The Inquisitor Branwen Lavellan

OC Dragon Age Inquisition Blog with fanfics upon request. Ask box open! Main blog: hear-her-speak. Avatar art by ChococriHeader image art by froschkuss. Check out my fan fic over on AO3 https://archiveofourown.org/series/1597180

[branwen-lavellan]

Taking requests for one shots!

So, I’ve been having a hard time focusing and feeling motivated to write for my longer fics on AO3. I’ve been thinking about taking requests for one-shots or head cannons.

I write primarily for my own characters in a particular world state. I tend to stay cannon compliant for the most part, and prefer to bend and tweak cannon in the moments that aren’t set in stone. If that sounds like something you’re interested in, send me a request.

Pairings I tend to write for:

SolasX(f)Lavellen

DorianXBull

FenrisX(f)Hawke

AndersX(m)Hawke

AlistairXMahariel

ZevranX(f)Cousland

Cullenx(f)Lavellan

If there’s a pairing you’d like to read that’s not on my list, please feel free to ask. No promises, but I’ll at least consider.

I’m comfortable writing NSFW, but if there’s something I’m uncomfortable about or feel ignorant writing, I might try to work with you to adjust the prompt. No underage or non-con please.

Ask box is open. ☺️

[awaari]

The boys deserve a spa day

[jawsandbones]

someone pointed out to me that fenris and zevran are kind of similar, in terms of their history & upbringing, but their personalities are so different for some reason i see them as more dissimilar than alike. do you think they're more alike or different? and in their similarities where do you think they diverge in how they deal with their past traumas?

Hello anon! Thank you so much for asking me! 

I do feel that their pasts and upbringing are very similar. The way they choose to deal with their personal history and their drama are wildly different. 

Zevran was orphaned shortly after birth. He was raised in a brothel until the age of seven, until he was bought by the Crows. He didn’t join the Crows, he didn’t have a choice. If you bring Zevran with you to the Circle tower and into the Fade, you can see a taste of what his upbringing was like. An orphan, raised in a brothel, bought and sold, but Zevran wants to live as much as he wants to die so he tries to be ‘worthy’ of the Crows. Of the eighteen recruits that went through training with him, only two survived - Zevran, and Taliesen. 

Fenris was born to an elven slave in Tevinter, and had a sister. By all means, he could have even had a happy childhood. That was all taken from him when he participated in a ‘tournament’ to have his mother and sister freed. (”You said you didn’t ask for this, but that’s not true. You wanted it, you competed for it.”)The reason why he fought was lost to him, and anything that came before. He effectively orphaned himself. His master became his whole world and so Fenris tried to be worthy of him. There were likely many experiments, but only Fenris survived. 

Zevran throws himself at the Warden because it’s a chance to be free of the Crows. A chance to die and pretend that it’s not the outcome that he wanted. Unless you’re deep into a romance with Zevran, he never talks about what happened to him and how he feels about it. Any companion dialogue that tries to pry into his past and what he’s done is immediately shut down. With humor and jokes, because it’s easier to shift the topic and chuckle than it is to face it. He lies and laughs because he can barely process his own guilt and depression. It takes him so long to open up to the Warden. 

Fenris wears what’s been done to him like armor. Besides the fact that there’s hardly anyway to hide it - it’s literally embedded in the skin. No you can tell, just from the way he is and acts and how he’ll openly admit he was a slave. It’s noticeable in his idle animations, and the way he stands and runs. He is always looking left and right, over his shoulder. Shifting from foot to foot, slightly hunched over so he can reach his sword easier. He’s afraid. He doesn’t trust his freedom, he doesn’t trust Kirkwall, he barely trusts himself. The first time you meet him, he runs into that mansion shouting, “face me! Danarius!” As if he isn’t scared to death. 

Zevran doesn’t believe himself worthy of love and affection but Fenris craves it like water. Fenris risks everything to find Varania, to find his family. He probably knew, from the moment he first started thinking about finding her, about the risk of Danarius. He states it when he asks Hawke to come along - he believes it’s a trap. But he still goes. He’s spent so long running and lying to himself that he could take on Danarius by himself, but the only time he ever faces Danarius is to get to his family. This thing that he wants so badly betrays him, gives him up to the monster who tortured him, and unless Hawke talks him out of it, Fenris will kill Varania.

