So, it’s an old keeper’s tale that elves have a special connection to the Fade, but mortal bodies weren’t made to hold so much spiritual energy for so long. It’s why the elves have alphas and omegas—ruts and heats. It’s a natural, mortal way to release all of the spiritual build-up.
Other races don’t have that kind of connection, even if they’re mages, so there’s never been any need to consider how a heat or rut might affect them. And abominations are either consumed by the spirit or killed before such a thing can even come to mind.
So of course, no one bothers to think about what might happen now that that Spite has been inhabiting Lucanis’s body for a little over a year.
No, no one thinks about it until the rut is already in full swing.
Read it on AO3!
I didn't actually have anything planned for Lucanis Week, but decided I wanted to do something at the last minute. Luckily, I had a few unfinished fics that I never posted, so I picked something out, spruced it up, and voilà! Have some fun ABO world building featuring Spite accidentally giving Lucanis a rut.
A Cradle for Our Precious Treasure || Chapter 26
Read the whole fic on AO3!
Art by @lycanlanterns
Baoyu is a baby dragon on a mission! Baba and Ajax are feeling bad, but Baoyu knows she can make them feel better. With her mora in hand, she'll get a present for Baba, a present for Ajax, and a present for all of them to share. It may not be easy, but Baoyu can do hard things and her new friends will help her along the way!
Read full chapter on AO3 or below the cut!
Once upon a time, there was a little dragon named Baoyu. Baoyu lived with her Baba and big brother, Xiao, at the top of the hill. She lived in a small house but it had lots of toys! She liked playing with Baba and Xiao Gege and Xianyun A-yi and Lumine Jiejie and Paimon and her new friend Ajax.
---
(ID: Baoyu, a baby dragon, standing with her Baba (Zhongli, adult dragon), Ajax (red fox), Xiao (teal bird), Xianyun (Cloud Retainer, crane), Lumine (yellow fox), and Paimon (Legend of Zelda-style fairy). They all stand on a grassy field with a house in the background.)
One day, Baba and Ajax were feeling kind of sad. They were both really frowny.
“I miss Mama!” Said Baba.
“I’m scared!” Said Ajax.
Baoyu tried everything she could think of to make them feel better. She built block towers for them, and gave them snacks, and even gave them her favorite blanket, but none of it worked!
---
(ID: Zhongli and Ajax look sad. Baoyu tries to cheer them up.)
Baoyu knew what she had to do: She had to find a way to make Baba and Ajax smile! With her mora in hand, Baoyu sets off into the Harbor to find what she needs. The harbor is a really big place, but Baoyu is a brave little dragon, and she can do hard things!
She’ll find a gift for each of them:
A gift for Baba that reminds him of Mama, so he won’t miss Mama so much.
A gift for Ajax that will make him feel brave and remind him that even if things are scary, he can do hard things!
And a gift for all three of them, so that they can all be happy together!
---
(ID: Baoyu stands in a grassy field happily carrying a coin purse, talking to herself about the three presents she's going to acquire. Zhongli and Ajax are panicked in the background, looking for her.
Zhongli: "Baoyu, where are you?"
Ajax: "Babobao! It's time to come out now!)
Baba’s gift is easy: he gets Mama’s favorite flowers!
Mama’s favorite flowers grows in the grass patches just past Dr. Baizhu’s clinic up the big stone stairs. They’re usually closed during the day, but at night, they become the most beautiful flowers in the world!
But the big stone stairs are tall and steep. There are many steps up to the grassy patches where the flowers grow, and climbing those steps is hard.
---
(ID: Map of Yujing Terrace in Liyue Harbor leading up past Bubu Pharmacy to the fields where Glaze Lillies grow. A glaze lily is featured in the lower right corner.)
But Baoyu can do hard things! One by one, she climbs each step. She counts them as she goes, from one all the way up to one hundred, until she makes it all the way to the top!
---
(ID: Baoyu climbs up stone staircases. She struggles at first, but stands triumphantly at the top.)
