unofficial list of dragon age: origins mods as of june '24.
For anyone who asked! Please keep in mind that there are some cheat mods in here for when you just want to enjoy the story without worrying too much about gameplay but they can be unistalled any time for a more challenging playthrough.
! N.B. ALWAYS READ THE DESCRIPTIONS AND THE COMMUNITY POSTS VERY CAREFULLY, SOMETIMES YOU'LL NEED TO ADD, DELETE OR EDIT SOME FILES YOURSELF TO AVOID MOD CONFLICTS !
First of all, you need the proper tools and the way to use them:
da:o mod manager
chargen morph compiler
modding tutorial
console tutorial
visible console commands
TEXTURES AND BUGFIXES
Dragon Age Origins Unofficial Remaster
Environment Overhaul
Fine Dwarven Craftsmanship
Elven Scenery
Dain's Fixes
Qwinn's Ultimate DAO Fixpack
Awakening Silverite Mines Bugfix
Awakening endgame cutscene fixes
Awakening Riot Scene Persuade Fix
COSMETICS
Leliana (Inquisition Edition)
Morrigan (Inquisition Edition)
Cookies for Sten
Unique Face Textures for Companions
Crow Assassin's Armor for Zevran
Elf update
Qunari update
Tattoo Cosmetics
Mulderitsme's Brows
Mole and freckle textures
SJC's Skin Tones
Pretty Eyes
Big Brown Eyes
A New Freckled Skin Texture
HQ Eyebrow Stubble and Scalp Hair Replacers
Universal Voices
Bow Replacer
No Helmet Hack
Tranquil Tattoo
Grey Wardens of Ferelden
The Hairald of Andraste
GAMEPLAY
The Rescue at Ishal
Redcliffe Village Siege Immortal NPCs
Camp Merchant Chest
Grey Warden Powers
Sleep Until Dawn
Complete Bi Overhaul
Talent Books
Change Your Hair and Face Anywhere
Lock Bash
Skip the Fade
Madd Gift Guide
Gift Guide - Awakening
Extra Dog Slot
Expanded Inventory
SarahCousland's Romance Mods
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@sasheneskywalker i love when you enable me to ramble about things because oh my god do i have thoughts.
so recently, i made a post discussing the phenomena of DC x DP and DC x MLB crossovers and why they exist and part of that post was discussing how largely speaking, at least half, if not more of the Batfamily fandom doesn't read the comics. if they interact with canon DC material, it's adaptations that are their own sequestered universes and oftentimes not remotely comic accurate or seeking to be. the most obvious example is the Young Justice cartoon. i'm adding a cut to this post because it just got so long i'm so sorry.
a lot of times, when people are discussing the "why" of this oversaturation of fanon-only fandom, they blame Wayne Family Adventures. and i think, to a point, i agree WFA is responsible for a boom in this fandom. but as someone who's been in the fandom long before we had WFA, to me it's the other way around. WFA was DC's way of meeting the demand for this easy-to-get-into, easy-to-consume content about the Batfamily that predicates itself on the comics just enough to be vaguely the same characters, but has a more sitcom, slice-of-life sort of vibe so DC could profit off of this section of the fanbase that otherwise wasn't consuming its primary material. and well, it's definitely worked. not only that, but i have a weird theory that the decline in the MCU also led to the rise in the Batfamily fandom. when you consider the fan content that made the MCU popular within fandom, it's that 2012 "they all live in Avengers Tower and Thor is eating poptarts and Clint is in the vents and there are movie nights every Friday" sort of vibe. those were the fics that were a hallmark of the fandom. and as the MCU has strayed from well... quality content in general, but specifically well-thought-out crossover content where characters can have their own arcs but also exist in a wider story where they clearly care about each other, that fandom was sort of homeless. so where do you go, if you like a superhero found family where you can have villains for angst but also stick them all in one big family-like home for silly crack and have a plethora of options for gay ships? well. you go to the Batfamily. if you write a crack/fluff Batfamily genfic with silly vibes and low stakes instead of say, a fic about a very specific comic issue even if it's a popular comic, you're *going* to get more traction for the former. because the fanbase largely just isn't reading the comics.
