#prohalla

[bumblewarden]

Hey do you remember where you read that the crows act as antiva’s military bc world building wise that doesn’t make a lot of sense but thedas world building is a house of cards I’m going to blow on

A very fair question. I could have sworn it was somewhere in Zevran's dialogue tree but a quick skim didn't provide the confirmation, and you'd think that'd be something worth mentioning when you ask him about the Crows. Next, i checked WoTv1 and found there were i think i got the idea of that

So they aren't really 1:1 a military substitute (esp given how they seem just as likely to kill as they are to kill for royalty), but this implies to me that in the scope of international conflict, they sort of assume that role

[houseaeducan]

@prohalla

Do you think if the origins coup didn’t happen that your aeducan would be better or worse then bhelen, harrowmont, or trian as the queen

love this question ty... it's a bit tricky with daera because she never actually planned on becoming queen of orzammar -- she's pretty uninterested in politics and always felt pretty content with the idea of focusing her energy on her position as commander under whichever of her brothers ended up on the throne. she'd play the game to undermine and fuck with them a bit as sibling antics and because you need to if you're going to last, but bhelen moved against her more because he knew that she would turn against him once she realized he committed fratricide and less because he thought she would actually contend for the throne. she could have! the assembly liked her! but the assembly liked her because she was naturally charismatic and an incredibly promising warrior, and being good with a sword and at parties doesn't translate to legitimate political ability.

if she ended up in some sort of designated survivor situation where her father and brothers were all killed then i think she'd be ??? okay?????? as queen? the biggest problem would be that she'd be deeply uninterested in it, and i imagine she would end up pushing a lot of the day-to-day decision-making onto her advisors (who in this case would probably be harrowmont so. lol.) when she actually did get involved, i think she would do Fine but not particularly challenge the system in any way. for reference, like, in her origin she told that noble guy to stop harassing the scholar guy (agkjhag its been a year since I've played the aeducan origin can you tell), but also told the scholar guy to keep the false history in the shaperate. no use harassing someone just doing his job, but it's not use rocking the boat when it threatens a noble house's pride. she was open to the idea of restoring titles to some surfacers for the benefit of orzammar, but amended her position to "yeah we should respect the surfacers or whatever but they gave up their right to be here" as soon as she learned there would be political ramifications she didn't like. she's not as much of a strict traditionalist as harrowmont would be, and is pretty open to the idea of the casteless being like, people, but i think making any actual moves to reform or push back on reform would depend very heavily on whether her allies thought it was a good move strategically

the one place i do think she'd do a very good job and maybe lead to some legitimate change for orzammar is in the military. i imagine that's where she would turn her actual sights to basically immediately (and probably spent a lot of her reign off the throne leading expeditions in the deep roads and leave the at home ruling to whoever she got into a political marriage with. kind of cailan-esque. wait.) from there i don't think it would take her too long to realize how deeply fucked orzammar really is in their current position (which i don't think she thought of particularly deeply before being put into a commander position). from that perspective, i can see her taking a much more aggressive approach to the darkspawn, and eventually coming to some of the same conclusions bhelen did about training non-warrior caste soldiers, making a concentrated effort to retake abandoned thaigs, and, maybe even opening up more with the surface for the sake of getting reinforcements, all of which i can see having a positive effects on orzammar outside of just their survival.

so i guess i would say, probably better than harrowmont and hmm, it's tough to compare her to bhelen. less of a reformer but also less likely to vindictively execute you. honestly have not thought much about trian as a ruler so I'm not sure on that! i want to say she would be better because trian seems so petty and shitty but lbr how you act with your shitty siblings does not constitute what kind of king you would be.. need to think more on that

[bumblewarden]

5 and 17 for novhen

thanks for the ask!

5. How far is your OC willing to go to get what they want?

Pretty damn far. He's got little issue with thievery or lies. What's that, Shianni? You think those apple fritters look tasty? Ok, I need you to keep the baker distracted until I give the all-clear!

