Sideblog - Dragon Age fan/fanfiction blog of a Dreamer & Writer, She/Her, 35, INFJ/Ravenclaw, German in Scotland New friends and messages are always welcome (bots will be blocked)
Fandom: Dragon Age
Chapter: 2/?
Rating: T
Summary: You are the Researcher, sent back in time by a spell to uncover a rebellion. You wake up in the body of a man who has to comply to the law of the First (an arranged marriage between two firstborn sons), but decision is up to you.
Read on AO3
Introduction to the series
Thedas
Play as Max Fitzsimmons, a two-handed warrior,
You have been trained by your sister despite being chosen for an unusual engagement to secure the peaceful future of your tribe. In order of this arrangement to be successful you have been travelling with your sister and the tribe’s best wishes to the stone formation of Cerwyn.
Spending the night under the stars in the human colonized sandy desert continent of Thedas, Max woke up and let the seeds of his ancestors run through his fingers. A mild breath of the wild carried them on, while the restless nature of the young man was forced to stay.
“Blight be damned.”
“Max, please stop moaning”, the gentle voice of his sister spoke at his side, “All of the Alamarri clans are forced to follow the treaty, or we will be hunted like traitors.”
“The North has always been our invader and the shadow leader was the last to unite us to stand against them. The new sun leader is weak and now each settlement must pay the price he agreed with the Northerns. Two men, and no children to come from them to support our tribe”, Max commented bitterly while clenching his fist.
“We women fight, you men serve.”
Her hand covered the anger of her brother before he slapped her away and turned his eyes to the tents in the distance.
“Another way of destroying the people. Does the sun want to lay with a man himself or serve his new master? For all we know, it could both be true and those who practise magic have corrupted his mind.”
At his side she sighed and rose to pack. The few belongings consisted of food, fire stones to spark the flame for communication and signals in the sky, a healing potion, and a blunt weapon for each of them. While she grabbed the bag and her sword, Max took his axe while keeping his eyes on the horizon.
A pair of men was walking towards them and carried the silver banner with the black battle-axe.
DECISION 1) Accept you fate
2) Refuse to obey
{You choose Option 2}
“The Alamarri will never be free until the sun turned red by the forces of his abandoned people. Here is to a new leader reuniting us and rescuing from the grip of the North.”
“This is treason, brother”, exhaled Robin before pressing her lips together in attempt to stay quiet before the arriving tribe’s men.
Fandom: Dragon Age
Chapter: 1/?
Rating: T
Summary: You are the Researcher, sent back in time by a spell to uncover a rebellion. You wake up in the body of a man who has to comply to the law of the First (an arranged marriage between two firstborn sons), but decision is up to you.
Read on AO3
Introduction to the series
Thedas
A distance voice reaching through the darkness:
“You are him!”
A light flashed and before your eyes a triangle standing on one end is drawn with two wave lines crossing it horizontally.
Mentally you drew the symbol when it began to fade, replaced by the dawn of a new day. Your view to the horizon was uninterrupted as you saw the landscape of a desert. Nature underneath your bare feet was soothing, yet you imagined hearing an unlikely sound with every step.
Like walking on a burning ground, you turn around and took a path towards a small settlement bracing the wind across the desert. Tents around a fireplace were decorated with wood carvings on large bars lowered into the ground.
Among the faces of birds and other animals were letters which gave your tribe its name. An outlandish word of a civilisation before you.
Fitzsimmons
The word is carved in small letters on the outline of an eagle’s eyeball.
You watched the carving until you felt a hand touching your shoulder. An elder of your tribe stood behind you, drawing your attention to smoke signals across the desert. A sigh exhaled with the realisation that the day has come you have to leave your tribe.
“I don’t remember, has this been done before?”
The tribe’s elder looked at you and shook his head.
“The shadow leader made it a law to all tribes. A promise of peace for one chosen one to form a union of hearts with another tribe’s chosen. You will leave us today, Max Fitzsimmons, and accept the hand of Carl on this auspicious day. Keeping the peace of our tribe and ensuring our future.”
He touched your shoulder, as they sank lower.
It was time to say goodbye to your tribe and leave your previous life behind you. A group of playing children did not pay attention to the event, while the elders see you off. Waving hands and good wishes followed you as you turned away and let the sand take you to new paths.
You focused on the smoke signals, when you heard your name and get run over by a young woman. You rolled in the sun and came to rest on your knees, staring in her face. Her dark eyes are filled with tears while she pressed her hand on her chest, over her beating heart.
“I am with you, brother. I won’t leave your side.”
You nodded and your forehead rested against hers as you took in the last moment of home.
You are the Researcher and this is your first attempt in catching the thief who broke into the Grand Library in Tevinter.