and i feel... complicated about this. because on one hand, Don't Like Don't Read has been a tenet of my fandom experience. i'm very pro-fandom and that includes fandom content i don't like. and to an extent, i do think this sort of should apply to Batfamily fanon. i enjoy having my moments with other comic purists, giggling over exceptionally painful OOC headcanons or even facepalming in pain over some content but it is on me to not interact with that content. you don't make fandom a better place by being hostile to fans who engage with canon in ways you don't approve of. and frankly? we as comic readers are not going to get non-comic fans to read the comics by being asshats to them. no one is going to want to pick up any comic if we get a superiority complex about it. and also, i feel like we're all lying to ourselves a little bit insisting comics are so, so easy to get into. they're not. we can just all agree, they're really not. i've been single-handedly helping my sister get into comics, specifically Wonder Woman and no matter how simple i make it, i watch her get frustrated trying to understand what pre-Crisis and post-Crisis and New-52 and Flashpoint and all these things mean and what a retcon vs a reboot is and what a Crisis Event is and what the hell Diana's current backstory even *is*. sure, you can give someone a beginner list of comics to start with and slowly dip their toes in the water but sooner or later, *something* is going to confuse them. comics as a medium straight up aren't going to be everyone's cup of tea. and if someone *just* wants to read silly fluffy fanfiction about the Batfamily, i can't entirely begrudge them for not wanting to take the hours and hours out of their day to understand this medium. it's not an accessible medium to get into. "read this and this, but this run is out of print and this run wasn't collected in trades at all but also make sure you read that event in order and this is a good comic but the backstory in it is retconned and you *have* to read this it's so important but it's also really bad because the author kind of sucks" sounds. ridiculous for someone who like. just wants to read some stuff about Nightwing. sometimes, we all make reading comics sort of sound like a chore, not a hobby.
so my point is, i do extend some grace to Batfamily fanon for existing. i think my biggest gripe is, as i said in my other post, misuse of tags (if you're not creating content about comics, maybe you don't need the comics fandom tag on Ao3, just the all media types umbrella tag) and my far bigger gripe: when panels are taken out of context to support fanon only headcanons. if i could impart *anything* onto the Batfamily fandom as a comic fan it'd be this: if you haven't *read* the comic, don't spread the panel. if you don't even know what comic it's *from*, don't spread the panel. it's fine to use comic panels to discuss your headcanons, but so often i see someone spreading a comic panel from a comic they haven't read, and when asked where it's from, they can't source it. a silly example that comes to mind is a post going around, taking a panel where Dick, in his internal monologue goes "here comes the sun. do do do do." and the post is claiming it's from him getting buried alive. when that panel comes from Nightwing (1996) #140, and he gets buried alive in Nightwing (1996) #127, two completely different moments frankensteined together. if you're going to not read the comics, that's completely fine, but unless you're sure of the source and the context, panels shouldn't be spread around. i'm sick of this specifically happening to Red Robin (2009), with ppl claiming Tim has totally killed people because he blew up some of Ra's' bases, when those panels within context, make it clear he gave everyone time to escape. and in a later arc in that very comic, Tim grapples with the idea of murdering Captain Boomerang, and *specifically chooses not to*, because he doesn't agree with murder, even against the person who has hurt him the most. if you'd like to write fanfiction where Tim is pro-murder and has done some sketch things, i'm totally on board and would probably like to read it. but there's no need to pretend it's canon from a few panels you saw out of context.
