SNAKE-MILK

HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED. indie tal-vashoth oc for the dragon age series. written & drawn by raz. under construction. est. april 2018. ( A NEW WAR TABLE OPERATION IS AVAILABLE. ) I am here to swallow fire; to burn cities to the ground. my heart will rise out of its own ashes / with laughter ringing / like gunfire ABOUT / RULES / CODEX / VERSES

[andfire]

fuckthedivine!

“There were few Vashoth in the Circles, though their presence was not unheard of.”  No doubt they suffered even more greatly than the elves, if for vastly different reasons.  “I’m certain our own slavery seems far kinder what what you have experienced.”

❛ you surprise me, bas, ❜  saarebas murmurs, glancing down at the elven woman.  ❛ your kind scarce know of vashoth, or tal-vashoth. ❜  of course, saarebas is neither, but explanations of qunari society don’t roll off the tongue when your words are few and far between. 

she supposes the slavery fiona refers to would be the circles, of which saarebas knows little beyond what she’s heard. a house of bas saarebas, she understands it, where they might learn. contained but unchained. saarebas, on the other hand, were their own circles. walking towers of isolation, each bearing one prisoner. 

❛ yes— perhaps. but we are not slaves. the qun can mistreat, but it does not enslave. ❜

[andfire]

good morning this is saarebas

[lifeinpoetry]

We know Lilith ate the bones of her enemies. We know a bitch learns to love her own ghost.

— Erika L. Sánchez, from “All of Us,” published in Poem-a-Day

[lifeinpoetry]

I am raw fire, amorphous, huge.

I am immeasurable.

— Nazifa Islam, from “Brutally,” published in Boston Review

[andfire]

“Why are you telling me this?”

❛ a warning. nothing more. ❜  

speaking qunlat again— even if it’s only to divulge threats— is a pleasure saarebas has ached for, and she can’t stop the smirk. ❛ i enjoy clarity. you are transparent about being a ben-hassrath spy— i will return the courtesy. so that there is no stone left unturned between us, hissrad. if we are clear on each other’s purpose, then there won’t be a problem.  but if their purpose for sending you south was to exterminate vermin, i advise you to think twice if you value your life. that’s all. ❜

the inquisition seemed happy to believe hissrad’s story, but saarebas knew this one was tricky. she almost certainly couldn’t trust him— but then, saarebas didn’t trust anyone, so it was hardly a problem. if he wasn’t an assassin, then all was well. if he was, she’d crush him as a message for his masters. 

[esuerc]

Only barbarians interrupt tea time

[thequniscalling]

@arishok

[dragonagegallery]

Par Vollen

[lifeinpoetry]

What was I then if not my name?

A child                   of redacted blood.

& sure, I belong                to history.

I belong          to my mother’s fear.

— Hieu Minh Nguyen, from “Nguyễn,” Not Here

[andfire]

it'd be p damn cool if you talked more abt saarebas and her relationship with the qun, maybe?

HEADCANON: SAAREBAS & THE QUN /  ( god i love you for this mimi )

saarebas has a complicated relationship with the qun, to put it lightly. to really explain it i really have to go into her life within it, as religion is usually intensely embedded into experience, so it’s under a cut because it’s long as hell.

Keep reading

[watcherandshielda-deactivated20]

signs that you’re trapped in an unhealthy RP relationship:

you develop fear of shipping with other muses.

you develop fear of shipping with duplicates of your rp partner’s muse

you notice your circle of acquaintances is growing smaller and smaller because your partner wants to be your ‘one and only’

you feel pressured to roleplay certain plots/scenarios that make you uncomfortable or uncertain

your partner ‘guilt trips’ you when you don’t comply with their demands (ooc or ic). 

you feel obligated to login at certain times during the day, otherwise your possessive partner will get pissed. 

your partner shows possessiveness by causing their character to be extremely clingy to your character

they shower you with compliments ( aka. ‘what would i do without you?’. ‘you’re my everything!’) in an effort to keep you dedicated and devoted to them until the end of time

at the slightest offense they’ll vague-post about you, ignore you, or make rude/passive-aggressive comments at you. 

I have fallen into many a toxic RP relationship, and have successfully escaped them all. It’s not easy, but it’s possible. If you need HELP, advice, or even a listening ear, please feel free to message me. <3

[andfire]

it'd be p damn cool if you talked more abt saarebas and her relationship with the qun, maybe?

