#livia arida

[quitefair]

Dragon Age Lore Breakdown: Gereon Alexius

Started working on my accursed DA fic again, and the research rabbit hole led me down the In Hushed Whispers path. And I found out a bunch of things about this dude that I realised I never knew before.

Anyway, ramble under the cut.

Before he became a Magister, Gereon Alexius was first and foremost, a researcher of magic. One that was trying to push the boundaries of what magic could do, particularly in the field of ‘traveling through and controlling both time and physical space’.

His research partner (and eventual wife) was Livia Arida, a researcher who focused specifically on the Veil.

Gereon’s father, Magister Alexius, was your typical Tevinter upper class dude – focused on power and bloodlines and image. House Alexius wished Gereon focused less on the theoretical and more on magic with practical uses.

Gereon's father thus gave up his post as Magister to his nerdy ass son in the hopes that he would become more invested in politics like he himself was.

Instead, Magister Gereon used his position to ‘became a tireless champion of education, criticizing his peers for pouring the Imperium's funds into the war with the Qunari at the expense of the Circle and demanding better schooling and institutions of higher learning for the Soporati.'

His codex entry is more telling of his backstory and character than anything he's displayed in game lmao.

He continued his research in a diminished capacity, and subsequently married his long-time sweetheart and research partner Livia Arida. He also took a position as professor of thaumaturgy at the Minrathous Circle.

[They use the word ‘thamaturgy’ here very liberally, and I’ve not seen this anywhere else in my Dragon Age research. We all know the DND connotations, but I would like to take the meaning of the term as ‘boundary breaking magical research’, since that’s what Gereon is known for. Like idk the Thedosian equivalent of fringe science.]

[[This also assumes a scientific hierarchy within the study of magic within Imperium society, which I doubt they will explore in DA4, but gods that would be so fucking fascinating.]]

Anyway, Gereon and Livia had a son, Felix. Despite both his parents being mages, and particularly gifted ones at that, Felix was a very weak mage, one that could only cast very simple spells and with great effort.

Gereon’s father saw Felix as a weak link, described him as ‘just barely more than a Soporati’. Because of this, he tried to have Felix assassinated. Typical Magister behaviour.

Livia, being absolutely… livid (yeah I went there lmao), intercepted the assassin, and in turn, fucking had Gereon’s father assassinated instead. This ensured Felix's safety and secured Gereon as head of House Alexius.

Anyway, if it wasn’t clear how much Livia and Gereon loved Felix, you should know by now. Since he couldn't learn much magic, they brought in tutors from all fields – history, art, music, literature, etc, ensuring that anything the boy could study was offered to him on a silver platter.

And although Felix wasn’t a powerful mage, he seemed to have inherited his parents’ analytical minds, and therefore was a gifted mathematician. Recognising this, his parents sent him to study at the University of Orlais.

In the meantime, both Gereon and Livia continued their boundary breaking research. At this point, they decided to take on assistants and apprentices, since they could not involve their son in their research.

While Livia took on ‘half dozen of the most promising young students of the Fade and the Veil throughout the Imperium’, Gereon chose only one apprentice.

You know who it was.

So they continued their research – with Gereon and Dorian focusing on breaking the boundaries of magic itself, while Livia and her apprentices sought to determine the effects of such magic on the Veil. Kind of like an unstoppable force vs immovable object situation.

[There's also what I can only assume is an artist's rendition of their notes in The World of Thedas 2, which is... well.]

[The description included: Careful study is paid to the eyes of the nug. Based on the drawings and a limited deciphering of the text, the author seems all but obsessed with understanding what animals see and how this might differ from our own perception of reality.]

[[Edit: apparently the images above aren't from Gereon's notes, but from a book called Grim Anatomy. Dissecting this book is a whole nother post so we'll leave it at that.]]

They were apparently super close to a breakthrough. But we can’t have nice things in Thedas, can’t we?

In 9:38 Dragon, Gereon and Livia travelled to Orlais to visit Felix. As the family travelled back to Minrathous (or Hossberg - Dragon Age is never consistent with the lore), they were attacked by hurlocks. For some reason, Gereon wasn’t with his wife and son when this happened.

Livia is killed and Felix is tainted.

Gereon is obviously filled with survivors guilt, the grief of losing his wife, and the fear of now losing his son to the taint. He stopped caring for anything other than his son’s health, and this affected his relationship with his research, and by extension, Dorian.

This led to an argument over how distant and strange Gereon was becoming, and eventually Dorian parted ways with Gereon.

In the gap between this and the events of Inquisition, Gereon is now part of the Venatori. It can be assumed that the reason he joined was because of promises made that the Elder One can save Felix from death.