beyond that, i think it's not *entirely* correct to say that fanon is harmless. whenever i see very WFA-positive posts, they often default to the argument that WFA is fun and silly, and comic fans are killjoys for not liking it. which. i think is complicated because the issue is, WFA and fanon don't exist in a vacuum. if you like WFA power to you, i don't think it's the worst thing ever, but i do think it's degrading to these characters because honestly? they feel incompetent in the webtoon. it's one thing if WFA was solely a slice-of-life sort of deal, just having silly episodes where Bruce is taking on a PTA mom or they're all fighting for the last cookie. but when WFA attempts to take on more serious plots with these characters, it *fundamentally* falls flat in understanding them. i get it, Bruce comforting Jason having a panic attack because a noise reminded him of the crowbar felt cute in a microcosm, but i'm so serious when i say that storyline destroyed how like. half of this fandom understands Jason Todd's relationship to his trauma. it doesn't understand how he reacts when he's triggered, what coping mechanisms he seeks out, and how he would handle Bruce comforting him. even if i can believe for a brief moment Jason *would* be triggered by something like that, him running and trying to hide and then getting a hug from Bruce to make it okay is just. painful. WFA needs everything to be wrapped up in a nice, neat little bow. so even when it starts to tackle interesting concepts, it makes them fall flat with its need to be soft, low stakes, hurt/comfort. there was a two-parter episode that dealt with the complicated mutual hatred/jealousy between Tim and Damian that *almost* really interested me because for once, it felt like the webtoon wanted to explore canon messy dynamics. but of course, it had to be fixed with one conversation and a hug. you don't mend the *years* of issues these characters have like that. WFA isn't in character because these characters are hyperbole cartoonified versions of themselves to fit within the medium and be a cute happy family.
because that right there, is the crux of it. the Batfamily fanon seeks to simplify the Batfamily and force them into a nuclear family. there are so many fantastic posts on here discussing how the nuclear family-ification of the Batfam is eroding decades worth of complex histories so i won't go too far into that. but what i will say is that there's this need, in the Batfamily fandom, for the Batfamily to exist as a unit. they are a *family*. (honestly i think calling it the Batfamily is a misnomer and has been for years but we're in too deep now.) they exist to each other first, and any teams or friends they have come secondary to this family unit. you can *specifically* see this demonstrated in what headcanons are becoming popular these days. i have an entire lengthy meta in my drafts about how i *loathe* the "the Batfamily meets the Justice League" genre of fanfic because it makes no *sense*. in order to have this genre of fic exist, you must operate under the assumption that no one in the League, or adjacent to the League, knows the Batfamily exists and are thus utterly shocked to discover Batman has kids. and to make *that* work, you have to strip *every single Batfamily member* of such important dynamics and friendships so you can lock them all in Gotham for their whole lives. Dick can't have the Titans, Tim can't have Young Justice, Duke & Cass can't have the Outsiders, Jason can't have the Outlaws, Damian can't have the Supersons, Babs can't have the Birds of Prey, and so on. because if they had these relationships, they would be known to the League. the Batfamily fandom doesn't care about this, it's just "silly fanfiction", it's not trying to be serious. but how can you say you like Dick Grayson as a character if you don't understand the Titans *are* his family? at some points of his life, moreso than the Batfamily even is. it is constantly repeated to us in most comics with Dick how much the Titans mean to him. he *needs* them to be who he is. the same extends to every other Batfamily member, most of which have been full League members at this point. but in fanon, that doesn't matter. the Batfamily are a sequestered unit first, and all of those side relationships are secondary and easy to toss away, if it makes your fanfic work better.
