#out of the chantry {ooc}

[royalbstrd]

Petition to let Alistair punch Loghain in his very punchable face

[dalishborne]

i made an art blog so i don't flood this one with too much of my stuff

follow if u like :) @diyaniyaaa

[andrastehope]

i’m not neglecting my boy over here - i’m just giving myself a break from the surge of bots following it

[scapedgrace]

southern templars: if we don’t imprison mages they’ll run amok like tevinter!!! rivaini circle: am i a joke to u?

[royalbstrd-arch]

my dog yelling at me because she wants dinner but her dinner time isn’t for another hour - that is exactly how cullen’s mabari ends up. a spoiled pup 

[voxvulgi]

verses i still need to write:

hailey’s da verse

jude’s da verse

gin’s ac verse

[champion-fem-hawke]

//i’m watching downton abbey and now i have ideas swirling in my head, mainly just thinking about what life was like for my Trevelyan before he became the Inquisitor

[sanctamater]

alicent 🤝 amelia being the same bitch in a different font even in da au

[bleeding-star-heart]

These tags on a reblog of my Anders analysis are another problem I have with DA:2's writing

#god i have so many feelings about this#cuz i romanced anders my first playthrough#and i hated that our relationship did a 180 as soon as I was like#“im not gonna let you gaslight me into doing war crimes”#was it OOC?#i don't know#I can't say#I haven't studied anders as a character or taken the time to contemplate him enough to speak on it#but i just know it was such a turn off that i started a new game entirely EDIT: I have removed the word "gaslighting" from this meta owing to the fact that technically, Anders isn't gaslighting, because gaslighting is something different. Gaslighting being trying to make someone doubt their perception of reality, among other things. What Anders ACTUALLY does falls under emotional manipulation. I would say to the OP that yes, indeed, this is VERY "out of character", so to speak. Most definitely for JUSTICE, the spirit inhabiting Anders's body. But also for Anders as well. Think about it: emotionally manipulating one's romantic partner is an inherently unjust thing to do. It is not something two people who respect and love each other do. Yet the spirit of Justice is completely silent when it happens. A being that supposedly embodies nothing but Justice simply...allows his host to guilt his lover into doing something they disagree with. He does not protest or try to stop Anders from engaging in a truly toxic form of emotional manipulation. If written properly, Justice should immediately have called Anders out on this. Which should prompt either an apology from Anders or a long, seemingly one-man argument between the two. But that doesn't happen. In fact, Justice only shows up if you, as Anders's rival, manage to turn him AGAINST blowing up the Chantry. And then, only to railroad Anders back into the role of terrorist. This, combined with Justice's general lack of reaction to any injustice or violation of rights that DOESN'T have to do with mages, causes him to become little more than a cheap plot device. Now as to why I don't believe a properly written Anders would do it, either. Anders at this point in the story is a revolutionary, yes. He is passionate about his cause. But he is also MORE than that. And part of that 'more'-and also WHY he's a revolutionary-is that he was a victim of a controlling, emotionally manipulative institution. One that bombards people like him with all kinds of unhealthy messaging. Messages like: the outside world is guaranteed to hate you, your (unchangeable) nature is inherently wrong and sinful. As well as: you can't trust yourself at all, you are one bad day from being a monster, you need to let us control you for your own good. Anders probably saw more than one person like Keili-that girl in the Mage Origin who actively believes she's evil and prays to 'not be a mage'. He probably encountered a lot of mages with varying degrees of religiously based self-loathing. He probably had some himself. And he lived in the Ferelden Circle. He's also a person who not only left a toxic institution, but actively sees and complains about how toxic the institution is. People who've suffered from toxic environments/relationships and RECOGNIZE how toxic those environments/relationships were, tend to value healthy relationships/environments. They try and work on themselves to remove any lingering psychological effects of that toxicity. It is highly likely that Anders would NOT want to repeat the kind of emotional manipulation he and others were subjected to. While he might not agree with Hawke about methods, Anders would not believe guilt to be a good tactic because guilt is one of the very tactics the Chantry used on him! Guilt about being a target for demonic possession, guilt about what the magisters did, guilt about being a mage in general.