Taliesen was the only other recruit that survived with Zevran. They grew up together, trained together, went on missions together and were close friends. They were likely the only friends they had. Family. The two of them probably got each other through Crow training by support of each other. After a year of being free, of being with the Warden, Zevran faces his one and only friend from his horrible past. If the Warden has shown that Zevran is worth more than his guilt, than his regret, than his past, then Zevran will kill Taliesen.

Fenris fought for his freedom. Tooth and nail, he ran. Looking over his shoulder at every turn, not knowing whether or not the stranger on the street is a hunter or not. Every person is a risk, every connection a chain. 

Zevran fought for his freedom. He asked for an impossible task, because death is the only freedom he could see. Keeping a knife under his pillow, not knowing whether or not the Warden might kill him. By leaving the Crows, he passed his chain to the Warden. 

Hawke asks for nothing in return for Fenris’s friendship. They aren’t looking to use him as a bodyguard, a weapon, a mindless beast for their will. They ask him on every job, pay him coin, help him find the freedom he’s looking for. 

The Warden asks for nothing in return for Zevran’s friendship. They never order him to kill some helpless target, they give him a purpose and sense of will he never had. They ask him to train them, give him gifts, help him find the freedom he’s looking for. 

Both Zevran and Fenris initially walk away from the romance. Fenris is confronted by the fact that he isn’t whole and that the shackles of being a slave still rankle around his soul. 

Zevran tries to show affection but can’t put it into words, can’t admit that he is more than a Crow anymore.They taught him not to feel but now he is, and that makes him that orphan again, makes him vulnerable. 

Zevran laughs through his pain. Fenris wears it on his sleeve. Fenris is angry with what’s been done to him. Zevran is miserable with what he’s done. Fenris breaks bottles against walls, Zevran attempts to lose himself in pleasure. They both have found some sort of freedom but doesn’t know what it means or where to go from there. They want connections but fear them, want to be loved but are afraid of betrayal.

And when they’ve put distance between their past and those who held their chains? They both have dry wit, are extremely clever, flirt with ease and with charm, and are able to be themselves. Hawke and the Warden help them make peace with what’s been done to them and help them face the future. 

I find it interesting that they both use the same line when in a romance with the Warden and Hawke - “I am yours.” I think it must have stunned the Warden and Hawke at first. Especially knowing their history. But - they aren’t submitting themselves back into slavery. They give their feelings willingly because they want to, because Hawke and the Warden have earned it. 

They are both incredibly complex and layered characters. If they sat down and talked, I think they’d find they have a lot of common ground. 

[kalaelizabeth-deactivated202103]

[kalaelizabeth-deactivated202103]

Hawke fell asleep during Fenris' reading lesson 😊

[brambeag]

little zev from 2020 !;)

[thebathsofallthewesternstars]

[officecyborg]

love love LOVE how when Fenris is accused of kidnapping this woman’s father, his reasoning isn’t “I don’t know your father” or “I wouldn’t do that” but “I know exactly who your father is and if I’d met him I would have already punched his heart out of his chest like the various corpses littered around my campsite.” we love you Fenris the most valid character in DA

[lethendralis-paints]

Spineless dreamers, hide in churches Pieces of pieces of rush hour buses I dream in emails, worn out phrases Mile after mile of just empty pages

Wrap yourself around me Wrap yourself around me As the needle, slips into the run-out groove Maybe you’ll feel it too Maybe you’ll feel it too 

(Keane - Perfect Symmetry)

[nctinmotion]

Source: This

[shuttershocky-deactivated202512]

Sometimes I think about Red Dead Redemption 2’s development where the devs were begging people to not boycott the game to protest the news about their absurd working conditions because their bonuses were dependent on copies sold. I remember one of them made a statement around the lines of “We worked ourselves to the bone on this and we want to at least see people experience the fruits of that labor”, which makes me think about how we talk about blockbuster games developed under crunch.

I was given a copy of RDR2 to review it, and I couldn’t help but think about how I kept seeing so much that was technically impressive and yet just not necessary. Did some poor guy really work overtime for weeks just so Arthur’s horse had realistically shrinking testicles in cold water?