And there at the top are the grassy patches filled with Mama’s favorite flowers. Baoyu picks a handful. Baba will love them!
Ajax’s gift is a little harder. What could Baoyu get him that reminds him to be brave?
Being brave isn’t easy. Baoyu gets scared all the time, but she has Baba and Ajax to help her be brave.
Baba reminds her that it’s okay to be scared, and Ajax tells her that she can do hard things. But, when Baoyu is really sad and scared, it’s always her blanket that makes her feel better the fastest.
---
(ID: On left, Baoyu picks flowers while Madame Ping (crane) wonders why she's alone.
Madame Ping: "Baoyu? Why are you alone? Where is your Baba?"
On right, Baoyu walks off, thinking about the next present. Madame Ping panics because Baoyu is suddenly gone.
Madame Ping: "Baoyu? Baoyu! Where did you go?! ...I should find Zhongli...)
Oh! She can get Ajax his very own blanket! Then he can always feel brave, even if Baoyu and Baba aren’t around to help him.
Baoyu sets off towards the harbor’s shops in search of the softest blanket she can find. There are lots of shops selling many things. There are spoon shops, and coat shops, and vase shops, and perfume shops, but no blanket shops in sight!
---
(ID: Baoyu walks through the Harbor. Ajax and Xiao run around the harbor in the background, looking for Baoyu but not seeing her.
Ajax: "Baoyu!"
Xiao: "Meimei...")
It seems like no one is selling blankets, but just when Baoyu is about to give up, she sees an old granny knitting at her favorite restaurant.
“Granny, what are you knitting?” Baoyu asks.
“Why, I’m knitting blankets!” Granny says. “It may be warm now, but by the time I’m done knitting, it’ll be cold.”
Granny has finished many colorful blankets, but the one she’s just finished is a bright lucky red, just like Baoyu’s blanket!
“Granny, can I buy one of your blankets?” Baoyu asks. “The red one would make a wonderful present for my friend, Ajax!”
“Hmm, I’m not sure. Red is my favorite color,” Granny says.”
“Oh please?” Baoyu asks. “Ajax has been sad all day and he needs something to make him feel happy again!”
---
(ID: Baoyu speaks to a Granny (owl) about buying a blanket. Granny holds a red blanket and has a pile of blankets of varying colors beside her.)
Granny picks up the red blanket. “Well, since you’ve asked so nicely, I suppose I can sell it to you for ten mora. Do you have ten mora?”
“Yes! I have ten mora!” Baoyu exclaims.
She counts out exactly ten coins, and gives them to Granny with a smile. Granny takes the mora, and gives her the blanket in return.
---
(ID: Ten mora coins, labeled one through ten.)
Baoyu knows he will. With a beautiful red blanket to wrap himself in when he feels scared, now Ajax can be brave all the time, even if Baoyu and Baba aren’t there!
---
(ID: At top, Baoyu runs off, happily. Granny wishes her well. At bottom, Baoyu continues running through harbor, happy with the gifts she's acquired. Ajax, Xiao, Zhongli, Lumine, and Ningguang all panic in the background, still unable to find Baoyu.
Ajax: "Baoyu! Where are you?"
Xiao: "Why can't I see her?"
Zhongli: "Meimei, please come back!"
Lumine: "Should we check outisde the harbor?"
Ningguang: "No sightings from the Millelith...")
There’s just one present left, but what should she get? It should be something that all of them can share, to remind Baba and Ajax that when they’re together, it’s time to smile!
---
(ID: Baoyu runs off right side of page, towards music. Xiao, Lumine, Ajax, and Zhongli's tails are featured in bottom left side of page, along with a brief conversation:
Xiao: "It's getting late..."
Lumine: "Where is she?"
Ajax: "I swear I just saw her run by..."
Zhongli: "Keep looking. She can't be far.")
Baoyu hears a tune. It’s a very happy song, one that makes her want to dance.
That’s it! She’ll get them all a song! They can all dance and play together!
Baoyu follows the music to the edge of the Harbor. The song drifts down from the top of a cliff, just beside the Harbor.