Guilting his partner into agreeing with him, is, essentially, him doing what the Chantry did to him. And if the writers had put any thought into his character, they would have realized that too. And thus, if they were smart, or and simply give the player the option to permanently decline the quest with no negative consequences. The other option is to lean into that, and purposefully make it a character flaw, that he's too blinded by trauma to see that. But the writers did NOT have the time to be able to successfully pull that off. Thus, yeah. They make Anders, who suffered from religious based emotional manipulation...into someone who emotionally manipulates his partners. Which is yet another thing done in the name of a less-than-stellar ending and plot beat. EDIT: I have removed the word "gaslighting" from my part of this meta owing to the fact that technically, Anders isn't gaslighting Hawke, because gaslighting is something different. Gaslighting being trying to make someone doubt their perception of reality, among other things. What Anders ACTUALLY does falls under emotional manipulation. Which I still don't believe a properly written Anders OR Justice would do, for the reasons stated above.

[kirkwallguy]

can i get your mary having Realizations. maybe at the day of her wedding?

omg TY for this prompt i love talking about mary but very rarely actually write about her. this stumped me for a little while because everything that happens at her wedding requires SOO much context that i had no idea how to start, and it felt ooc to just have cullen suddenly do something so terrible. so here's him and mary just kind of sucking in unique and strange ways. this takes place juust before the wedding when everyone is beginning to gather at the winter palace.

mild tw for vomit mention and templar ptsd-esque nightmares (???).

Mary awoke in Cullen's arms. Their bed at the Winter Palace was bigger and softer than any she'd ever slept in - she and Cullen gravitated towards the middle of the feather mattress together, leaving a large indent that would inevitably linger after they crawled out of it in the morning, waiting for their return later that evening.

Cullen never looked more like a Templar than when he was sleeping. It was strange - Mary had heard (and, she was ashamed to admit, read in Varric's romance novels) that people were supposed to look innocent in sleep. Haunted heroes became innocent boys, creased foreheads smoothed, racing thoughts slowed.

But Cullen's brow remained creased as he dreamed. He muttered to himself, kicked, scratched, growled like a dog. Sometimes, he frightened Mary. She'd cling to him in the dark, heart pounding, as he whispered cruel words at some imagined threat that taunted him behind his eyelids.

Were all Templars like this? Were there thousands of people all across Thedas just like her? People who lay awake with their palms flat against their lovers' sweaty backs, thanking the Maker that they weren't born a mage? Was she just unlucky? Or was this, as Hawke had darkly insinuated that final time they'd spoken, exactly what she deserved?

According to Varric's stories, Mary had a duty here. She was Cullen's reward at the end of a difficult road, a symbol of all he had lost and gained. She was supposed to comfort him, to soothe and fix his troubled soul - her arms designed to wrap around him like bandages, her kiss the perfect antivenom.

But on nights like this, when she pressed her lips to his twitching cheek, the taste of stale sweat always made her draw back with disgust.

One night early in their relationship, Cullen had drunk far too much and vomited all down himself. Shuddering and crying, he'd reached out for comfort. The smell of his breath, beer and vomit mingling together, had made Mary turn and run, leaving him alone on the floor in his own filth. The next morning, he'd kissed her chastely on the cheek at breakfast and his breath had smelled of peppermint.

It was easy to resent him for drinking like that. Many women resented their men for drink.

"Drink doesn't make men into beasts," her mother had whispered to her one night before bed, not loud enough to cover her father's heavy snores in the next room, "it just tells us which ones have beasts hiding inside them."

After that, she'd spent years of her childhood trying to see who did and didn't have a beast inside of them. She wasn't sure about her father - if he was a beast, he was nothing but an old bear, loud but too tired and lazy to do any harm. A few of the Chantry Mothers, the ones who would rap her on the knuckles when she giggled during the Chant, seemed to have dragons inside of them. The men who fought outside the taverns late at night were wolves, howling at the moon with their hackles up. And the girl in the portrait that hung above the fireplace in Mary's bedroom stared at her with the eyes of a songbird.

Cullen had something inside of him as well, but Mary wasn't sure if it was a beast. A beast, after all, could be killed.

As his dreams became more violent, so did his body. He writhed in her arms, as if a demon was taking over him. Mary held him tighter.

"She'll regret it," he muttered, "she'll be sorry soon."

Mary shuddered. Trying to distract herself, she traced the muscles in his back with a morbid fascination, feeling as they shifted and bulged unnaturally. If she'd been a healer, she might have understood how muscles worked - the violent snap and pull of them beneath her fingers might have been cause for gentle concern rather than a sensation that revolted her. But the inner workings of the human body were as good as witchcraft.

Cullen groaned, "kill it," he said, so loud that Mary squeezed her eyes shut and prayed that nobody else could hear, "kill it now!"

Whatever he was dreaming of terrified him. He cried out and twitched, kicking Mary hard enough in the shin that she yelped and pushed him away roughly enough to wake him up.

Cullen's eyes flew open. He stared directly at Mary, panting.

"Oh, thank the Maker," he whispered.