and because they have to be a unit first, you have these forced relationships that dump years of actual canon material for the sake of making them get along. the Batfamily fandom has its favorites and well. it's no secret it's usually the boys. Jason and Tim by *far* stand out as fandom faves so, their dynamic is a heavily explored one. it does matter that in canon they don't tend to get along and especially don't see each other as family. what matters is that you can push dynamics onto them. and so fanon gets all twisted up about which Robin Tim actually idolized as a kid (Dick) and what member of the Batfamily is pro-murder but still an older sibling figure to him and looks out for him (Helena, or if you want the dynamic of once tried to harm Tim but they've reconciled, Jean-Paul) in favor of who's the most popular. Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian are always going to be the standouts for popularity, but it's specifically Jason and Tim who are getting fanonized the most. and that's because really, we don't have much canon content of Tim that *isn't* the comics. for Dick you've got Young Justice (tv), for Damian you've got the DCAMU, for Jason you've sort of got the Under The Red Hood movie, but Tim sort of lingers in this limbo. (yes, he's in Young Justce (tv) and Titans (live action) but in neither is he the main character nor given much depth) so, he gets a *lot* projected onto him and has become fanonized. and even with Jason's animated movies, you don't see him interact with Tim, so people build it from the ground up how they want to see it, disregarding of canon comics. i think it's what makes him so popular in the first place- he's malleable into whatever you want or need him to be.
and of course, the fanon ignores other characters in the Batfamily it doesn't know about. i feel like you could create a tier list of Batfamily characters by their popularity, going from the fandom main characters: Tim, Jason, Bruce, Alfred, Dick, Damian. to the underrated: Steph, Duke, Babs, Cass. to the forgotten about unless they're convenient for a story: Kate, the Foxes, Helena Wayne, Carrie, Selina, Harper Row, Maps, Minhkhoa Khan. to the absolutely unknown: Helena Bertinelli, Jean-Paul Valley, Onyx Adams, the Clovers, Julia Pennyworth. it's not lost on me that the ignored characters tend to be women and people of color. which is both a canon and fanon problem, DC will continue adding interesting characters to the Batfamily, play with them for a few years, then drop them to default to the "Batboys" again. and it's a vicious cycle of the fandom only caring about the "Batboys", and thus people entering the fandom via fanon osmosis won't have content about the other characters, therefore, they won't be interested in those characters enough to create it, and it's just this ouroboros consuming itself, no matter how much canon content we have of these other characters. and it's ridiculous just how large the Batfamily is becoming because of this, which is why i'm a pre-Flashpoint fan, because then the Batfamily was contained enough to actually feel like a family with every character having nuances relationships with each other, but i digress because those thoughts could be their own post.
and the thing about fanon is it doesn't exist in a vacuum. DC has started turning the comics to accommodate for what fans are asking for, because fans will beg and beg for content they're not going to consume. Tim Drake: Robin had Tim as a coffee drinker because that's the fanon accepted headcanon. and the resolution of the recent Gotham War arc was for Bruce to buy this new manor for everyone to move in and call him. nevermind that most of these characters have their own homes and have zero reason to be moving in with Bruce. Tim had his marina in Tim Drake: Robin, Dick has Bludhaven, Cass and Steph have their little side of town in Batgirls (2022), and so on. these characters are being forced together as a unit, as one big happy family living together, to appease what non-comic fans want and it's damaging comic relationships. Robin: Knight Terrors saw Jason and Tim team up and working together, which i've seen varying opinions on but i personally despised. their interactions made zero sense for any of their canon history, but it appeases them being this close sibling relationship that fanon acts like they are. also the fears they faced in their respective knight terrors didn't make sense for either character and *only* worked as a moment of bringing them together so they could reassure each other and have this weird dreamscape bonding moment. the canon is bending itself to the will of fanon rather than building on the pre-existing complex relationships. Tim barely even gets along with his most important team in Dark Crisis: Young Justice because it seems the only important relationships the Batfamily can have is with each other. and when we do see them outside of the Batfamily, it only seems to be to relive the glory days like with World's Finest: Teen Titans, instead of developing them as they currently exist. this isn't recent in the comics, it feels like you can trace it back to the New-52, but it does feel a *lot* worse over the recent years. WFA is fine when it exists in its own bubble, but the simple truth is, DC content never exists on its own. the adaptations will reflect back onto the comics. (the damage the Young Justice cartoon has done to some characters should honestly be studied) and so it does frustrate me a bit when fanon-only or adaptation-only fans act like we're being nothing but killjoys for being frustrated with this. since they don't read the comics, they don't see how the comics are suffering as a result of this.