It’s a beautiful and bright tune filled with a guitar and someone singing along. Baoyu goes to the base of the mountain, but she’s too small to see what’s on top!
“Excuse me little girl, what are you doing all the way out here?”
---
(ID: In upper left corner, Baoyu pauses to listen to music. To right of page, Baoyu stands at the base of a cliff, listening to music. A dark, spooky shadow looms over her.)
Baoyu turns around and sees a tall man with long dark hair and a soft fuzzy coat. He smiles at her.
“I heard music, and I want to see what’s going on!” Baoyu says.
“Why, you’re too small to see what’s at the top of the mountain, but I am tall, and I can tell you what’s up there, if you’d like,” the man says.
“Oh, yes please!” Baoyu answers.
---
(ID: On left, a scary-looking, unnamed wolf man with glasses stares forward. On right, the wolf stands beside Baoyu. Both stand on their hind legs.)
“There are two girls up there,” The man tells her. “One plays guitar and the other sings.”
“I wish I could meet them,” Baoyu says. “Their song would be the perfect present for my family! But I don’t know how to get up there, and I’m not sure I could climb it.”
“Well, I know the way up. I can take you there!” The man says.
“Really? Alright!” Baoyu holds out her hand to take his. “Let’s go find the music together!”
“Yes,” says the man. “Let’s go together.”
---
(ID: The wolf and Baoyu walk off hand-in-hand down a path. Glaze Lily petals are scattered in the wind. The red blanket Baoyu bought drags on the ground behind her.)
The End.
---
(ID: The wolf looks over his shoulder with a sly and menacing expression. The coin purse full of Mora lays scattered and forgotten on the ground.)
Regarding his sexual activities prior to the game:
I totally read Lucanis as a person who hadn't had sex with another person on my first playthrough. However, where I diverge from most folks is that I still think he regularly jerks off. I know demi folks who play with themselves, engage in kink, etc. So my personal head canon is that he's a fervent masturbator who regularly puts objects up his ass.
I also love and adore virgin!Lucanis, but I can confirm as an asexual that attraction is not the same as libido, so you can have HIGH levels of horny without it being directed at anyone
and now I'm thinking maybe after the Ossuary that it's like, a way of reclaiming his own body. being in control kind of, and feeling something pleasurable. the man clearly needs the stress relief!
or just a way to feel anything at all, and this is the least destructive possibility. he can't take unnecessary risks or hurt himself bc that limits his use as an assassin, but any intense feeling will do. anything that isn't numb, isn't shut down, a reminder he doesn't have to do that anymore, he's OUT, he has privacy and control and can make his own decisions over what his body experiences
also. I am horny about the possibility of Lucanis Always Being Horny but no one suspects. he doesn't let it interfere with his work, but when he's alone? it's on. the man literally doesn't sleep--and maybe this also helps him stay awake?
anyway, Lucanis edging session interrupting by Rook knocking at the pantry, and he thinks he stop and answer the door without giving it away, but Rook DOES clock him somehow--when??
How big of an organization do you think the antivan crows are?
There are 8 Talon Houses and various lesser/cuchillo houses. But like how big is each house? How many crows and fledglings fall under each house?
If they’re a driving political force in Antiva, and are well known enough to get regularly hired out for contracts by all sorts of clients, then they’ve got to number in the hundreds at the very least, right? Maybe they’re not in the thousands like the Grey Wardens were at their peak, but maybe like 1,000 at the most? Numerous (and strong) enough to deter Thedas’s other nations from ganging up and attacking them, numerous enough to run a casino (The Diamond is basically a casino or club, right?or is it a market?) and a prison (House of Graves) on top of all the contracts, but not so numerous as to count as a standing army for Antiva.
There’s maybe 150-200 crows in the opera house when Illario is giving his speech, but that certainly can’t be ALL of them, right?
I’d guess maybe around 300-500? Large enough to be a known organization, but small enough to still feel exclusive and like the members are specially selected. Large enough to be a strong political force in Antiva, run and maintain multiple large properties where people are kept/gather, and carry out many contracts concurrently (often on high-profile targets), large enough to intimidate other nations, but small enough to not be considered a standing army.