I honestly did not know how to properly articulate my thoughts on this at the time. I still don’t. Red Dead Redemption 2 was polished - I couldn’t deny that - but it didn’t have to be that polished. I could have connected every bit as strongly to Arthur if every horse in the game had no realistically shrinking horse balls, or even no balls at all. I would much rather have never had it and known the hardworking people who made the game enjoyed their lives more.

Still, I was impressed by the technical proficiency on display. Do I acknowledge that when I talk about RDR2?

I haven’t read any of the reviews for Cyberpunk yet (I want to form my own thoughts and I promised to play through it for a trans friend worried about whether or not she would have a good experience with the game) but I’m betting there’s going to be plenty of praise from people rating specific features as very good. Of course they’re very good; too many people have spent too much time on those features for it to not at least be good. The question is if it even needed to be that good. Could we just have not had this very good part in exchange for the developers living better lives?

The answer should be yes, but all people will really see is “this part was good” and sing its praises and demand more of it. Upper management watches these reactions and concludes that their methods are working splendidly. The company executives laugh all the way to the bank, tickling themselves with the dollars stuffing their pockets as more talented developers vow to never work in the industry again.

It sucks.

[shuttershocky-deactivated202512]

I don’t know if I properly expressed this in the original post but there is a specific pain I’m probably failing to capture here. There is a special hurt, an anguish, for when you work in games as a smalltimer and you see the fucking magic that the veterans at AAA studios are pulling off and knowing that it was accomplished through crunch.

These developers are accomplishing feats that can only be described as insane when you understand what they need to do to make that shit happen. The thing they made is incredible, and it must have no less than to have its praises be sung in every corner. That it was made under abuse and that your words of admiration that the devs so rightfully deserve to hear will only ensure their continued abuse is heartbreaking.

[elexuscal]

Adding onto this… I think we’re hitting a real wall. Not in what’s technically possible, but what’s technically feasible. 

Because I get it. I get it. We started in a place where video games looked like this:

and then this:

And the desire was: How can we make this more like real life? The landscape, the models, the dialogue, the ability to simply interact in the world. 

And you know what? We’ve made it pretty damn far. More than once I’ve seen a clip from a video game and literally not been able to tell at first that it wasn’t live footage. 

But

How viable is that really? To have giant, sprawling open-world games where every character, no matter how minor, is fully voice acted? Where you can see every pore on peoples’ skin and the subtle shift of the hairs on their heads?

Cyperpunk 77 was in production for seven years. It was delayed what- twice, three times? CDProjectRed forced its employees into grueling 100+ hour work weeks to get it all together. And by most accounts, it still came out a buggy mess with entire missing systems.

To me, that’s evidence that this style triple AAA hyper-realistic game is getting so out of control that this scale is simply not tenable. 

And do we even.. need all this? Really? Because I have had plenty of fun with smaller, less-realistic video game titles like Hyperlight Drifter, Slime Rancher, and Abzu. Near-perfect emulation of reality isn’t the be all and end all of gaming. Maybe it’s time the industry stopped chasing it so desperately. 

[bunniope]

[ekalita-blr]

It is just some painted Solas process. I was playing with filters and hey this one is weired but looks cool XD

[minwrathous]

Dragon Age: Inquisition • Companion Romance Cards

[Dorian]  [Cassandra]  [The Iron Bull]  [Solas]  [Blackwall]  [Sera]

[andhumanslovedstories]

You ever think that the Dragon Age franchise feels bad that nothing they do will ever be funnier than Oghren telling you that the Joining chalice full of darkspawn blood made with mouth tingle, and if you tell him “no one asked you to chug the whole thing” he disapproves one point. Just a lil minus one. He’s not saying you’re wrong, but you didn’t have to fucking bring it up. You hand him a chalice, he’s gonna chug that chalice, it’s kind of your fault for not stopping him. The funniest and most realistic thing in Dragon Age is the idea of a character disapproving of you just one goddang approval point. The singular unit of approval. The equivalent of the third set of silver bracers that you gave them because you gotta clean out the inventory. Minus one approval is the concept of someone not closing the door behind them when they leave your room. If you’ve got a good relationship, this isn’t going to destroy it, and if you’ve got a bad relationship, it’s just one more fucking thing, but either way I would like a small shiny stone looted from a random canvas sack to make up for it

[big-cheesy-has-been-shadowbanned]

This is a Sera Friendship Appreciation Post

My first few times through Inquisition, I was not a fan of Sera’s dismissiveness, so I kind of dismissed her. Then I realized I hadn’t seen all of her scenes, so I made an effort to be her friend. And that, friends, was the best decision I could have made.