HEADCANON: SAAREBAS & THE QUN /  ( god i love you for this mimi )

saarebas has a complicated relationship with the qun, to put it lightly. to really explain it i really have to go into her life within it, as religion is usually intensely embedded into experience, so it’s under a cut because it’s long as hell.

as put in canon, the qun is a huge, huge concept which is much more than a religion— it’s a way of life, a society structure, an school of thought— and no individual qunari has a complete understanding of it, save the priests ( and even they, often, do not fully comprehend all of it, or claim to. ) it takes a lifetime of dedication to even come close— most on par vollen grow up only being taught what they need to know, as relates to their role. 

saarebas didn’t manifest magic until she was well-established in life; she was 19 when the dreams started, but it would take five more years for any real proof to show. before any of that happened she was trained as a priestess and tamassran, for she always showed a natural aptitude in the philosophies of koslun that her superiors took to be indications of her intellect. back then she was informally known as eba, a rough translation of the verb to be— they are, she is— as a reflection of her dedication to that philosophy. needless to say, saarebas grew up passionate about the qun, and was in every sense of the word a true qunari. 

and as a qunari she followed the way of things, but as a scholar, as a tamassran - as a carer - she fundamentally disagreed with treatment of saarebas, and always had. these thoughts became more and more prominent over the years as she grew into her position as a teacher and academic; she became a little ambitious and grew in confidence as the years went by, changing small parts of the doctrine here and there, trying to lessen hatred and fear of magic in the children she taught. she wrote papers and books analysing koslun’s teachings, dissecting each canto of the qun, trying to change how the masses interpreted how saarebas ought to be treated. and while some among the priesthood did listen ( whether they agreed or not ) , generally no one with any power was convinced. however, her passion and clear understanding of the qun earned her the title of ashkaari: enlightened. 

in a hot summer shortly after she turned 24, saarebas (then eba) involuntarily set a grazing qalaba, or cow, alight; in fear and panic the animal ran around its enclosure and into the dry grass, which in turn caught fire. shortly after, the entire surrounding farm had been engulfed in flame. horrified, eba turned herself in, and was promptly remade into saarebas, any and all semblance of who she was before obliterated. though not all with magic among the qun have their mouths stitched, saarebas’s was, for she had once been a teacher with a well-heard voice, and of course all now knew those once-compelling words were now simply lies from the mouth of evil. 

but while saarebas was now chained, leashed and silenced, she was still a follower. she still believed in the principles and philosophy she had been born to; it’s just that everyone around her didn’t know it properly. her arvaarad, in particular, did not treat her as the qun dictated he should’ve. she was a priestess, ashkaari, all that— ignorant lowlifes who knew no more of the qun than their job description (and even less than that) were holding her down, and for that she grew angry, yes. more than angry, she was furious. but she didn’t blame or hate the qun; only the misguided way it had been taught. 

simply put, saarebas believes herself to have a better and stronger understanding of the qun than, well, anyone, even though qunari officiates from the mainland all regard her as tal-vashoth. by the time she has escaped and reclaimed it all, she’s deep enough in revelry of her power and identity that it could be argued she doesn’t understand the qun at all. to the main body of the qunari society she’s a degenerate tal-vashoth gone feral. 

saarebas loves the qun. she cares about the qun. as a philosophy she’s dedicated her life to it, but as a strict militarised system, she wants to burn it to the ground. 

she knows that the society itself on par vollen needs the enforced aspect in order for it to work as seamlessly as it did, to embody the philosophy so completely, but on a scaled-down level the systems allowed for too much abuse because every role was based on trust, and individuals were individuals, and no matter how collective a community can become there will always be a faulty cog who will let the others down. saarebas couldn’t have told of arvaarad’s crimes to the re-educators, because she had no mouth to tell them with, and if some in a collective culture don’t have a voice then it has failed as a collective culture.

saarebas had to flee south, where she doesn’t have much more of a voice than she did on par vollen, trade being unfamiliar to her. she came south with a mission of spreading awareness, but southerners hate the qun even more than saarebas does, and not in a nuanced way. they didn’t care if she was tal-vashoth or qunari or a combination of the two with no feelings on southern culture whatsoever and no intention to do harm to them— she was a savage ox shouting at them in a strange language, and nothing else. powerful as she is she can’t save the qun on her own, and she can’t find help for her cause. she’s a refugee, and a one-woman army, and a missionary. the qun is everything to her, good or bad. without it she’d cease to exist. 

that’s how she feels. 

[attolirene-deactivated20160522]

OC Codex Prompts

I’ll be honest, I’m mostly writing this because I’m trying to come up with codex entries for my ocs and this gives me a good way to think about what kinds there are.  but hey, reblog, ask for a number and an OC?  or add your own.  whatever floats your boat.  written with Dragon Age OCs in mind.

an overheard conversation about your OC

a letter written by your OC’s family member

a report written by your OC’s teacher or mentor

a letter from your OC to their love interest

letters between two of your OC’s companions about them

someone describing a time your OC helped them

someone describing a time your OC hurt them

your OC’s doctor/healer talking about their injuries

a future historian’s account of your OC’s actions

a description of your OC by someone who hates them

your OC’s description of their game’s events

your OC overheard while drunk

transcript of an interview with your OC

your OC talking about your favorite quest

a letter to your OC from a companion they haven’t seen in a while

a conversation between your OC and their best friend

a description of your OC’s family by a future historian

[andfire]

« To survive you need an edge. » what if.... from vivienne

saarebas doesn’t need to be told. 