Definitely smaller than the Grey Wardens.
Probably smaller than the Templar Order?
Definitely smaller than the Circle of Magi.
Probably bigger than the Veil Jumpers.
Possibly on par with the Mourn Watch (slightly larger than crows?) and Lords of Fortune (slightly smaller than crows?)
Math below the cut
If we assume the Crows are more or less just Thedas’s mafia, then Wikipedia says that they should probably number in the thousands, actually. Real-world Mafias tend to number in the thousands on the large side (Italian mafias apparently were 6,000-10,000 strong), and in the hundreds on the small side (200 is the lowest number I saw.) Considering Thedas is not as populated as present day-Earth (medieval-ish fantasy setting = medieval-ish population probably. Also blight kills people), I’d say we can easily cut those numbers by half, maybe even a fourth as a starting point.
That gives us roughly 2,500 members at the absolute most to work with. For reference (comparing Thedas’s cultural societal stylings compared to real world art, architecture, and fashion of various time periods) Thedas has a rough population of 350 million.
Each Crow House has a single leader, a handful of masters to handle contracts, a bunch of assassins, and many fledglings (most of whom will die before becoming full crows). Considering the houses function more like guilds than like big families of assassins, each house probably has anywhere from 30-150 members depending on the age and reputation of the house. Talon Houses and those houses powerful enough to rise to the rank of Talon are likely on the larger side.
30-150 gives you enough people to carry out contracts—contracts can hire as few as one crow and as many as a whole house (Zevran mentioned it)—but not so many that it becomes completely unmanageable. A large portion of that number is also likely fledglings, most of whom will die before becoming full crows. We’ll say it’s 1/10 fledglings who survive.
So let’s say of that total number:
1 person is the guildmaster/house leader
5% are masters handling contracts
35% are assassins carrying out contracts
60% are fledglings of various ages, only 10% of which will survive
Out of 150 crows, that means we have:
1 Guildmaster
8 masters
52 assassins
90 fledglings, of which only 9 will survive
Putting our final number of crows at 70 people per house, post Fledgling Hunger Games, on the high end.
8 Talon Houses * high avg crow count (70) = 560 crows
2,500 total crows - 560 talon house crows = 1,940 cuchillo house crows
Doing the same math for the low end, using 300 (low end of my original guess) for the total number of crows gets us:
Low avg crow count per house = 30
1 guild master
2 masters
11 assasins
18 fledglings, 1-2 of which will survive
Final avg crows per house: 16
Talon House Crows: 128
Cuchillo House Crows: 172
Cuchillo Houses: ~11
Talon to Cuchillo crow ratio 1:1.3
Tbh, I like the ratio of the high end better, but 2,500 total crows still feels high considering how all the reasons given at the beginning of the post…let’s math one more time with some middle of the road numbers
Total Crows: 750
Mid Avg Crow Count Per House = 50
1 Guildmaster
3 masters
18 assassins
30 fledglings, 3 of which survive
Final avg crows per house: 25
Talon House Crows: 200
Cuchillo House Crows: 550
Cuchillo Houses: 22
Talon to Cuchillo crow ratio: 1:2.75
I think that works for an average number of crows. Some houses will inevitably be larger while others are smaller, and the actual number of Cuchillo houses is probably higher, but this more or less works, right?
And now I’ve done all the math I needed to do to make this fic work
Assan does not like it when his dad is sick, you guys. Not at all.
They have not left the nest for three days. And Assan is BORED. He has already spent time sleeping on his dad, staring at his dad, bringing his dad yummy things to eat, sharing alll of his favorite toys with his dad, and covering his dad in all the warm, soft things he can find.
But his dad is not any better.
“I’m sorry, Boy,” he says, with a sneeze. “Why don’t you go out and play with Manfred, or Rook?”
That is a good idea. Manfred and their Leader always need someone to keep them occupied or they tend to get in trouble, like curious nestlings.