And if it's serious enough, he's proven willing to kill. Maybe not for pastries but for securing the continued survival of his loved ones? Absolutely

17. What is the worst thing you have put your OC through story-wise?

I made Adaia's death a bit more traumatic than was necessitated the little information canon provided

He and Adaia have to venture out into the human part of the city to run an errand. A palace guard from Leliana's Song recognizes her as one of the escapees and then summoned a few of the city guard. Adaia could tell when the ensuing encounter was turning sour and told Novhen to run. He obeyed but not quickly enough to miss witnessing her death. He's certain he could've saved her if he had just disobeyed. He was dissociated and nonverbal for months, and as much as the moment was imprinted in his brain, he cannot remember anything of the following year

[Ask Game]

[bumblewarden]

2, 7, 10 for novhen

[Romanticism Asks]

2. What does your OCs handwriting look like? 

Common, Fereldan, and Alfish (basically Fereldan City Elven) all use runes. The shapes of runes are designed to be carved and haven't yet officially adjusted to paper, so we can't quite reach the nigh illegible cursive he would surely otherwise use

Novhen writes in compact letters. He goes quick on his downstroke, so they also usually show with longer tails with a curve at the end as he moves his quill to begin the next letter.

I've been working on my Alfish conlang, and have the futhorc i'll be using mostly settled, so i can provide an attempt at how he'd write his full name (excluding the endless list of titles he could stuff next to it):

Novhen Tabris ben Cyrion (ᚾᛟᚡᚻᛠᚾ ᛏᚫᛒᚱᛆᚴ ᛒᛠᚾ ᚴᛖᚱᛖᚩᚾ)

(let the ᛒ and ᚱ provide the baseline for where the bottom of the letter is supposed to end)

7. If your OC could meet any historical or past figure, whether in the real world or in their own canon lore, who would it be and why?

Pre-Warden, he'd answer Alidda of Halamshiral. She's plainly badass, and the kind of figure he would lookup to the most as a young boy.

Post-conscription, his answer would change to Garahel because who else is there that could possibly understand what he's been through so completely?

10. What piece of moody poetry or novel quote best encompasses your character?

It's been a while since i've read sufficient moody literature and most of my marked up books are currently lost to storage :[, but i found this quote from the nearest one i had on hand:

"Eine Narb wird bleiben. Auf den Frieden muß die nimmer warten." / "It'll scar. Peace will never come for her." -Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder, Brecht (trans. Tony Kushner)

[houseaeducan]

Character song tag game!! (Doing it on this blog bc it seems appropriate. and like a week late sorry) tagged by @v-arbellanaris and @flashhwing

Game Rules: Choose one of your characters and list songs that fit them.

from my calliope playlist:

be gay, do drugs, hail satan

woman of the hour

yes mom

bigmouth strikes again

primadonna

love me dead

not sure who's been tagged in this yet.. ummm tagging @lavellander @evilvarric666 @prohalla @cyngharris @jewishzevran @wardenhowe @ringneckedpheasant

[bumblewarden]

oh i love knowing trivia. via the codex entry on Antiva from DA:O, specifically the entry found in the Arl of Denerim's estate: "Antiva keeps no standing army. . .[an] attack would likely succeed, but its leaders would not see the day." the general and/or king would be assassinated, even if his soldiers would be chill. if the qunari wanna try the crows out of selflessness, i would have liked to see it

oooo ty yes i found it!

@prohalla since you were asking about this

It's just barely too long to fit the whole thing in one screenshot, so i just cropped the important bit. It's nice to know that this information was actually in the game proper and not just World of Thedas!

I think a Qunari invasion of the Crows would be very interesting because the assassination model is going to be drastically less effective against a culture that is as collectivist as the Qunari are presented to be. It doesn't matter if the current arishok or daathratha survives so long as there is somebody able to fill the role, and a death for the sake of advancing the Qun is an honorable one. Obviously, the standard Crow tactic of intimidating neighbors into nonaggression isn't going to work without that overriding fear for personal safety. IIRC the Qunari only halted their invasion last time because of the massive numbers of deaths both sides were taking on

My primary issue with the new short story rn is that i hope this doesn't mean Antiva is already going to be fully taken over by the time we exist character creation. Even if the player is not directly involved, such a world-changing event should happen within the timeline of the game. There's a reason Origins began before the Battle of Ostagar and not in the middle of the Blight. I didn't read all the books, so maybe they offer more insight, but i was under the impression that after defeating the cells in Trespasser (which claim to not be acting under official orders), the ensuing conflict would stick to the domain of spies for a while yet

And it's possible it's just the city and not the whole country being affected, especially considering the specific city the story is set in. According to the wiki, Treviso was won and lost several times over the course of the previous war with the Qunari and is also where the Crows originated. It's definitely going to be a hotly contested location once again, and there will be plenty of action there in-game. I just wish it would wait for us to arrive