ARDENT BLOSSOM is an unofficial fan project designed to celebrate the world of the Dragon Age franchise. This zine is built around flowers and floriography, and will have flowers and various flora of Thedas at the core of each art and writing piece.
The ARDENT BLOSSOM: A BOTANICAL COMPENDIUM Leftover Sale is OPEN!
Find us here: daflowerzine.bigcartel.com
The leftover sale will stay open until stock is gone. Please note there is very limited stock for some items. International shipping is available; please note that USPS cannot ship to Russia, and potential mail strikes may impact shipping times to Canada.
If you have any questions or concerns, please drop us an ask or send an email to daflowerzine @ gmail(dot)com.
All items have been purchased, all orders have been shipped, and ARDENT BLOSSOM: A BOTANICAL COMPENDIUM Dragon Age Flower Zine is officially CLOSED.
If you have any questions about shipping (most orders have been delivered, but not all) please do feel free to reach out at daflowerzine @ gmail.com.
This project will not be reprinted. Currently the mods have no plans for another volume or related project - BUT if and when we do, we will be sure to update this blog!
Please show some love to our wonderful contributors listed below!
Not using tumblr account anymore, but since this beauty was created through tumblr (and if I had logged in often, I wouldn't have missed the presale!), I'm sharing the reception so they can reblog too...
Soooo... Ardent Blossom fanzine is awesome, and all the merchandising is more than beautiful. I was lucky to participate in the leftovers sale and though I couldn't get the complete set, I got all the items I wanted (also with a big big thanks to Mod Lucy who was sweet, kind and communicative).
Hope there are more initiatives like this one in the future. And I hope I won't miss them!
hello! Is there any stock left of the book? Thank you!
Hello! No, the zine is completely sold out and the leftover sale over. Sorry you missed it, but we will use this blog to share other zine opportunities!
Written for @daflowerzine. Spot illustrations by @kalidels.
VANDAL ARIA. A flowering shrub that is often associated with the rose due to its sweet scent. Its closely related cousin, the felicidus aria, is capable of growing in blighted lands. The vandal aria - while lacking in this quality - still tends to be found almost everywhere, especially warm and dry climates. It's said that if the vandal aria is left unchecked, it will overtake an area.
Now that the zine has been fully published and the left-over sales are finished, here is my contribution to ARDENR BLOSSOM: A Botanical Compendium. Inspired by Solas' interpretation of an especially stubborn plant who does not always perceive surrender as an option. I'm a good sucker for foreshadowing; thank you for letting me write!
Transcript under the cut.
“Amidst the ever-shifting dunes, I see it – that small, flowering shrub that grows stubborn against the drifts. It blooms as if ignorant of the hostile terrain that is has made home, or despite it.
‘It would not surprise me,’ the Warden Blackwall commented as we sat near each other in the light of the feeble campfire that illuminated the immediate space around us, ‘if the Vandal Aria came first and the deserts came later.’
I watch in the glowing darkness as the sands batter against the rose. In a moment, I dread to see the meager shrub be torn apart by the blistering winds that chase down the slope that has assaulted our own tents for the better half of a few hours. Yet though its green stalk bends and its petals open to drink the storm, it does not break – it merely sways, a wayward dance in the nighttime.
‘It is desperate to survive,’ I say.
Days earlier, we crossed a withered landscape where the Vandal Aria had cracked the stone as it pushed its way to the surface. The entire length of the stoneway bridge was covered in the sweet-smelling herb.
I saw how she choked the life out of any other plant senseless enough to grow near her, as the Vandal Aria will risk no competition. She is as wild as she is determined.
We can learn a great deal from her – the will to survive, and the grim horrors that must be accosted in order to do so. It is a grave lesson that the Inquisitor has learnt. Let us not be so modest that we cannot acknowledge that in order for one to survive, the deaths of others might be had.
Yet, let me conclude these observations with this:
If even the Vandal Aria can flower in an endless vastness of nothingness, then so to, can we. Even when there is nothing, is there not the chance to begin again. One just has to ask themselves –
At what cost, and am I willing to pay it?”
A written account by the apostate Solas in the Hissing Wastes, 9:41 Dragon, preserved in the Skyhold Archive and recovered in 9:43 Dragon at the request of Divine Victoria.
Hey do you have any idea when the leftover sale items are going to get mailed out? No pressure, just curious ☺️
Hello! All leftover sale items have been mailed. Please shoot me an email over at daflowerzine @ gmail.com and I can provide the status of your particular item!
Forgot to post this a while ago but here's my piece for @daflowerzine - Alistair!
The bluebell field gave me an aneurysm but I really enjoyed this project and am so happy that it turned out so well! Thank you so much for having me 💖
Eeeee super excited my keychains have arrived, but also that they arrived in the cutest packaging ever😭❤️
@daflowerzine is such a cool project, I'm sad I only found out about it after the hard cover zines sold out but I'm just as happy reading through my pdf copy and these cute varric and Alistair keychains 🫶