But Assan has already played with them. He has already played with everyone. He can tell everyone is very satisfied with his performance because they keep shooing him away. And he is boooooored.
There is a knock on the door.
“No better, Davrin?” Manfred’s dad asks in a soothing voice, and sets more of the nasty bottles of liquid on the table that Assan is NOT ALLOWED.
“Ugh,” dad groans from his bed of tatty blankets, griffon toys, half chewed worms, and even a precious gingerwort truffle. “No. Thanks, Emmrich. And Assan is getting restless. He needs to leave the Lighthouse. I’m gonna have to take him.”
“Certainly not,” says Manfred’s dad, and Assan chirps to warn his sickly father that that is the BAD voice. It means NO.
“You’re in no fit state,” Manfred’s dad says. “I’ll take him.”
Assan’s dad sneezes again. “You’re gonna take Assan for a walk?”
All of Assan’s legs stiffen at once. His wings rise in a manner that one might call “predatory.”
WALK?!
“I’m going to Arlathan anyway,” says Manfred’s dad. “As long as you approve of course.”
“Yeah. If you don’t mind.”
“Not at all I rather think it will be—“
Manfred’s dad turns to find Assan ready by the door, already holding his favored stick, his eyes big enough to draw in one’s soul. He is a good boy.
“Splendid,” Manfred’s dad says.
Later, when they come back to the nest, the Leader greets them at the shiny door, “Emmrich…are you okay?!”
“…splendid,” Manfred’s dad murmurs, and Assan agrees. The walk is one big blur of excitement in his mind. He recalls mud, lots of mud, and trees, and cliffs, and flying. He tried to help Manfred’s dad to fly, but he was too heavy, even though he looks skinny, so Assan had to drop him. But he dropped him safely in a pool of water like his dad taught him.
“…I’m just going to…sleep a bath…” says Manfred’s dad and wanders away.
Assan chirps at the Leader to let them know he approves of their choice of mate. Manfred’s dad is very good at walks.
He leaves to check on his own dad. Assan has brought him something that smells very nice and dead and if that doesn’t make him better, nothing will.
I’m gonna try and keep this from getting too sappy but I just received one of the sweetest gifts ever from two of my best friends and it has to do with something I started writing two years ago that’s I’m still really proud of to this day.
TLDR; my lovely friend and often times editor @aiambia gifted me a hand bound copy of my fanfiction series Baby, It’s the Golden Age in collab with my childhood best friend @wolvesandvisions , and my heart is so full.
In 2022, I started writing a short KDA AU fic nsfw fic series based in the 1930s. Around that time my life was kinda meh, I was unemployed and my core friend group was scattered around the country. I wasn’t going outside, barely responding to text messages, and only really sustaining myself wasting my savings having bs delivered to my door. But I was doing what I always did when I felt awful and I was gaming and reading fic and looking at fanart. I didn’t feel like writing anymore or drawing or doing much of anything. That’s about when I started getting back into League of Legends real heavy, specifically K/DA. I always liked K/DA from way back when “Popstars” dropped when I was in college (ask my old roommate I probably tortured her with how much I played that song on our shared TV), but for some reason 2021 to 2022 I really fell into them hard.
I came up with the idea driving back from a friend’s house who lived 4 hours up the interstate from me. It was a fun weekend, but the drive back I was just dreading another week of being alone in my room in my head. I don’t know how the connection got made exactly maybe it was my Spotify playlists eclectic nature bouncing from a KDA song to Billie Holiday but the connection was made. I got so anxious I would forget the whole thing I pulled over into the first gas station I saw just outside of this little ass town and say in the parking lot and jotted every little plot point I could think of into the notes app on my phone. I still have the original note on my phone and looking back it’s a little crazed but it made sense to me at the end of the day. Then after I felt I had something I could work with, I switched to a Jazz playlist on Spotify and busted down the rest the interstate all the home no stops so I could get to my PC and get to writing.