[We can probably extrapolate that Gereon somehow understands that Corypheus is a darkspawn, and so that adds to the weight of his belief that Corypheus can cure Felix.]

It is this time and space bending research that is the foundation of In Hushed Whispers.

Once Gereon is defeated, you can judge him in Skyhold. If you decide to take him in as an agent, he can continue his research for the Inquisition. (Though canonically all it yields is this amulet. Which isn't even unique, you can get it in random loot drops anywhere. Sad.)

[magistheir]

alright kinda need to babble my way through a timeline here

dorian is born sometime in 9:11 dragon

he shows “a flair for magic” at an early age. kids usually show that they’re a mage from age 4-14. i’d honestly put him at the earlier end of this, so we’ll say he exhibited magic at age 4, which would be around 9:15 dragon

dorian gets into his first duel with another student at age 9, 9:20 dragon (and wins it, thank you very much). it doesn’t say that the duel was with an older boy, but i hc that the boy was about 14

dates get fuzzy at this point. essentially he gets moved from circle to circle and burns through private tutors, with bouts of being sent home as well. i’d venture it’s one part bored genius, one part kids bullying the youngest person in their classes. this lasts for… A While.

eventually he gets sent to the order of argent, which is a v strict andrastian circle. i feel like at this point he was starting to show some sexual promiscuity and inclination towards boys in particular, so putting him in this particular circle was about trying to stamp out the fighting and nip his homosexuality in the bud. he stayed there three months.

alexius finds him drunk in a brothel and starts to take him home, but is amused by dorian’s behavior–so much so he takes him on as an apprentice. i’m going to put this at age 16 for dorian, so 9:27 dragon

four years under alexius’ tutelage later, dorian is accepted as a full enchanter in the minrathous circle. dorian is 20 in 9:31 dragon

again, a vague time–he gets pressure from his parents to come home and get married, but he deflects by saying that persuing the rank of senior enchanter is more important. this appears to go on for some time–i’m going to say a period of 4 years, as he starts to work on his thesis and research for being a senior enchanter, dabbles in politics and as a socialite, and rebuffs quite a few marriage proposals (and is on the verge of running out of excuses)

in 9:35 dragon, when dorian is 24, livia arida is killed and felix is afflicted with the taint. dorian spends two years attempting to help alexius find a cure for his son–he most likely travels to weisshaupt and the donarks at this point.

in 9:37 dragon, at age 26, dorian and alexius have a blow out fight. dorian leaves the estate and begins a self-destructive streak of burning through his family’s money, drinking, whoring. eventually his parents have him kidnapped from the home of lord ulio abrexis—and the company of his son–and brought back to the family estate in qarinus via ship where he is kept captive for some time. the whole time period is ~2 years

in 9:39 dragon, at age 28, dorian escapes captivity from his family estate and leaves without a coin to his name. the scandal forces his father to step down from his position on the consiliare for the archon.

dorian spends the next two years wandering. this is when he presumably visits kirkwall, among other places.

in 9:41 dragon, at age 30, dorian joins the inquisition. the events of da:i ensue over the next ~2 years

in 9:44 dragon, at age 33, dorian is made the ambassador to the inquisition and the events of trespasser come to pass

[nomouthtospeakof]

to balance out all the sad shit, i just realized how much of a fucking chaos power couple livia and gereon alexius must’ve been.

like. we know next to nothing about livia, she’s barely even a named character, and out of the maybe three things we do know about her one of them was that she’s a BAMF who straight up assassinated her husband’s father when he tried to kill felix. just straight murdered the head of the alexius family.

and alexius, in that one letter, not only told halward that he was at a slummy elven brothel (”ask not why i was there and i shall tell you no lies” LKSHKLSHAK). he not only tells halward his SON was at a slummy elven brothel. he tells him they were both at the slummy elven brothel together and dorian invited him to join him.

can you IMAGINE the how little a fuck given it takes to tell your coworker “yeah your son who’s been missing for who knows how long was piss drunk and offered his whole ass to me and it made me laugh so hard i didn’t call the cops on him to bring him home. anyways i’m making him my apprentice <3″?????

anyways livia and gary musta been fuckin WILD no wonder dorian turned out like that

[holyblackspear]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age - All Media Types Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Felix Alexius/Male Lavellan Characters: Felix Alexius, Original Companion Character(s), Male Lavellan (Dragon Age), Dorian Pavus, Gereon Alexius Additional Tags: Implied/Referenced Abuse, Past Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Rape Recovery, Extended Families, Friends to Lovers Series: Part 2 of The History of a Dandelion Unusual time for me to post, but here I am with this second fic. I love this one very much, it has a special place in my heart (as well in Hel’s C;) 

[allisondraste]

“☆ Put this star into the inbox of your favourite blogs. It's time to spread positivity!” ( ˘ ³˘)💗

asdfjksdl; thank you sm Norr T.T  and right back at you <3

[mutantenfisch]

Can I have the Hey meme too? :D

I’m so sorry! I had this sitting in my inbox and forgot to answer :’) 1. First impression: Wow! Your writing is so beautiful and I love your sense of humour!