Mary stared back at him, keeping her eyes half closed as if she'd just woken up, "hmm?"

He looked like was going to cry. To Mary's horror, his trembling lips embarrassed her; she edged away from him a little, hoping he wouldn't notice.

"I was dreaming," Cullen said, "it was just a dream. A terrible dream."

Mary didn't respond. This was exactly how this scene played out in every single one of Varric's stories. She swallowed her disgust and reached out to brush Cullen's hair from his sweaty forehead, almost gagging as her fingers met his wet skin.

"Just a nightmare." She agreed, hoping Cullen didn't notice how flat her voice was.

Cullen, Maker help him, closed his eyes at Mary's touch. He lay there and shook as she stroked his hair, tense shoulders beginning to relax. That innocence he lacked in sleep was plain on his face now - he looked like someone Mary had never met before, someone she wasn't sure she would ever meet again.

"What was the dream about?" She tried.

Opening his eyes, Cullen stared at her for a long moment. His gaze passed over her face, lingering on each detail for so long that she almost found herself blushing.

Only when Mary was sure that he'd forgotten she'd asked him a question did he answer her:

"You." He said.

It should have been a shock, should have made her blood freeze, but in that moment his answer seemed like the most logical thing in the world.

Mary continued to stroke his hair, "what happened to me?"

"You were possessed," Cullen closed his eyes again, sleepy, "an abomination."

"Did you kill me?"

He was halfway back asleep now. He leaned in closer and wrapped an arm around Mary's waist, "I did," he whispered, "I killed it."

And then he stuck his face into Mary's neck, his hair brushing her collarbone, and fell straight back asleep.

Mary didn't sleep again. She stayed awake, palms against Cullen's sweaty back, and thanked the Maker that she wasn't born a mage until the sun was high in the sky.

[royalbstrd]

Sure inquisition may have the warden contact who is a warrior in medium warden armor, but consider the fact it is much easier to put on yourself than heavy armor where you pretty much need help with... which then brings up the real question. Who the heck is the designated armor dressing helper in camp

[blood-bound]

mark session recap :D

Insert usual disclaimer here: I don't always give a lot of context because otherwise these would take 4ever. . . feel free 2 ask questions tho! kyle for example has a LOT of shit behind him and he won't make sense if u dont know the story lol .

okay so this session... Mark got a email from cassidy and a text from Sampson, both saying they had to talk to him. augh. he texted sampson how long their talk would take and he said it would be short so he decided to meet with sampson first. After feeding his cat ofc <3

when he got to Sampson's place he gave Mark a very old book and a vial of a black viscous liquid. last individual session, sampson told mark that he knew someone who could help with the blood bond but he would need a vial of mark's blood. Mark reluctantly agreed but told Sampson to make him forget he did it (via cloud memory).

So he reminded Mark of that and, that vial was the result. He wouldn't tell Mark much - said it was better that way - and Mark took the stuff home after briefly looking at it - the book was written in some form of latin. Mark also mentioned to sampson that he might be able to teach him sense the unseen, next time he re-ups his ghouldom. not much happened with that but it was nice to see sampson OOC. he said he needed to 'get the fuck out of this city'. Mark will be so sad when he leaves. Anyway, they agreed there wasn't really a way to keep Mark 'in the dark' about this any longer and they would just have to risk it.

So with that done, he went down to the chantry to talk to Cassidy. Since previously Cassidy's haven got wrecked, he asked to meet in Lilian's. her haven is MUCH smaller than Cassidy's was so its full of books; hard to move around. Cassidy thanks mark for coming on short notice. He explains that due to the recent scrutiny on himself his circle head (basically his supervisor) Dr. White wants his next report in the next few nights.

These reports are apparently very detailed and so Cassidy asked Mark to come over so he could tell him what he would like to be omitted. Which is very nice of him. BUT here is when it gets sketchy.

Cassidy started off by making it sound like it was just related to their investigation of the Salubri. But via questioning and pondering Cassidy actually clarified it was about EVERYTHING he had been doing. Mark asked when his last report was and Cassidy said it was BEFORE HE HAD MET MARK. So essentially anything cassidy said or found out or did with mark could be reported.

And like I said, Cassidy didn't seem to imply that at first. I had to question it. He was honest about it upon questioning, but still. Anyways, Mark listed a few things that were obvious, such as implications he was involved with anarchs. He also asked Cassidy to omit anything about his ghoul (Mark didn't tell cassidy directly, but Sampson was brought up when Cassidy was around.) However, Mark realized that this report may make its way up to julius's ears, and he's paranoid, so he also asked Cassidy to omit instances where Kyle and him and had interacted. Cassidy doesn't know who Kyle is; mark just described the interactions (such as Cassidy being unable to cloud the memory of the ticket booth teller; that was kyle.) He did this in two separate instances so hopefully cassidy didn't pick up on the kyle instances being related. But yeah. This unfortunately means Cassidy might be suspicious about it. But better that than Julius questioning these things...