It was not as easy to write as I wanted it to be, I’d written fic all my life essentially. I used to write Naruto fanfic on my shitty little flip up phone in middle school, I didn’t expect to struggle with words. Especially words I was so excited to write, but it was hard and I had to reach out for help (which I hate doing) to a friend of mine from college aiambia. Mandy became a saving grace to this fic, she pushed me out of my head out of my comfort zone got me on call to talks things out and on some days was the only other living person I would have conversations with. We were friends before, but having her as a writing partner made us closer friends in a way that has lasted and made me want to be a better friend to her and a better creative in all avenues.
My life is a lot better now, and this morning I received a very lovely hand bound gift Mandy made for me of the first two entries into my KDA 1930s AU fic series. Mandy and my childhood best friend worked really hard in secret to do this me for and it’s a beautiful gift that I am touched by and inspired by (once again she has inspired me like she always does). Receiving this gift has made me reflect on how grateful I am for the friendships I have as well as made realize…..I need that last entry in the series…😅.
I love you so bad and when @aiambia came at me with the idea I knew it'd just be the perfect gift for you. It was just too perfect, like I knew exactly where to look when it came to getting your character references, and getting to take a minute to revisit/study an aesthetic I know you love was so fun... I also tried something new with the painting style and colors and everything...ended up being such a huge labor of love and I loved working on it while also seeing Amanda's progress shots as she binded the whole thing with her own hands.
I'm genuinely so happy the effort came through and you love it so much it makes ME wanna bawl...you DESERVE IT..!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!
When trying to think of what to do for a secret Santa present (yes i know it’s January. We just do secet Santa reaaaaaalllly late) I knew that @undivineshepard deserved something special. Fandom brought us together as friends, so it only felt right to give you a gift that we sort of worked on together and make it something related to a fandom we love. Getting @wolvesandvisions involved was a no brainer! Who better to do the cover art for this book than your best friend who is also an artist? She helped me sooooo much from doing the art to picking fonts, figuring out where to get the book jacket printed, and even how to lay out some of the pages.
Creatively, you push me as much as I push you. Your creativity and love of heart wrenching stories pushes me to broaden how I write and what I write about. Your art and dedication to improving your style encourages me to come back to attempting drawing at all.
Binding fanfiction is inherently a labor of love for the fandom and media it belongs to and doing so as a gift makes it a representation for how much I love my friend. Making this physical copy of your fics is just another way to say that I love and appreciate you ❤️
A personal headcanon, but I like to imagine that while carrying out particularly dangerous contracts post-DATV, a married Rook and Lucanis would ask Davrin to look after/protect their kids in the lighthouse “just in case.”
And Davrin, known affectionately as “Uncle Davrin” by the kids, would let them sleep in his bed with him if they got scared, or when the days start to stretch on and on and the kids start to worry they’ll never see their parents again. (Davrin reassures them by telling them stories of the time Rook fought an archdemon, or not one but two blighted dragons, and the time Lucanis stabbed a literal god, so it would take a lot more than some bumbling antaam to kill them.)
And maybe, sometimes, other members of the Veilguard would drop by the lighthouse just because they do, and they would help entertain and cook for the kids while they’re there, and Davrin has unique codewords and pass-phrases with everyone to make sure they’re really who they say they are and not, you know, a demon in disguise.
And always, before Rook leaves, Davrin promises he’ll take care of the kids no matter what happens, but nothing will happen, of course, because Rook will come back. They have to come back. And Lucanis is too stubborn to die. Everything will be fine.
And everything is fine, until one night, maybe a few weeks into a contract that was only supposed to take a few days, when Davrin discovers one of the kids has a letter addressed to him. And he reads it, even though he’s not supposed to. Because it’s a will, and Rook and Lucanis have left everything to Davrin, so he can take care of the kids, and he’s named their guardian in bold black letters, and after seeing that, Davrin is never the same again.
So when Rook and Lucanis finally do come back, a little worse for wear, a little bloody, a little bruised, Davrin hugs them. And that’s just how it is.
Davrin’s friendship with Rook and Lucanis just means a lot to me, okay?