2. Truth is: I am so damn glad I met you! You’re one of my closest friends, if I may say that and you’re one of the most kind, caring and creative people I’ve met and I am forever grateful for that. <3

3. How old do you look: I think you look younger than you are. More like my age.

4. Have you ever made me laugh: Yes! As I said before - one of the first things i noticed about you is your sense of humour, both in delivering excellent puns in your writing and in your art and also when we chat.<3!!

5. Have you ever made me mad: Nope. Never, not in the slightest. It’s happened a few times that I was very worried about you, but never mad.

6. Best feature: I know it sounds cheesy, but “your soul”? I seriously think you are one of the kindest and most compassionate people who exist on this planet. <3

7. Have I ever had a crush on you: A friend-crush, definitely. In a completely platonic way.

8. You’re: one of my favourite people in the interwebs and a very very good friend whom I love and admire a lot.

[vulptilla]

“☆ Put this star into the inbox of your favourite blogs. It's time to spread positivity!” ( ˘ ³˘)💗

Riiiiight back at you!! 💗

[contreparry]

Happy Friday!!!!! How about the prompt "Who did this to you?" for any pair of your choice (romantic or platonic)! <3

Of course! I decided to write some Dorian and Felix friendship for @dadrunkwriting!

It was nothing more than a minor prank, Dorian told himself as he brushed off the non-existent dust from his robes. A minor prank that had no consequences, because his would-be pranksters hadn't an ounce of subtlety shared between them. Really, did they think he was so foolish as to drink himself into a stupor and then attempt to walk back to his lodgings? Did they think he would do all that and leave himself open to attack? Even at his worst (and oh, he had plunged to great depths when he was at his worst), Dorian Pavus was not one to be caught off-guard.

But really? Street gangs? That was what the scions of the other great houses of the Magisterium were resorting to, hiring ruffians to tail and jump him? He would have to handle this with an appropriate response, swift and brutal, something that would stop all this foolishness once and for all. Dorian hurried up the side stairs of the Alexius estate, up to the second floor so he could sneak past the library and into his chambers so that he may wash off dirt and the dried blood from his split lip-

"Dorian! Dorian, did you- oh." For all of Dorian's sneaking and plotting, he never could plan for Felix Alexius, who raced around the corner to greet him only to stop short and stare, his big brown eyes wide with shock before they narrowed in- oh dear. No, no, Gereon would never forgive him if Dorian allowed Felix to go out and be foolishly noble and brave and good- best to smile and talk the boy down from challenging a bunch of snot nosed brats to a duel. Felix would be fried in an instant and Gereon and Livia would murder Dorian in retaliation for the loss of their beloved son. Livia Arida had her father-in-law murdered for attempting to harm Felix. If someone actually did- Dorian smiled, holding in a wince as his split lip, barely scabbed, tore open once again.

"Ah. Felix. You caught me at an inopportune moment," Dorian said breezily. "If you happen to see your father, do tell him I'm washing up and shan't be available for the afternoon."

"Dorian," Felix said, his solemn expression at odds with his still-childish features.

"Felix," Dorian said, adopting the same solemn expression even as he changed the tone, made it playful and irreverent, trying his best to make light of the situation as he always did. Don't let anyone know you hurt. No weaknesses. No mistakes.

"Who did this to you?" Felix asked.

"No one worth remembering, Felix. I handled it," Dorian replied. Drop it, Felix, was the unsaid order, an order that Felix ignored completely as he clasped Dorian's shoulder and stared at him. Despite being a full head taller and a good few years older and more experienced, Dorian felt incredibly reassured as Felix held onto his shoulder.

"I think I should have a word with the fellows involved," Felix said stubbornly, with the ferocious determination of the greatest of their people. Had Felix been even a little more powerful in his magic he would surely be one of the brightest lights of the Magisterium. Perhaps he should be, regardless. The Imperium would be better off with people like Felix Alexius guiding it- loyal to a fault and fiercely kind. Their people could use a little kindness, a little less bloodshed.

"It's handled," Dorian sighed. "But I could use some ointment for cuts and bruises. Don't think my powders and kohl can cover this completely." And if Gereon found out he was slipping into bars for the bad wine and conversation... or lack thereof...