Also, another suspicious thing that happened is Cassidy reported it was hard to get into his haven, save to sleep.. and 'to slip in to answer his emails'. This sounds normal but Mark and him had had a brief back and forth over email where Cassidy replied near instantly each time!!! Mark does NOT know how he managed that because his haven and Lilian's are not close.

This 'luck' made Mark realize that there was also a chance that Cassidy had seen his lucky coin. Now, I don't think most anyone has context for this because this happened way early in the game, before I talked about it on tumblr. the short of it is that Mark made friends with Gaius's ghoul/adopted son Lucius. Who was a sorcerer and later awakening to be a mage but i digress. Anyway, he had a small bag of coins and gave Mark one. It has a strong magical aura and seems lucky. Kyle also has an obsession with acquiring it. One other time when Mark asked Julius about magic, true magic, Julius brought out a very similar coin (but mark couldnt tell if it was the same type of magic or not.) anyway, he's never mentioned the coin to Julius, and so REALLY didn't want it making its way onto Cassidy's report on the off chance he did notice it.

Which he did. Mark asked if Cassidy knew that he had a certain magic item. Cassidy said that perhaps he knew. Mark was like 'but you will make me confirm, yes?" and cassidy was like "yes. :) "

So he took it out and Cassidy was like Ah yes. that. Ok I will omit that. :) But I would love to discuss that with you later. :) He said it very pleasantly. But twas sus.

Anyway, it was a weird convo overall because like.. It's nice of Cassidy to ask Mark this, but Cassidy never disclosed that he;d have this type of report in this great of detail before (thought some sort of reporting is assumed ofc); and now Cassidy has a List Of Things Mark Wants Kept Secret. CRIES . .. .

Mark also failed every insight check so Cassidy seemed genuine the whole time.

after all that, cassidy explained that he was gonna go through all of his notes so that he can give a proper report to dr white and therefore he'd be busy for the next few nights. apparently they are verbally presented. he set his notebooks out in a circle as he combed through them. cassidy will email mark when he is free again :(

Sad. Mark also asked if he was good to read those books regarding resisting blood bonds here. Cassidy said to ask Lilian but otherwise, yeah, he could. He quickly finds Lilian in her lab and she is doing some weird mad scientist shit, but doesn't mind him reading at all in her haven. She gestured to a cot and said she mostly sleeps here anyway.

So he returns to Lilian's place where Cassidy still is - he is briefly surprised to see him back but Mark spends like 3 hours reading there with him. He read one of the Forbidden Books that Cassidy smuggled out and it seemed to have beenwritten by an early Sabbatmember to their child about how to break the blood bond via the vaulderie. my ST flavored it a lot better but thats the gist of it.

Cassidy and Mark didn't talk much; cassidy was doing his own note-compiling and only apparently glanced over a few times to see what he was reading. When Mark left Cassidy said it was pleasant though :)

On the way out Mark decided to visit G again (the gargoyle he has been teaching how to read.) It was SO FUCKING ADORABLE y'all. G always acted like a very young child but he is getting smarter :) he remembered ALL of his vowels!! He finished learning the whole alphabet and started to learn how to spell! He used Trial and Error and wow. I'm so proud of him. He was SO thankfully. he drew a heart for mark. by like. scraping it into the concrete lol. but yes was so pure. crying.png forever over G.

His sister gave Mark a dirty look as he was leaving but did go over to G and ask what he had learned that day after he left.

overall Mark found it to be a pretty great night :) and i thought it was over.. but .. . . . . not over yet.

He went home. he talked to his cat about how things were going. he realized he liked Cassidy, probably, and said as such out loud to his cat: "I think I like him. Probably not a good thing, hm?" anyway. he went over some other things too but I will explain this relevance later.

He then read the book Sampson got for him, while petting the cat. :) It was basically describing in detail how to weaken a blood bond.. and the more Mark read, he realized that the vial he has was the start of this ritual. Hmm. He didn't finish it yet, but had to go to bed.

And he tried to.

But when he went to lay his head down ... right in his ear... Kyle's voice. "HI Mark, how are you?"