Your Magister has provided you with a spell which takes you back in time to the bannermen of King Maric in order to find the connection of one family to the heroes of Ferelden, but only with the right decisions will you make it to the end and stop the threat for Tevinter.
What will you have to report to your Magister at the end?
Voiceover: Oh good, you have come. I was waiting for help.
<Black screen changes to a library>
Voiceover: Welcome to the Grand library. I’m glad the Magister is finally taking me seriously. It has come to several break-ins now and its always the same section. These rebels were looking for something in the history section, but the Magister has waited too long.
<Burned part of the library>
Voiceover: This was our section on the South of Thedas and their history. Decades of war and now the Sky opened. They have challenged forces beyond our compare, now… something is coming.
<Voice shows you a letter>
Voiceover: But the rebels must be looking for something, something we have to find before them. They lost this during the break-in, a day before the fire.
Hero – Champion – Inquisitor
Lovers Family. Before
I spent the night researching the South and I think I know what they are looking for.
<move to a book of Heraldry>
Voiceover: The Hero, the Champion, and lately, the Inquisitor, were men and women at the centre of important events in the history of the South. The Magister thinks the supporters of the Inquisitor could be involved in the fire.
Someone is infiltrating our country and we are not as secure as we used to be.
<opens book, reveals burned pages>
Voiceover: To understand the South and stop an invasion, we must know what they look for. The South knows names of the heroes and what they have done, but our knowledge of them is incomplete.
What was before them must have to do with the fire.
<walking to a half-burned tapestry, showing two men opposite each other>
Voiceover: These were the two houses involved during the civil war of the South, when King Maric of the South gathered his army. It was found in a raid and brought here, but the heraldry of the two houses is gone.
Maybe they look for someone from these houses to lead the rebellion against us. It is a land where magic is forbidden, and demons fall from the Sky.
<hands you a scroll with a wax seal and a deck of cards>
Voiceover: I have listed the potential houses, and a spell from the Magister himself. You are chosen to find the information that is lost here.
The ingredients will last for 16 tries, but don’t think that is much. You have 30 families to investigate.
<hands you a key>
Voiceover: The Magister has given you the right to enter the Grand Necropolis for this task. I must admit, I have tried it. My wish to end this destruction of the library let me rush into it.
He sighs.
I have wasted the first of 16 attempts and learned nothing, but… I know what the spell will do.
<Grand Necropolis Entrance>
Voiceover: You will relive time as one of the King’s vassals. The heir to a bannerman who was betrothed to another man. It was the law of the mad Queen, King Maric’s mother. The young kingdom was new and unstable. Alliances had to be formed and heirs to first born had to be avoided to save Maric’s line.
<enter the Grand Necropolis>
Voiceover: Find the pair of lovers that, despite natural law, achieved the impossible and uncover the connection to the heroes that the rebels are looking for. Anything and all is at your service as we must save Tevinter at all cost.
<break the seal of the scroll>
Hi Player.
As Yuletide’s bells are ringing, you have been chosen to the Tevinter Imperium, the rightful ruler of Thedas, from the meddling usurpers of the South. These peasants are out of their minds to challenge us, but over centuries they have raised heroes and spymasters, making them believe they have been chosen for greatness.
These thirty houses have stood against us, helped Maric to create a kingdom, that was not approved, and dared to blame us for their demons, and remained loyal to his son Cailan.
They twisted history in every turn and what came before the Dragon Age has lost all truth for them. You will encounter traitors, mages, knights, demons, and spirits – and occasionally dragons.
But you are Tevinter!
The librarian did a test tun, and failed, you must not make the same mistake. What we know of these families and the three heroes is, that they could only have heard of each other in tales – Origin, Kirkwall, and the Inquisition.
If you reach the last, you will find me helping you, but I cannot help you before.
The Tevinter Imperium relies on you!
I have chosen you because you yourself can be of many faces. You might have been a mere researcher, but you can be more.
Your house, your family, your Imperium – and your magister – are requiring you to find the rebellion within these houses of the throne.
Do not try to fail me.
The Magister
The only name the librarian was able to recover is this. Hawke.
Follow this information and good luck.
<scroll closes>
<brewing potion>
<magic illuminates and you begin shuffling the cards in the light>
<two cards illuminate in a magic flame>
Pop-up
! Tutorial Info !
Dear Player
Since this is not actually a playable game, the choices have been picked for you, since the alternative would have been stuck [we had this before with other stories].
Challenge wise, the writer has also cheated since the two kings of the challenge requirements have been degraded, which is hopefully generously overlooked. The writer has, by good will and lore, however given the king a male lover.
Wait… lore, you say?
Well, here is the second time the writer cheated. Unable to come up with a whole world to build from scratch while completing a bunch of other projects, the writer chose to pick two fandoms.