1. Once you have high enough friendship with Sera, you get the rooftop scene where she finally reveals where her “not identifying with elves” comes from. Girl has trauma. She was taught at a young age that people hated her for being an elf, but she was too elfy to be human, and too human to be elfy. So she found her own people. Her dismissiveness of a Dalish Inquisitor’s “elfiness” is frustrating, but she does have some growth in Trespasser (which we’ll get to).

2. In Trespasser, she is only companion besides Cole who notices the Inquisitor’s hand before it starts going haywire. It is a widely accepted headcannon I think that the Inquisitor has been hiding just how bad the anchor is becoming, and no one has really noticed. Sera notices. In her codex “Sera’s Past and Now Things” one of her notes is “-Don’t say the Inquisitor’s hand looks bad. / -It looks very bad.”

3. In Trespasser, for my Inquisitor specifically but for others’ Inquisitors perhaps, the Inquisitor feels like they’re loosing a lot. A non-Andrastian Inquisitor has had their beliefs ignored for years, a Dalish Inquisitor has had their faith shaken, a Solas-romanced Inquisitor lost their lover, the Inquisitor’s friends have all gone on to live their lives, a Dalish Inquisitor potentially has lost their clan (my headcannon for my Inquisitor is that she has been disowned), and now they are potentially loosing the Inquisition. Then Sera comes along and says, hey, wanna be a Red Jenny? And just like that, Sera has given the Inquisitor something they desperately need: something after the Inquisition, a family, a place to belong again. (And my Inquisitor needs the catharsis of bothering the shit out of nobles after the events of Trespasser.)

4. After discovering that the Elven Gods are false and terrible, Sera is pretty excited, but she knows that the news could be shattering to a Dalish Inquisitor. So she asks them how they’re doing after learning this. No one else does this! Despite her own feelings, she sympathizes with the Inquisitor. And if the Inquisitor says they aren’t all right, Sera, while not knowing exactly what to say, remind the Inquisitor that they have people who care about them and they aren’t alone. And it gets me every time.

5. Also in Trespasser, Sera will also express sympathy for a Solas-romanced Inquisitor, once again against her own feelings towards Solas. Despite her own opinions, she knows what he meant to the Inquisitor and she knows her friend is hurting. 

6. Finally, in the Epilogue, if the Inquisitor accepts being a Red Jenny, there they are, terrorizing nobles and having a lot of fun.

Sera and the Inquisitor may disagree on somethings, if you give her a chance, she will be one of the most loyal friends in the game, and I love her.

[kayparker]

I simply must draw the bad elf man once more

[feynites]

Sometimes I think about what must have happened to Solas between the end of Inquisition and the end of Trespasser for him to go from trying to keep a ‘polite’ distance between himself and Lavellan, to just accepting that he was in love in with her and there was no point in pretending otherwise.

Like how badly do you think he missed her to have to give up the pretence of denial?

[mysticalstrawberrypolice]

I just love to think of the beautiful pain of Solas just being torn apart by how much his misses Lavellan and how much he must have dreamt about what their reunion would be like.

[planesofduality]

He’s such a sentimental person it probably crossed his mind frequently. Which is why it’s just so heartwrenching. 

The sad thing is I feel like part of the reason he’s so much more accepting of their romance in Trespasser is because he feels like he’s passed the point of no return, so she’s much less of a risk to him now. We know Solas is the kind of guy who is willing to sacrifice it all – the kind of person who, once committed to a course of action, will always follow through. 

He tends to get very flustered if he doesn’t feel like he has some modicum of control/is caught unaware – so, I think him being able to prepare for their meeting in advance made it so much easier for him. In Trespasser, he only gets flustered, very briefly, when you tell him you would have wanted him to tell you the truth – I don’t think he was expecting that response from you.