"I'll go ask mother, see if she has something on hand," Felix promised. "But don't think I'll forget! I might not be a great mage, but I have my ways of getting even."

"I know you do, you incorrigible menace," Dorian said. "Now go. Go! You young people give me a headache."

"You're only a few years older than me!" Felix complained before racing off to find his mother. Dorian sighed before limping his way to his room. Bath, change clothes, lick wounds privately, and tomorrow he would sail forth as if nothing happened. Might not be the traditional Pavus way, but that was how he handled his rivalries: you didn't even touch me. I am unmoved.

But if someone saw him at his weakest moments, well, at least it was a good man like Felix Alexius who happened upon the scene.

[doblehkiin]

undefined

forgot to upload this edit i made onto here art cred: @ memaidraws @ honeyginsen @ sabiartrin @ livia-arida (deactivated?) @ poouri (deactivated?)

[third-rail-vip]

OTPtober Day 17:  Genre Swap

I’m very much enjoying the idea of Skyrim thieves guild MacCready and Ivy.  They are both totally stealth archers as a preference when it comes to combat.  Mac is not a big fan of magic so he’ll not admit how much he appreciates Ivy’s illusion spells when it comes to muffling their movements or a spot of invisibility.  Oh and they  spend their time in the Ragged Flagon in a perpetual state of bi panic over Brynjolf and Vex.

I had far too much fun playing with lighting on this.  Which is probably a good thing because turns out choosing Riften and the thieves guild gives a seriously brown palette XD  Now the only concern is that as i’ve gone Todd-squared, is he now more powerful than we can possibly imagine.

Thank you @mutantenfisch and @livia-arida for grabbing me some great thieves guild armour reference screenshots!  I had to reinstall recently because my skyrim threw a wobbler

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil: Failure to Respond to Education Emergency

Budget Cuts, Disastrous Covid-19 Response Leave Millions out of School  

[Image description: student receives hand sanitizer at a public school in São Paulo on the first day of in-person classes, on February 8th.]

The Brazilian government has failed to address the huge impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on education, leaving millions of children with little or no access to school, Human Rights Watch and Everyone for Education (Todos pela Educação), said today.

More than a year after the government ordered the initial closure of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Education Ministry urgently needs to increase support to states and municipalities to guarantee remote education, including online learning, and a safe return to schools, the groups said.

“School closures have affected the most economically vulnerable children most severely,” said Anna Livia Arida, Brazil associate director at Human Rights Watch. “The government needs to put education at the center of its Covid-19 recovery plan, restore the education budget, and spend those resources to ensure that millions of children, especially those at a greater risk of dropping out, are able to study.”

The government failed to ensure the right to education for more than 5 million children between ages 6 and 17 in Brazil in 2020, the United Nations Children’s Fund reported, the worst situation in two decades. More than 4 million of them were enrolled in schools but had no remote learning or in-person classes in 2020. School closures affected children unequally, with the greatest impact on Black or Indigenous children and adolescents, and those from lower income households.

A Parliamentary Monitoring Committee that examined investment and expenses by the Education Ministry in 2020 found that there was “an abrupt and inexplicable decrease of federal resources in different areas of education, in a year in which the federal education budget should be revised to address new challenges, such as student connectivity and implementation of health protocols.”

Continue reading.

[nomouthtospeakof]

look i know there’s probably some reason why dorian’s betrothed and alexius’s wife have the same first name (a parallel between what dorian’s expected to do and what alexius did, showing dorian he could possibly compromise and both take a wife and do what he loves and be happy? a hint that maybe dorian and livia COULD get along and work well together if they married, even if they wouldn’t be in love? a metaphor showing that actually no he can’t do any of that because the world is shit and will take away his every source of happiness with no warning even if he does everything he’s supposed to? a fuck up where someone accidentally tacked the name onto the wrong minor character and it wasn’t caught/they ran with it?? who knows) but. i hate it. i know it’s realistic for names to be repeated but i hate it.

[sky-scribbles]

The wonderful Otrada Cadash for @livia-arida’s (belated) birthday!! I love this unlikely mage gorl so much.

[natalyelle]

Happy Birthday, @livia-arida ! May all th wishes come true! ^_^

Here is Sula, made with watercolor and golden gel pen 

[allisondraste]

With October less than a month away, and in the spirit of boycotting Inktober, I offer yet another alternative, brought to you with the help of @gingerbreton​ @tanaleth​ and @livia-arida​.  [Disclaimer: We are NOT the first to coin otptober, but this prompt list is ours]

[mutantenfisch]

It’s the lovely @livia-arida​‘s birthday today and I am sending love and good vibes your way with this little gift art. ♥ Enjoy your special day as best as you can my friend!