Dragon Age
Game of Thrones
{and a bunch of anime shows which shall not be named for now}
After making this choice however… the mind went wild… Mwuahahaha {or how you would write it}
The player won’t need any knowledge of the fandoms, since the challenge stories (1st generation) is a prequel to the Dragon Age games. Should the player gain interest however, we appreciate any love for the fandom.
Now a few last notes before we enter Thedas.
Point 1
The order of the stories has been picked for a reason, and the stories will get more complex with each turn. It is highly inspired by the Dragon Age Keep, a website by roleplaying gaming developer legend BIOWARE, used for the creation of world stages.
Researcher is therefore 15 times able to go to the Magister and say:
“I have uncovered the rebellion.”
What this leads to is on hold, while the whole community is waiting for DA4! And hopefully a trailer drop at this year’s game awards.
Point 2
Along the stories the Researcher is magically transferred into the protagonist role of a man chosen to be engaged to another man by a peace decree of the ruling king {yuletide challenge rules rather than lore fact}, along the way the player will meet more and more familiar faces which return in every story. Like in Bioware games, the aiding team must consist of a mage, a rogue and a warrior, or the King will fail in order to protect Southern Thedas.
To keep it interesting, Researcher goes headstrong in and rushes through the mission in the first try, taking more consideration and investigation from the next attempt onward to make them more lively and adventurous for the player – which is why the writer thinks skipping to the last one just spoils the fun of the rest.
Point 3
Bioware games are choice-based games. Decision matter for companion approval, friendships or rivalries, peace or war, who is king and who to fall in love with etc, etc.
Planning different outcomes beforehand was a huge fun!
But please forgive the writer if time ran out to do all 15. The writer has them all on paper though and the will be posted in time. 😊
Point 4
Unfortunately, the writer has run into an issue. Level design is not easy and the initial story the writer came up with quickly sounded like a specific origin story from the first Dragon Age game, which the writer has played themselves far too often and is a tid bit bored with.
So, instead the writer brought in the anime inspiration and the narrator variant. The writer could have chosen not to share this information, but this document is also vital for the writer’s record to themselves.
Bonus Point
Bioware games are naughty, so have fun.
*Has to be unlocked – and I already inform you of the highest warning label and red flags, should we get to the final story, for the George Martin GoT style.
Point 5
…
Nope, it’s time to begin – before the Dreadwolf takes us.
Rating: General Audiences
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Fandom: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Characters: Original Characters, Original Male Character(s), Original Female Character(s), Magister(s) (Dragon Age)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Screenplay/Script Format, Thedas (Dragon Age)
Language: English
Series: Part 1 of War on Thedas
SUMMARY
Thedas is under threat of a massive rift in the sky. While the South is at war with magic, Tevinter has to face a threat of a different nature. The librarian has informed the magister of a recent break-in and petitioned for aid to uncover what has been stolen and how it will effect the future of the North. // Disclaimer: This part of the series is a prologue to 15 save files and a tutorial of what is about to happen. It is followed by 15 stories uncovering the relation between the break-in, the stolen family quests and the 3 game heroes. This prologue is written as a script, while the stories will be prose. - WILL YOU SAVE THEDAS?
NOTES
November 2022: @lightneverfades and I watched a movie which felt like it was written with the Circle of Magi in mind from DAO, just without the Fade and any side quests - just up and down, and the character ignored all loot.
We decided back then to make a challenge out of it, by writing our own fantasy story with a set of rules we both had to fulfill. My part of the challenge resulted in WAR ON THEDAS.
For fans of Dragon Age I beg for a moment of patience to make sure we are all on the same page of what to expect. Personally I am a huge fan of Dragon Age but LNF has never played the game, so instead of trying to make all of the lore fit, I went for an alternative.
The following part will explain it in great detail but in short:
The spell you as the Researcher are going to perform goes horribly wrong and strips you of all knowledge of Thedas, and the land of all traditions and fractions that we know. With each story the Researcher is transferred into the lives of the HERO, the WARDEN, the CHAMPION and the INQUISITOR - IF the choices have been made correctly. And with each story more of our beloved Thedas is rediscovered.
All this in detail and more questions answered will be discussed as soon as you made it to the Grand Necropolis.
First time back on tumblr in a long time and I hope I haven’t forgotten how it works.
Came back for Dragon Age, my favourite game franchise.
We might have gotten bad news of having to wait at least until next year but I do hope that this means they are about to begin showing us some material of DAD during our year of having to be patient just a little longer.
In the meantime I finally get to share my fanfic series and I hope that it maybe finds one or two readers.
I will tell you more about it soon.
Have an awesome day and may the Maker be with you xD