After of course being incredibly startled and privacy invaded he was pissed. He said something like 'better before you got here' and Kyle was like. "Seems like you had a good Night :)" Mark just said it was productive but it seems Kyle overheard what Mark said to his cat... a few things were mentioned but Kyle said he could 'smooth things over with loverboy' if Mark would give the coin to him. Kyle also commented on how he loves "young love" LOL and was of course cagey and denied spying on Mark and Cassidy but like. cmon besties.

Anyway poor Mark gets no privacy and now Kyle is invested in the Mark/Cassidy romance as well. THAT'S THE SESSION! Mostly a reading one but we love Kyle developments.

[moontheoretist]

Sebastian: It's our duty to tell the templars.

Fenris: Then why haven't you done it?

Sebastian: I guess I was hoping they'd come to it on their own.

Fenris: And then you wouldn't have to betray Hawke's friends, right?

Sebastian: That's not reason enough to allow a maleficar to walk free.

(If Anders is in the party)

Anders: You think the templars don't know I'm here? They just haven't caught me yet.

(If Merrill is in the party)

Merrill: Are you talking about me?

Sebastian: Which of us should do it? Shall we draw lots?

Fenris: Uh-uh. You want to turn them in, you work it out with Hawke.

This is one of those OOC quotes on par with Anders feeling ok with giving Fenris to Danarius and Fenris selling Feynriel to the Sloth Demon. It doesn’t make sense, because I don’t believe that Sebastian really hated Anders that much. And this quote applies to Merrill as well, with whom Sebastian is friendly. It literally doesn’t fit anything about Sebastian, his arc, or his version of belief in the Chantry as he speaks against the Chantry numerous times, while still staying faithful to it at the same time. This quote is even worse if you were playing as a mage or romanced him as a mage. I am happy that I never got this banter during my first playthrough, because it would sour all the romantic experience I had with him. And I had very good romantic experience with him. I romanced him as a friend and I adored everything about his romance, maybe except the fact we were denied any non-sexual intimacy like kissing and hugging. This romance would feel more ace to me if it was allowing at least that, but overall I really enjoyed it. I was in my "still religiously indoctrinated to some extent" state, when I knew I was queer but were still acting and behaving as a straight person, so his religious preaching didn't bother me. It started bothering me way later when I finally rejected all the religious bullshit I was fed in my life and finally acknowledged my queerness fully, because to me Sebastian is just like me. He is a queer man, given to the Chantry, raised by it and due to that trapped in a religious system that limits his self-expression, and I really want him to be free. Nowadays, it bothers me when he preaches the Chantry doctrine, because it is too close to home with all the brainwashing I underwent in my very religious family. He reminds me of me, and it is kinda approaching the triggering trauma territory. I still like him very much, I just cannot ignore what he is saying anymore, because I had a person in my life who used the exact same religious reasoning as him to abuse me. So to me, he is abused by the Chantry, but he doesn’t see it yet, just like I didn’t see that I was abused before, and he in consequence continues to preach their doctrine in his own unique way, without realizing how damaging that can be as well. Anyway, coming back to the topic of this specific quote about “giving apostates to the Templars”. This banter also drives the point home that some of them really need either rewriting to fit the characters motivations or Hawke's direct intervention, because the things those characters can say to each other at times need either scolding or outside perspective why what they said is cruel or callous or dangerous. I already can see my first female mage Hawke turning back and looking at him as if he just said that we are going to go to the Alienage and murder all the elven kids. She would feel so conflicted, because she loves him, but he just said something that literally sounded like “I would put you all in gulag”. She was the Blue Hawke 100%, so she was only crass with Carver and I believe that this quote may have made her react in the same way she did to her brother’s more cruel and callous quotes. She would challenge him on what he just said, and depending on where Sebastian is in his religious indoctrination, he would either concede the point and realize what he said was wrong, or double down on it. I can actually imagine him to do the former, because he was open to criticizing the Chantry. If he knew all the shitty things that Circle did, maybe he would not think giving apostates to the Templars is a good idea or his religious duty as a citizen anymore. Hell, even Fenris is not into the idea in this specific banter. He specifically tells him to take it up with Hawke. He doesn’t agree to it, he doesn’t want any part in it. He may dislike Anders or Merrill on the principle of being mages, but he would not do such a thing, and I believe Sebastian would not either if he realized what that actually means, that it is not a lawful thing to do. How cruel that would be and how awfully it could end for all the apostates in the party, including mage Hawke if you played as such.

[andrastehope]

important question: what do y'all name your mabaris??

[scapedgrace]

the way hawke has to bite their tongue when sebastian tries to tell fenris he was enslaved for a reason.

[royalbstrd-arch]

dorian: for a Templar, you think like a blood mage

cullen: -internal screaming-