people argue about what's out of character for the comics they don't even read. i'm sorry, but "bad dad Bruce" is consistently canon. that man is just kind of shitty. when you take someone who has the drive he has, who has this need for the Mission first, who needs a teenager in spandex next to him to keep him off the ledge, that guy is sort of going to be a shitty father figure. he just is. not on purpose or with malice, but when you compare him to any other dad in a big DC family, he sure takes the cake. it's why characters like Oliver Queen tend to *really* fucking hate Bruce for how he treats his kids. Bruce loves fiercely, but he doesn't do well with putting that love first. and his love is a controlling one, he is very particular about controlling how others in the Batfamily are "allowed" to operate. it's what drives the wedge between him and Dick, it's why Steph is never a true daughter to him. (besides the reason of her needing to be a love interest to Tim first, anyway-) i've never understood the massive outcry of people reacting to Bruce kinda being shitty in comics they're not reading. there are some moments that get ridiculously OOC with how cartoonishly evil he is (the whole Gotham War arc and that... complicated mess with Jason) but largely if you want sitcom loving nuclear father Bruce, you have to accept that is a fanon thing, not a canon one. the Batfamily being a nuclear family in *general* is fanon. most of the "Batkids" don't actually see Bruce in a particularly fatherly light and begging for moments where he calls them his kids or they call him dad outside of incredibly specific circumstances is just OOC.
it's getting harder and harder to exist peacefully in this fandom it feels like, if you don't comply to the standard fanon has set. i'm happy people are having fun with their blorbos, even if in ways i dislike, but that "harmless fandom fun" does ripple it's way back to canon, eventually. so i end up pretty tangled with my feelings because are fans at fault for DC making these poor decisions? probably not, but it certainly feels like an unfortunate cause-and-effect situation whether at the end of the day, nobody is happy. and of course, i know some fanon-only fans are striving to be more canon accurate and care about canon dynamics more than others, but for them it's always going to be an uphill battle with the above-mentioned out-of-context panels thrown around and ever-pervasive fanon overtaking anything that's truly seeking to be canon compliant. so really, it sometimes feels like we're all losing.
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There was a day, a day where there was nothing that needed to be done, nobody to meet, not meetings to schedule, nothing to fight.
A rare, rare day for one Kevin the cat.
As the second in command of his Familia, who the Head delegates most of his responsibilities due to not wanting to do that at all, it is unusual that he no longer has much to do anymore.
With a pretty efficient system in place for each and every division to have an executive and their own second in commands who will soon take their place. It leaves Kevin with not as much to do anymore nowadays, most things being taken care of by other cats.
A meeting between the Familia Heads wouldn't be for the next few moons, and there isn't anyone around for him to fight.
So what does he do, exactly?
Snuggle up to gramps of course!
===
Danny doesn't mind Kevin invading his personal bed and personal space, as he has done it quite often and will most likely continue to do so for the rest of his immortal life most likely.
It seemed to be a pretty slow day, if his observations served anything. Nothing significant was happening, and the overall vibe was calm and slow.
A good day, a rare day, seeing the normal chaos that usually occupied this warehouse. Perhaps asking Selina to buy the surrounding ones proved effective.
Either way, it was a nice day.
Laying down, doing nothing except watching Tv and not really fighting the sleep when it came. He was drowsy, about to close his eyes and fall into a dream.
Then everything disappeared.
He snapped to awareness very quickly, feeling the familiar weight of magic in the air and what was most definitely the pull of summoning. Which is weird, because not many would summon him, most go for the King, which is Pariah Dark, and not the Prince, which is him.
Oh well, whoever summoned him is most likely some teens or adults who had nothing better to do than get together and try to summon paranormal entities and demons or such and such. He would take some of their food for summoning him, and be on his way.
Or at least that was what he thought.
Apparently, he was summoned by a genuine cult this time. He would take teens and adults with nothing better to do, as well as that one time he was summoned by wizards and got turned into a cat over being summoned by genuine cultists any day.
