for some busy work, even though I have the feeling that they should be able to decide these things for themselves.

Our next stop will be Orlais.

I agree, Varric.

A keen sense of observation indeed.

This is a pretty place, yes, but Kaaras feels very out of place here. Everything is so elegant and fragile.

This is also the first time that someone is not happy to see him. This throws Kaaras for a loop because he isn’t even sure himself about this Herald of Andraste thing and doesn’t quite know how he could convince people who don’t believe it at all.

Yes, we love Cassandra but she really isn’t much help here.

The dragon was called Madam Snappy-Snips!!! Hahahaaaaa! 

We meet Fiona. Now I know that she’s supposed to be Alistair’s mother and a veteran of the mage rebellion but she looks so young!

Even for an elf, she looks like she’s barely twenty. Strange.

Next up, we are making a new friend with Sera.

I love her already! 

I’m always confused by the architecture and statues, who is this supposed to be?

Next thing we know, Kaaras visits the palace.

And for once, he doesn’t look out of place in his decorative armor.

And to keep with the theme, he gets insulted again. 

Makes you wonder what exactly those people were planning to do about the hole in the sky.

What an entrance!

Madame Vivienne. What a magnificent woman.

Kaaras can’t stop staring at her. He even flirts with her which she received and rejected very gracefully.

Kaaras is turning into quite the flirter! He flirts with everyone now.

With Vivienne recruited, we return to Haven to talk to people.

You’re right Commander and we appreciate the efforts but we kind of fail to see what templars and ex-templars can do about that hole in the sky. I don’t think it will be impressed by your swords. 

Kaaras isn’t a mage but he is a strong believer in freedom. He is going to ask the free mages for help next.

Varric manages a spy network, runs around with the inquisition and still manages to write his books! Tell me your secret, Varric, how do you do it?

I also tried out the crafting and once again, I hate crafting.

You see, Kaaras is wearing medium armor, I crafted these arm guards for medium armor and I still can’t put them on him. So now I feel like I wasted all these resources for nothing and should have used them somewhere else and it’s making me anxious that I did this wrong. I hate crafting.

What an interesting offer by an interesting guy. After all this rejection in Orlais, it’s nice to meet someone who is actually interested in working with us.

Isn’t she fabulous?

Yes, Kaaras is still very much smitten. 

Is this the Maker’s will? Good question, one that nobody can really answer.

Well, off we go again, this time to the coast to find Krem and his boss.

Found them!

Oh Bull is great! This is so funny to him, that a qunari leads the inquisition.

Look, The Iron Bull isn’t even that tall! I love how he casually refers to blood magic, finally someone who doesn’t get their panties in a twist at the mere mention of blood magic.

Now we are trying to finish a bunch of quests to make life a bit better in the Hinterlands and find resources for the Inquisition. We meet a lot of grateful people in the Hinterlands, which makes me think that shit has been bad here for a long, long time. These people are so grateful that finally someone is doing something for them.

We still haven’t fought a dragon yet though.

Oh look a dragon!

Wait a minute, what is going on here?

Ok, what the fuck is that? Who is that giant, fighting the dragon? There are giants here? Giants???

The scenery is certainly amazing, but...

Kaaras just wants to go home.