Lucanis is 100% the passport dad of the group. He has a color-coded folder of everyone's documents, a pen, a backup pen, and snacks. He’s already memorized the gate number, and honestly, he’s just tired. Tired of all of them.
Meanwhile, Harding and Taash are at the duty-free perfume counter, trying to huff their way into new allergies. "What if I sprayed this directly into my eyes?" "Only one way to find out."
Davrin and Assan have declared war on a vending machine that ate his money.
Emmrich is in the VIP lounge, where he’s sipping a $20 coffee and having a full-blown academic debate with Johanna who happens to be taking the same flight. It’s about something absurd, like "Does the number of airport Wi-Fi bars correlate with societal decay?" Hezenkoss did not come to play, and now the barista is their unwilling moderator.
Neve’s at the bar. She’s on her third martini and halfway through some case files, glaring at anyone who so much as looks like they might strike up a conversation. She’s also definitely pretending she doesn’t know any of them.
And Bellara? Bellara is just gone. Like, not even in the airport anymore. Somehow she’s ended up in a completely different country. There’s a 50/50 chance she’s fine and living her best life, or she’s single-handedly causing an international incident. Wherever she is, she has absolutely no regrets.
I think there should be more titles and ceremonies for the Crows in Dragon Age.
It's a damn shame that we didn't get a formal ceremony when Lucanis was named First Talon. The organization has a clear hierarchy and a house structure which (according to the Dragon Age wiki) imitates the great noble families of Thedas. And what does nobility frequently have?
Titles and ceremonies.
Hear me out:
Titles
I think a Talon's right-hand man should be their "Wing." Now, practically, this can be a sibling, parent, cousin, spouse, child, close friend, etc, but every leader has a second, right?
Where a Talon is the first offense, the the part of a crow which attacks, grabs, and walks, the Wing is a crow's support. Wings move crows about in the sky, controlling how fast or slow the bird moves. Wings are also a more obvious symbol or part of a bird.
For the Antivan Crows, this means where the Talons lead, the Wings support. Maybe they're the face of the house, the decoy to protect their Talon, or maybe they take ownership of training and the fledglings and uplifting the house's status.
I imagine them marked with silver wing pins (for cuffs, lapels, hair) in a style unique to the house. Talons are less obviously marked, given silver masks, similar to the bird masks (the masquerade-style ones, not the stupidly realistic bird head) as a sort of "crown" to wear in more formal settings.
Ceremonies
Pins can be given by a Talon at any time. There may be a ceremony for it, or there may just be a conversation.
But masks? Masks are given at a formal ceremony, an "anointment" if you will. It's a grand affair that involves all of the Talons and their families. In times of relative peace, the entirety of the crows will be invited, though in recent years (given the Qunari invasion, the events of Tevinter Nights, the Evanuris, and the possible blighting of Treviso) it's kept to just the Talons and their family.
The outgoing Talon, or an older member of the house begins the ceremony, calling for someone to take the mantle of leadership. The Talon-to-be answers the call, processing into the ceremony chamber with their family walking behind them. At some point, the Talon-to-be stops, while the family continues forward, taking their places at the head of the chamber as a show of unity.
The Talon-to-be is then presented with blessings from the other Talons. The blessings are both in words and physical representations--the other Talons dress the Talon-to-be in jewels and cloaks and paint as symbols of burden that the new Talon will assume.
Their final stop is kneeling before the outgoing Talon who wears the mask, the crown to be passed down.
The Talon-to-be is presented with a ceremonial knife, the one that they'll use to assassinate their first target as Talon later on. They use that knife to cut their hand and take the final piece of their ensemble: The Crown of the Talon.
The handprint in blood smeared across the face of the mask acts as the contract for the new Talon: they will bleed for the Crows, as the burden of leadership demands.
I used this concept in a fic, and honestly I'm posting this cause it's just such a cool concept to me that I wanted other writers to be able to use it too. There are changes and additions that can be made, surely, but this was too good not to share.
titsay
stormborns
germansingergirl
2087
andulkaphoto
yousharknotpass