It's just, not for him really.
They did, however, do their research. Very powerful wards that was built to keep whatever was summoned in, that whenever he tapped on actually hurt him.
Drawn with the extract of blood blossoms for ghostly beings from the infinite realms.
A red mist flowed around the room, one that made Danny's lungs felt as if they were on fire and withering all at once.
A mist made from Blood Blossoms.
To top it all off, there were multiple Blood Blossoms scattered throughout the place, most of which were around the circle that summoned him. It felt like someone brought a hammer to his skull and kept pounding, his muscles felt taut and like jelly all at once, barely keeping him standing on his own paws as his eyes stung from the mist around the room and from the Blood Blossoms themselves.
Whoever this was, they knew their stuff, and whoever this was, decided that going overboard was far better than underboard.
He thinks he heard one of them speak, but he couldn't quite make out whatever was said from the ringing of his ears. Eventually, he had to fall, his eyes struggling to be kept open.
He should turn back into a living cat, get out of his ghost form. But he couldn't, the willpower necessary to do so slipping out of his grasp and instead being replaced by pain, pain, and even more pain. Even the very magic in the air was against him, whatever intent those who summoned him imprinted upon it was made to specifically weigh him down, as if gravity itself were his enemy, to go against him at every turn.
Weaken him.
If he could, he would laugh, but he's in far too much pain to do so. In all of his 150 years of existence, he never expected to encounter something like this. Something this strong.
He wondered, if in all of Pariah Dark's infinite power, if he would be able to stand up to something like this. Perhaps he would, infinite power would let him be able to stand up to something like.
Infinite power, while weakened, is still infinite.
But he, Danny, Prince of the Infinite Realms, did not have infinite power. With his title came a recognition of his raw power, of his ability, and given him political power almost unmatched as he was one of the few that reigned over infinity.
But that was mostly it, perhaps a bit of boost to his power, and maybe a distinct signature due to his newfound status. But not much else.
And is this what it granted him? An end, where he was stripped away from comfort, from his home, from his Familia, where each and every breath he took burned and withered. Where his limbs failed him, where his own power was useless due to his willpower being drained by overwhelming agony.
He would not die, no. For he is incapable of death.
Yet that makes it even worse.
Would he spend an eternity like this? Trapped with nothing but overwhelming pain for company, becoming intimate with it as it raked its hands through his fur, under his skin, between each strand of muscle and piercing his brain?
He doesn't know, and that scares him.
===
The Justice League, with help from a few members of Justice League Dark, appeared to prevent the summoning of the Ghost King, known as a tyrant who enslaves worlds and a being of infinite power.
What they found, however, was not the Ghost King. But instead, magicians surrounding a circle in a room of red mist, in the middle of the circle a passed out, glowing white cat floating via magic.
They saw it as preparation to summon the Ghost King, perhaps the cat was a sacrifice? Regardless, they went in, and fought. Eventually gaining the upper hand due to have far more powerful members than just magical practitioners.
The cat, without aid from magic, fell to the floor, and Zatanna was quick to dispel the summoning in case it was in the process of calling forth Pariah Dark from beyond the veil. They took the cat back with them, for surely it had some kind of importance if they were using it for their summoning.
Later on, Constantine would choke as he recognized the significance of the cat, a signature quite similar to that of the King of the infinite, yet different.
They weren't just offering any old cat to the Ghost King, no, they were offering him his Prince, and if the look of how they handled it was any indication, it was planned to use said Prince as a bargaining to get the King into their servitude of some sort.
===
Meanwhile, back at the Familia.
All hell has broken loose, what semblance of order there was broke, the head was gone, missing. Not even the second in command, who was with him the longest, had a clue where or what happened to him.
He was there one second, gone the next.
Not many stays calm about it, the ones who do mostly trying to calm down the kittens after the panic of so many other grown, adult cats.
Kevin, the second in command and de-facto leader whenever the Head isn't involved. Panicking does not help any of the other cats feel assured.
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