( she is all edge. )

of course, their methods of survival are and always have been different, along with the circumstances that required surviving— but at its’ core, all notions of survival were simply a promise to one’s self that you still have more waiting for you. knowing your place is higher.  putting yourself first.

and, in the specific cases of vivienne de fer and saarebas 2567, it was the knowledge that a leash could be pulled from either end. 

some women were forged in the fires of adversity. 

❛ yes, ❜ saarebas says simply, because it’s the most powerful word she has, and she smiles. 

[hong5mu]

my oc saarebas… i doodled a lot of her in poland 

[andfire]

“Were you close to your mother?”

❛ qunari have no mothers. tamassrans raise us. ❜

under the qun, mother as a concept didn’t exist. saarebas had barely understood what a parent was until she came south, and in all honesty, she doesn’t think she’ll ever really know what it means.

❛ but yes. i was close to my tama, before i was saarebas. ❜ 

tama had been the one who took her aside after her first blood and told her she was to be trained as a tamassran; how she would take the torch from tama, raise the next generations, be a guide in the way of the qun. when her role was announced they anointed her with oils and wound month-incensed ropes between her horns, and after years of struggle and study and diligence, she stood beside her tama as an equal. saw the world through the eyes of the woman who raised her. directed birth and love and care with her own two hands; the hands tama had carved out of the stone block that was her body and its purpose.

that was all before; splinter tastes of what things could have been, before the magic and the mask and the stitches and the silence. tama would probably be disgusted if she saw her now. 

no. tama wouldn’t recognise anything in her to be disgusted by. now, saarebas would just be another tal-vashoth to her. a soul crumbled to dust.

❛ were you? ❜

[girlaltar-a-blog]

anne carson sentence starters.

quotes are all taken from various poems and essays by the queen of aesthetes, anne carson. feel free to change pronouns/add things/etc if needed.

‘ you are not a god. ’

‘ we begin in the dark and birth is the death of us. ’

‘ now you’ve crowned yourself one final perfect time. ’

‘ [ name ] was a monster. everything about him was red. ’

‘ what are we made of but hunger and rage? ’

‘ i finally decided that understanding isn’t what grief is about. ’

‘ honey is the sleep of the just. ’

‘ it is perilous to live past the end of your myth. ’

‘ you remember too much. ’

‘ when i desire you a part of me is gone. ’

‘ humans in love are terrible. ’

‘ under the seams runs the pain. ’

‘ men know almost nothing about desire. ’

‘ sex is a substitute, like money or language. ’

‘ what is the holiness of conversation? ’

‘ —you burn me. ’

‘ i ask this one thing: let me go mad in my own way. ’

‘ sometimes i just want to stop seeing. ’

‘ we’re all mortal, you know. ’

‘ i am the shape you made me. filth teaches filth. ’

‘ why does tragedy exist? ’

‘ you’re a beauty. ’

‘ madness and witchery are conditions commonly associated with the female voice. ’

‘ it made me merciless. ’

‘ desire is no light thing. ’

‘ i do not exist. there is nothing left. ’

‘ gods are stubborn. so am i. ’

‘ we had been seduced into thinking that we were immortal. ’

‘ i am someone who did not die when i should have died. ’

‘ why are you so in love with things unbearable? ’

‘ everything can collapse. ’

‘ someone will remember us. even in another time. ’

‘ my mind is burning. ’

‘ each night, about this time, he puts on sadness like a garment and goes on writing. ’

‘ love does not make me gentle or kind. ’

‘ i can give you reasons not do die. ’

‘ passivity is killing her. ’

‘ they are victims of love, many of them. ’

‘ he is a young god. ’

‘ you touch my soul, you pain my mind. ’

‘ it’s something of a cliché to say that we all think we’re monsters. ’

‘ i fear your sorrows make your tongue grow wild. ’

‘ it’s what they call ‘ecstasy’. ’

‘ a man who can’t die is no tragic hero. ’ 

‘ i want everything. ’

‘ it was like a beautiful dance where your partner turns and stabs you to death. ’

‘ to survive you need an edge. ’

‘ girls are cruelest to themselves. ’

‘ we are dust. ’

bonus! further quotations from award-winning poet and author anne carson:

‘ i am a philosopher of sandwiches. ’

‘ pilgrims were people glad to take off their clothing, which was on fire. ’

‘ english is a bitch. ’

‘ i wish i were two dogs. then i could play with me. ’

[andfire]

❛ i don’t feel any greater or better because of it. ❜

saarebas was not a conversationalist, nor was she a confident commander of the common tongue. she has few words at her disposal, so she takes her time in choosing them.

❛ asit tal-eb, ❜ she says at last, ❛ means ‘ it is to be. ’ you are not greater or better for this new magic, inquisitor, but you are not worse. you just are. ❜